THQ continues to lick its wounds after admitting a year ago that its product line-up needed to be refocused.

The publisher this evening announced it saw sales down 40 per cent year on year for the three month period ending September 30th, 2009.

Net sales were $101.3 million, down from $164.8 million in the same period last year.

But unlike the firm's first financial quarter, which saw the surprise success of fighting game UFC, the publisher released no major new titles in the period, hence the lower sales.

"Net sales were driven primarily by continued sales of previously released games," the firm said in a statement.

And at the same time, the benefits of a smaller head-count and business restructure are clearly being felt - the company reported a net loss of $5.6 million compared with a net loss of $115.3 million a year previously.

“THQ is now operating as a more focused, more efficient company,” said Brian Farrell, THQ’s president and CEO.

“We continue to deliver highly rated hit titles such as UFC 2009 Undisputed and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010. We believe we are well positioned this holiday with our strong mass-market line-up led by the highly rated WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010, and the latest version of our multi-million unit franchise MX vs. ATV Reflex. In addition, we have positioned THQ to take a leading role in emerging online platforms in Asia and the US."

The publisher has already named a number of key releases for 2010 aimed at , including Darksiders and Metro 2033.