US publisher Majesco has posted a loss for its fiscal third quarter ended July 31, 2009.

While quarterly revenues rose by 18.9 per cent year-on-year to $17.2 million (£10.4m / €11.7m), driven by “the continued strength of our Cooking Mama franchise”, a “soft retail performance” from the firm’s Go Play line and Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian saw it post a net loss of $5.2 million (£3.2m / €3.5m), compared to a profit of $0.5 million a year earlier.

For the nine months ended July 31, revenues were up 53.7 per cent to $70.6 million (£43m / €48m), while net loss totaled $2.7 million (£1.64m / €1.84m), versus net income of $3 million for the same period last year.

But Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton said that the company’s fourth quarter DS and Wii releases – which include Cooking Mama 3, Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2010, Cake Mania 3 and A Boy And His Blob – would drive full year profitability.

“We enter the fourth quarter with our strongest product line-up as we plan to launch SKUs in our two biggest franchises - Cooking Mama and Jillian Michaels,” said Sutton. “As a result, we have increased our revenue guidance and reiterated our profitability expectations for the full fiscal year.”

Majesco raised its fiscal 2009 revenue outlook by $5 million to $85m - $90 million (£51.5m - £54.6m / €58m - €61.4m), and expects non-GAAP earnings per share to be between $0.10 and $0.14.