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Majesco Posts Slumping Sales, Scales Back

Despite high praise for Psychonauts and Advent Rising, Majesco's two flagship titles in 2005 didn't sell through as many copies as the company hoped they would. Yesterday, the company posted its final 2005 sales figures. Fourth quarter sales were $4.6 million, compared to $45.3 million during the same period in 2004. Meanwhile, annual sales were $60 million, down from nearly $120 million in 2004. The firm posted an overall $70 million loss for 2005. As a result of these sagging figures, Majesco yesterday also announced that it would be ceasing development and selling off the rights to its full-priced games, opting to focus instead on budget and handheld games.

Development on highly-anticipated games such as Demonik and Taxi Driver has halted, and new publishers are being courted.

Advent Shadow, the PSP companion to Advent Rising, is still on schedule for release this coming April.

According to company president, Jesse Sutton, "This has been a difficult year. We entered the premium console market with high expectation for success, but as a result of a variety of factors we were not able to meet our expectations. Recently, we evaluated our product portfolio and have sold or cancelled most of our premium console titles that were scheduled for release in 2006 and beyond."

Majesco is not down for the count, however, as Sutton is bullish on the company's plans to focus on value-priced and handheld software. "Publishing value priced software and games for handheld systems has historically been one of our strengths," Sutton said. "We believe that this strategy is more prudent for Majesco at this time and offers us the most opportunity for success as it requires a relatively low investment in development and marketing."