Midway Games Guides Lower

SAN FRANCISCO -- Video game publisher Midway Games(MWY) warned that it will miss its financial expectations because of delays in the release of key titles this year and lower-than-expected sales of its latest game, BlackSite: Area 51.

For the third quarter, Midway expects to post a loss of 33 cents, wider than its previous guidance of a loss of 23 cents a share.

Excluding charges, it expects a loss of about 27 cents a share, compared to its prior estimate of 17 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting a loss of 22 cents a share.

Revenue for the third quarter is likely to be $39 million, lower than its previous estimate of approximately $50 million. Analysts are expecting revenue of $51.7 million.

Midway attributed the shortfall to its decision to release its game, Stranglehold, for Sony's(SNE) PlayStation 3 console in the fourth quarter rather than the third quarter, and the delayed release of another title, Unreal Tournament 3, for the PS3 into the first quarter of fiscal 2008.

Midway also said the company is seeing lower-than-expected sales of its latest game, BlackSite: Area 51 because of an "adverse impact of the split shipment" between Microsoft's(MSFT) Xbox 360 and the PS3 consoles.

The European version of BlackSite: Area 51 game for the PS3 has been delayed into the first quarter of 2008.