Last week THQ revealed a delay behind one of its bigger titles for the year, Saints Row 2. The publisher cited both marketing and product quality concerns for moving the game to October 14, but Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey thinks the delay is a sign of larger internal conflict.

"We expect there is likely an internal conflict at THQ, a corporate / artistic balancing of issues," he noted. "The corporate issue is likely a singular focus on salvaging their fiscal '09 financial performance goals versus an artistic focus on game quality which could be compromised by a development timeline that is likely not pacing original expectations. Ultimately, if the game's quality underperforms the 'franchise's' original release, future iterations of the game could be in jeopardy along with the Company's fiscal '09 expectations. We believe their guided expectations from owned IP in fiscal '09 will prove aggressive given their titles slated for release, weighing too heavily on the success of Saint's Row 2."

Management had considerable excitement for their fiscal '08 owned IP portfolio of both new IP and 'proven franchises,' many of which failed miserably in the market. We believe their fiscal '09 owned IP portfolio is fraught with title specific risk including: potential delays, lower then expected market demand, major competitive product offerings and lack of a realistic measure of market demand. We remain cautious on their owned IP opportunity for fiscal '09 and encourage clients to review their fiscal '08 owned IP pipeline, which provides at best, a remarkably shaky credibility foundation,."