Mixed news for 3DO
From Heroes to zeroes
3DO took the art of spin to new levels last night with a press release euphemistically titled "3DO shows improved fourth quarter results". In fact sales were down on the previous year. For the three months to the end of March revenues were $16.3m, a fall of about 14% compared to the same time last year. Meanwhile sales for their entire fiscal year were a mere $54.7m, sliding almost 32% year-on-year. On the bright side, the $12.5m loss posted this time last year was reduced to a more manageable $1.7m shortfall, with talk of the company breaking even again this year. The press release puts the improvement down to "better games [and] spending cuts" which have seen the company's costs (and work force) slashed in recent months. Given the quality of most of the 3DO games we've seen lately and the continuing slump in their sales, the latter seems a more credible explanation for the turn-around. "Industry conditions have continued to be difficult", CEO Trip Hawkins claimed, despite the fact that almost every other publisher in the industry has seen sales rocketing over the last year. "But we believe that 'less is more' and have reduced our spending in line with what we expect the market can give us." Related Feature - 3DO slumps (this time last year)