THQ Reports Softer-Than-Expected Initial Sales of ‘UFC Undisputed 2010’

Sales of the videogame UFC Undisputed 2010 have been “somewhat softer than we would have anticipated” since it was released last week, Chief Financial Officer Paul Pucino said Thursday at the Cowen and Company conference in New York. Two other games were released “about the same time,” making “somewhat of a crowded market,” and they're competing for consumer dollars with the latest entry in THQ’s mixed-martial-arts game franchise, he said.

But Pucino said it’s “still very, very early” and “this is a very strong brand” -- “stronger now” than a year ago. Undisputed 2010 received the strongest Metacritic rating that a THQ console game “has ever achieved,” he said. Metacritic’s website provides composite game ratings based on critics’ reviews. THQ shipped 4 million units of the first game in the Undisputed series, and it “had very long legs,” selling “well throughout” 2009, Pucino said. “We'll have more to say about where we're at” with the game’s sales “at E3 in two weeks,” he said. It’s too early to say how May was overall for the game industry after a weak April, Pucino said. But he said THQ still thinks the market will be up in “low single digits” for 2010.

THQ has “been working with Microsoft and Sony … for about a year now, developing games” for the coming Project Natal and PlayStation Move motion-control systems that will launch for the Xbox 360 and PS3 later this year, Pucino said. “We will have games for Natal at launch that we've been working on,” he said. He didn’t specify whether THQ will have games at launch for Move. THQ hasn’t provided many details on its slate of games that will be compatible with the motion-control systems.

Pucino believes E3 attendees “will be anxious to see” Natal, Move and Nintendo’s coming 3DS handheld game system, billed as providing 3D effects without the use of special glasses (CED March 25 p1), he said.

He also said that the European market remains “challenging.” The U.K. was especially challenging during the holiday season, he said. The situation has “somewhat stabilized from that period” but is “not great -- certainly not what it was a couple of years ago,” he said.

The cloud-based on-demand game platform OnLive is “an interesting model” and “certainly a compelling” one, with “real promise from a conceptual perspective” for the industry, Pucino said. But he said, “There’s a lot of questions now with respect to pricing from [OnLive’s] perspective and what the economics are going to be.” The service is “still in the infancy” of its rollout, and “pricing issues have to be worked out until we know the level of adaptability and acceptability in the marketplace,” he said.

Separately, THQ said the multiplayer online version of its Company of Heroes real-time strategy game will be free-to-play when it launches this fall, and the company will get revenue via micro-transactions. It was developed by THQ’s Relic Entertainment studio, creators of the Company of Heroes and Dawn of War franchises.