IDW Publishing continued its losses, reporting a $508,000 loss for its fiscal Q2 ended April 30, 2021.  That was an improvement over the $647,000 loss in the year ago period.  A substantial chunk of the losses came from a write-off of $231,000 in the quarter for games costs, advanced royalties, and vendor deposits for games that will no longer be produced, after a review of its game development costs. This contributes to the continuing appearance that IDW is winding down its games business, although games sales were up $106,000 over the previous year in the period due to fulfillment of a direct-to-consumer campaign. 

IDW Publishing sales (including games) rose to $5,988,000 for the quarter from $4,681,000 in the year ago period, which included four weeks of Diamond Comic Distributors’ Covid shutdown.  In addition to the shutdown, IDW cited several high-performing direct market titles and increased direct-to-consumer sales as contributors to the increase, offsetting an increase in discounts and returns of $58,000.

Sales and profits for IDW Publishing were on par with the results in IDW’s fiscal Q1 ended January 31 (see “IDW Publishing Sales Decline, Swings to Loss”).   

Overall profits for IDW Media Holdings, including publishing, its entertainment division, the impact of the sale of its CTM division (which closed in the quarter), were $2,541,000, up from a $354,000 loss in the year ago period.