Video game publisher THQ (NASDAQ:THQI), which got my vote as the industry's overlooked jewel, turned in relatively "juiced" first-quarter results on the strength of a pair of new franchises for the Sony (NYSE:SNE) PlayStation 2 and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox.

After the bell yesterday, THQ said revenues jumped 79% to $158 million -- results that were largely driven by strong sales of sci-fi spoof Destroy All Humans! and street racing game Juiced, which have each shipped more than a million units. Meanwhile, the company's net loss remained flat at $4 million, or $0.10 per share. Both figures leapfrogged analysts' expectations for a net loss of $0.15 per share on $137 million in revenue.

Despite the healthy rise in revenue, the company still showed a quarterly loss due to rising costs. Most notably, product development costs almost doubled to $19 million, while marketing costs more than doubled to $37 million.

But it was a fairly productive quarter overall. THQ managed to establish two new franchises geared to a more mature audience during what is typically a seasonally weak quarter -- one in which the industry began transitioning to its next-generation consoles.

THQ is traditionally known for games targeting a younger audience, based on properties such as Pixar's (NASDAQ:PIXR) The Incredibles and Finding Nemo; SpongeBobSquarePants and other series from Viacom's (NYSE:VIA) Nickelodeon; and WWE (NYSE:WWE) wrestling. But recently, THQ has moved to establish new and more mature brands, such as Full Spectrum Warrior and Warhammer. It's also captured a piece of the tuner market with Juiced, competing with Electronic Arts' (NASDAQ:ERTS) Need for Speed Underground 2 and Take-Two Interactive's Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition.

Looking ahead, the company expects another net loss of $0.10 per share on $125 million in revenues for the second quarter. For fiscal 2006, the company forecast earnings of $1 per share on $750 million in revenues.

Unfortunately, THQ no longer appears to be overlooked. The stock has roughly doubled over the past year, and trades at a hefty 35 times this year's earnings.

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Fool contributor Jeff Hwang owns shares of Electronic Arts. The Fool has a disclosure policy.