NEWS - Friday, June 14, 2002
THQ sales jump due to price cuts
NEW YORK, June 14 - THQ Inc. Chief Executive Brian Farrell said on Friday the video game publisher’s sales have risen about 20 percent following price cuts last month on the leading games consoles, and stood by his forecast of 35 percent revenue growth this year. "For product that was on shelf as of May 1 ... there has been about a 20 percent lift," Farrell said in an interview with Reuters. In a wave of price cuts in May, Microsoft Corp. slashed its Xbox to $199 from $299 just after an identical reduction by Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. for its dominant PlayStation 2 platform. Nintendo Co. Ltd. followed by cutting the price of its GameCube console to $149 from $199. Farrell sees the growth as a catalyst for strength later this year, when solid demand and lower hardware and software prices are expected to further fuel the interactive gaming industry’s optimism. "This is the slowest seasonal time, but what (the cuts) will really do is set the stage for the fall selling season," he said. "To be up 20 percent in May and June is great, but if we are up 20 percent in September through November, that is the exciting part."Source: http://www.thq.com/
