Majesco back in black thanks to Zumba Fitness
Second quarter results move into profit as Zumba sales pass 2 million mark
Both profit and revenues have seen a notable improvement for US publisher Majesco, primarily thanks to the ongoing success of casual gaming product Zumba Fitness.
Net revenues for the three months ended April 30 stood at $32.1 million (€22.2m/£19.5m), compared to just $10.9 million (€7.5m/£6.6m) at the same point in 2010.
Net income for the quarter was $2.1 million (€1.5m/£1.3m), compared to a net loss of $1.6 million (€1.1m/£1m) a year ago.
Although now multiformat, the majority of Zumba Fitness sells are for the Wii, with the system accounting for 54 per cent of Majesco's sales in both the first quarter and first half of 2011.
The higher price point of Zumba Fitness, compared to the company's Wii and Nintendo DS titles of a year ago, also contributed to the improved results; with gross margins for the second quarter up from 28.5 per cent to 42.5 per cent this year.
The company plans to release Zumba Fitness 2, by UK developer Zoe Mode, in early 2012. Other key titles for the remainder of the company's financial year include Hulk Hogan's Main Event for Xbox 360; Take Shape and Mind 'n Motion for Kinect; Cooking Mama 4, Pet Zombies, The Hidden , and Face Racers for Nintendo 3DS; and Camping Mama for DS.
"Beyond Zumba Fitness, we are happy to have announced the majority of our release slate for the upcoming holiday season, and believe it may be our strongest line-up yet," said CEO Jesse Sutton.
"Additionally, we took many steps to expand our social games business and execute on our digital strategy. We are very excited about adding the talented development team from Quick Hit, led by Jeff Anderson, which should really accelerate our push into online, free-to-play games."
Majesco acquired staff and assets from online developer Quick Hit early in a month.