Lazard Capital Markets recently hosted an investors meeting with management for publisher THQ. In his latest research note, analyst Colin Sebastian has detailed some of the major points THQ's management has made with regards to growing its business.

In particular, "the company believes that paying closer attention to product quality and marketing strategy, combined with an improved release lineup and overall industry growth, should help drive acceleration in revenues and operating margins next year," Sebastian said. THQ recently suffered a net loss of $7 million in the second quarter in large part due to the poor performances of Stuntman: Ignition and Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights.

That said, THQ is very positive about several upcoming titles. "The next Pixar movie-based title Wall-E (about a robot) is expected to have broader consumer appeal as a video game than its predecessor Ratatouille (about a rat). In addition, management has high hopes for sequels to owned properties Saints Row and Red Faction, as well as the new licensed title UFC (late F2009 release)," Sebastian continued.

Speaking of owned IP, Sebastian noted that an "increasing portion of revenues" at THQ will come from internally owned and internally developed games. "THQ now has 1,600 developers across 16 studios worldwide following a ramp in headcount during the last console cycle, and the company expects that 40% of its revenues will come from its internal studios this year, up from 30% in F2006," he said.

Sebastian believes THQ will pay more attention to Nintendo and Microsoft for now. "We expect THQ to remain more closely aligned with Nintendo and Microsoft platforms over the next couple of years, reflecting THQ's historical strength on handhelds (GBA and DS), increasing development slate for Nintendo's Wii, early success with titles on the Xbox 360 (e.g. Saints Row) and a slower ramp on the PS3," he said.