Looks like another casualty of the current industry business model.

Indeed, Viper:

1) Electronic Arts FY08: ~3.67 Billion Revenue. ~487 Million Loss.
2) Activision FY08: ~2.9 Billion Revenue. ~345 Million Profit.
3) Konami FY08: ~2.84 Billion Revenue. ~176 Million Profit.
4) Ubisoft FY08: ~1.46 Billion Revenue. ~172 Million Profit.
5) NamcoBandai Game Segments Division FY08: ~1.4 Billion Revenue. ~141 Million Profit.
6) Square Enix FY08: ~1.4 Billion Revenue. ~90 Million Profit.
7) SegaSammy Consumer Business Division FY08: ~1.4 Billion Revenue. ~58 Million Loss.
8) THQ FY08: ~1 Billion Revenue. ~35 Million Loss.
9) Take 2 Interactive: FY07 Q2 - FY08 Q1: ~930 Million Revenue. ~169 Million Loss.
10) Capcom FY 08 ~804 Million Revenue. ~78 Million Profit.
11) InfoGrames, FY07*: ~473 Million Revenue. ~160 Million Loss.
12) Koei FY08: ~285 Million Revenue ~ 52 Million Profit
13) SCi/Eidos FY07: ~279 Million Revenue. ~60 Million Loss.
14) Midway FY07: ~157 Million Revenue. ~100 Million Dollar Loss.

The current industry model drastically favors the mega-publishers, in the vein of EA and Activision. The smaller the company, the harder it is to turn a profit. Expect to see more casulties and consolidations before this generation is over.

Another next gen victim.

NJ5 said: elnino334 said:   “At this time the Board is not encouraging offers for the company but, in a consolidating industry, any sensible offer for the company or proposal for crystallizing value for some of the Group's IP will be considered in the context of the alternatives and benchmarked against the value the Board believes can be delivered for shareholders through the revised strategy and business plan.” Translation: EA, PLEASE BUY US.

So true. I wouldnt put it past EA

Actually, the most profitable publisher on this list is Koei -- which made profits totaling 18% of its revenue.

That is almost three times the rate of profit seen by SquareEnix.

Of course, where these companies are in the game cycles and what write-downs that have taken have an impact on their "profits" as well.

Mike from Morgantown

Machina-AX said: Wonder what game projects were axed.

As a guess I would suspect that the games were incomplete, and the ammount of money they had already put into development was greater than the revenues they could expect if the games were completed ...

Basically, imagine a HD game (as an example) where you have put $20 Million into development so far and it will take $10 to $20 Million more to complete the game; the game can realistically expect sales of 250,000 to 750,000 units and you only receive $15 per copy sold. The best case for this game is that you will only lose about as much money as you have already invested into this game, the worst case is that you will lose dramatically more; at this point it makes sense to cancel the project.

sadly I have to say 'no' to the general concensus - Play Tomb Raider Anniversary for the Wii - you will learn why this sucks for Eidos - I haven't really looked at that company but I think losing money mainly because their games are viewed with such 'meh'.

At least people hate ubisoft games and acknoledge that Sega games suck but you rarely see anyone talking about Eidos.

It seems like a lot of the publishers are trying too hard to broaden their portfolios. This is supposed to be a boom time for video games, yet a number of publishers and devs are falling on hard times.

I hope they re-focus on their core IPs.

Stick to what your good at doesn't work well with greed, if they were smart they would work backwards not start new and work forwards.

seems like everyone making these party lines, or casual gaming divisions and so on and so forth.