Rich-
If the retail price is $40, we should expect the wholesale price to be close to $30. Probably $26 is gross profit. After its share of operating expenses, Sinistar might have a pretax profit of $18, or $11 net. I'm only expecting Sinistar to ship 100,000 units in 1999. 50,000 in each quarter. That's a total of $0.09 per share. Pretty insignificant. I just don't see how such a complex (albeit impressive) game that is in the space shooter genre (and requires a Pentium II 233 as a minimum) will sell 300,000 units. It would be nice, but I don't expect Sinistar to be a wild success commercially. Critically, perhaps.
It looks like THQ, at least according to my estimates, will finish another year of <5% of total publishing sales from PC games. Of course, if you add THQ's distribution through Rushware/THQ Germany, the number should be in the teens. Still, it would be nice for THQ to find a niche in the PC market for its own titles. I suppose we'll have to wait until next year.
Todd |
