Majesco cancels Taxi Driver and Demonik; moves to only sell budget and handheld games in the future
Majesco is "shifting its product strategy away from the premium console game market" to focus primarily on value and handheld games. As a result, expected high-profile titles such as Taxi Driver and Demonik have been cancelled. This follows the sale of the rights to The Darkness and Ghost Rider back in December, so you never know; there may be hope for the aforementioned adaptations yet.
Losing $70 million in a year can be tough on any publisher, but it can be crushing for a struggling one like Majesco. The commercial failures of the trumpeted sci-fi epic Advent Rising and the Schafer-produced gem Psychonauts did nothing to help things as the company only made $4.6 million in revenue (not profit) in the 4th quarter of 2005.
Perhaps the first sign of trouble was letting one of your proven franchises be turned into such a disappointing movie. Hey, that guy in Grandma's Boy was working on a game called "Demonik" as well -- maybe that was another bad theatrical omen. Well, so long as "value" software includes titles like Phantom Dust and Guilty Gear, there might be a silver lining to this gamecloud after all.
[Thanks, bandersnatch & JamesO]
