Shanda Games (NASDAQ: GAME) saw a decline in bottom line for its Q3, but still beat analyst estimates. The China-based company posted revenue of 1.12 billion yuan ($183 million), modestly higher than the 1.09 billion yuan ($178 million) in the same period the previous year. Attributable net income came in at just under 399 million yuan ($65 million; $0.24 per diluted American depositary share), compared with Q3 2012's 405 million yuan ($66 million; $0.24).
Analysts had been expecting revenue of $187 million and earnings of $0.22 per ADS.
In operational terms, the company recorded declines in key metrics. Average monthly active users of its massively multiplayer online games dropped to 18.4 million from the Q3 2012 figure of 18.8 million. Average monthly paying users also fell over that time frame, to 2.9 million from 3.6 million.
Going forward, Shanda Games said it anticipates having a "strong product pipeline" in both MMOs and mobile titles.
Following the announcement of the results, the company's stock slumped by 1.5%, or $0.06, to close at $4.05 per share.
