Majesco Entertainment
The video game publisher posted uninspiring quarterly results last night. Revenue slipped 5% to $30.4 million, though that's better than the nearly 7% slide that analysts were expecting. Adjusted earnings, on the other hand, fell to $0.07 a share, short of both the $0.13 a share it served up a year earlier and the $0.08 a share that Wall Street was targeting.
Putting out video games is a lumpy business ripe for longer comparative periods. Releases get shuffled about, and even a modest hit for a company as small as Majesco can be material. Revenue has actually moved 20% higher through the first six months of fiscal 2012, though profitability has gone the other way.
Consumers know Majesco for its kid-friendly Cooking Mama handheld games and its licensed Zumba Fitness console line that has sold more than 7 million copies, leading Majesco to claim that it's the second-best-selling fitness franchise in the video game business.
However, the company's future may lie in thinking outside of the Wii and Xbox. Last month the company rolled out Mini Putt Park on Facebook
Majesco is no Zynga
The company's release slate also finds it branching out into Apple's
The current quarter will be pretty bare. There are just a pair of small Zumba releases and last month's Facebook debut on the slate. Things will get more interesting in the fourth quarter when NBA Baller Beats, Zumba Fitness Core, and Harley Pasternak's Hollywood Workout are just some of the releases to watch alongside the company's App Store debut.
A whopping 86% of Majesco's sales came from Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY) titles during the first quarter, but Majesco is evolving just as gamers are moving on to new screens and experiences.
This past quarter was nothing special for Majesco, but the upside -- and downside -- of its more diversified future will give the stock quite the workout.
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