The troubled publisher looks to a slightly brighter future with a strong fourth quarter...

THQ has announced that its fourth-quarter results have beaten its initial expectations, putting the troubled publisher in a stronger position for this year.

The company has faced a sharp decline over the past year after various costly ventures, including the poorly-received HD version of the uDraw tablet platform which saw success on Wii. The company has closed several studios recently, and some analysts had been beginning to speculate when the publisher will no longer be able to continue operations.

However, THQ's Q4 results have caused surprise for being quite a bit better than expected. Net sales at the end of March stood at between $160m and $170m, compared with a predicted total of $130m-$150m.

The company is still due to post a Q4 net loss, but expects this to be at $0.10-$0.20 per share, rather than a previously expected $0.35-$0.50. The company's share price rose sharply today as a result of the report, and is up around thirty percent at the time of writing.

The results were attributed to particularly strong sales of Saints Row: The Third. THQ will have a cash balance of around $76 million as of the end of March, which it will use mainly to push its key titles for this year, including the Wii U-bound Darksiders II.

First-person shooter Metro: Last Light is also slated for release on Nintendo's next generation system.