New York publisher Take-Two is still enjoying the success of Grand Theft Auto IV several months after its release, but sales of the game weren't enough to counter mounting losses.
Revenues for the quarter ended January 31 were $256.8 million, up from $240.4 million for the same quarter a year ago. Sales drivers were GTA IV, Carnival Games, NBA 2K9 and Midnight Club: Los Angeles. The firm beat the top end of sales guidance, which was set at $225 million.
The company said it has shipped over 13 million units of GTA IV worldwide as of the end of the quarter.
Net loss widened to $50.4 million, up from $38 million a year ago. Take-Two pointed to higher marketing, legal, and research and development expenses.
Titles currently known to be in the works at Take-Two include the next GTA IV downloadable content, GTA: Chinatown Wars, BioShock 2 and Red Dead Redemption, among others.
Chairman Strauss Zelnick warned of continuing economic hardship. "Looking to the balance of the year, the economy remains challenging and uncertain, and our industry will not be immune to this environment.
"Consumers will continue to be highly selective in their purchases, including interactive entertainment. We need to deliver innovative, exceptionally compelling products to compete for this more limited consumer spending, and we are confident in our ability to do so."
Take-Two also provided initial non-GAAP revenue guidance of $200-$220 million, with a loss of 10-20 cents for the April quarter.
Full-year non-GAAP earnings guidance is in the range of breakeven to 20 cents per share on $1.1 to $1.25 billion in sales.
I wasn't expecting such a loss considering how well GTA IV had done / is doing still.
One game can't save a company that releases at least a dozen over games the same year. Plus the install base of the 360 & PS3 are nothing compared to the numbers of last gen, when San Andreas was released.
They are a big company with one Franchise, GTA. As of right now there is not installbase of 140million consoles like when GTA was last seen on the last gen consoles and the game certainly didnt cost as much as they to produce now.
I wouldnt be too worried, more people will buy consoles this year and the year after and the year after that, quite simply the more consoles on the market the more copies of GTA will be sold. Id guarantee that GTA 5 will turn Take Two around and post big profits.
Although i bet they wish they took EA's money now.
They are a big company with one Franchise, GTA. As of right now there is not installbase of 140million consoles like when GTA was last seen on the last gen consoles and the game certainly didnt cost as much as they to produce now.
I wouldnt be too worried, more people will buy consoles this year and the year after and the year after that, quite simply the more consoles on the market the more copies of GTA will be sold. Id guarantee that GTA 5 will turn Take Two around and post big profits.
Although i bet they wish they took EA's money now.
Yeah, with GTA no longer able to save the day I do wonder how long it will be before a buy out is inevitable?
They are a big company with one Franchise, GTA. As of right now there is not installbase of 140million consoles like when GTA was last seen on the last gen consoles and the game certainly didnt cost as much as they to produce now.
I wouldnt be too worried, more people will buy consoles this year and the year after and the year after that, quite simply the more consoles on the market the more copies of GTA will be sold. Id guarantee that GTA 5 will turn Take Two around and post big profits.
Although i bet they wish they took EA's money now.
Ah, but when will we see GTA5?
I'd like to think that - along with the second piece of 360 exclusive DLC - we'll be getting some other boxed, multi-platform iterations using the GTA4 engine.....hopefully, something like a new Vice City and San Andreas (I'm sure this is almost certainly going to happen).
I don't think there's really any huge problems with Take2 here, but you have to wonder whether this will bring about new takeover rumours - I'm hoping that Activision/Blizzard aren't rubbing their greedy mitts together in anticipation right now.
people seem to be forgetting 2k sports and 2k games as well.nba 2k is a massive seller whilst the civilization games are kinda big you know.it's not just rockstar people.it's take two and it's subsidiary companies
serves them right for selling out to M$. Should've put the dlc on all platforms and sold it for £10
Huh? - so, it's OK for the publisher of great games like BioShock and GTA to be in financial difficulty just because PS3 owners can't have exclusive DLC?...ridiculous.
Remember that the shoe was on the other foot last-gen. It's called business.
I just hope that 50m from MS was enough to cover lost sales from not having DLC on the ps3 or someone will be eating their hat!
Seems a little stupid that they possible have a few million ps3, gta4 owners crying out for that DLC and there showing losses, That's a lot of subs!
It's Take 2 as a whole posting losses not Rockstar, releasing the dlc on PS3 would do little to change that. What would change that would be us Europeans buying their American sports titles by the millions. Won't happen.
i didn't say it was profit. The comapany is still currently worth 250mil before deuctions do in theory they are 200mil in profit.
This is far from a company in trouble. This site is definately a great example of how we brits deliver news, through misinformation.
The headline should of read 'Take 2 pay 50mil in expenses. but it doesn't have the same ring to it does it.
Sorry but that is not correct, Take Two posted a loss of just over $50 million, the full breakdown can be seen in the company report, which can be viewed here...
yeah, but imagain how much they would had if they released it on all platforms
on that note, i wonder if it will come to pc ( the dlc) because it uses windows marketplace so micro can also do that same thing there
It wont be released to the PC anytime soon i don't think Ken, not until M$ have made some money, due to simple fact that if it is released to the PC, within hours it will be acrosss the internet and available to the PS3 due to being able to format the harddrive on a PC/laptop. Someone will find away of getting it on the ps3 and M$ know it, sorry dude!
I just hope that 50m from MS was enough to cover lost sales from not having DLC on the ps3 or someone will be eating their hat!
Seems a little stupid that they possible have a few million ps3, gta4 owners crying out for that DLC and there showing losses, That's a lot of subs!
Does anyone here actually have any hard evidence of a 50 million payoff from MS to 2K? That sort of information is usually considered highly sensitive and confidential amongst businesses and thus I would be *very* surprised if anyone could back up the claim with hard facts short of an official statement by the parties involved. Until such a time it's an unsubstantiated claim and nothing more.
serves them right for selling out to M$. Should've put the dlc on all platforms and sold it for £10
Huh? - so, it's OK for the publisher of great games like BioShock and GTA to be in financial difficulty just because PS3 owners can't have exclusive DLC?...ridiculous.
Remember that the shoe was on the other foot last-gen. It's called business.
I never said ps3 users should have exclusive download u muppet. Try reading before commenting. The dlc should'v been on all platforms. btw i own a 360 aswell as a ps3 but not everyone as the money i do to throw around on computers.
They wouldn't be where they are today had it not been for playstation owners spending all there hard earned cash buying there games and then they s**t all over them and sold out.
-just a quick google seach pulled up this-
Takes Two’s Chief Financial Officer Elaine Goldstein, was asked “can you give us an idea as to this 13 millionGTA 4 units, how many of those are Xbox 360 platform?” she replied “It’s approximately 50/50.......
That 50mil dosn't look that good really if u think how much they could'v made. So as i said before it serves them right
Well if they had of released the DLC for PS3 and PC aswell they wouldn't be down money...silly take two taking it up the bum from M$ was a mistake.
I'd say they're regretting making the DLC 360 exclusive now...
So by your twisted fanboy logic you think they would have sold enough copies of the DLC on the PC and PS3 to make up for the $50million LOAN they received from Microsoft?
If all the 360 owners (which out number the PC and PS3 owners by a million or so) only downloaded it say 1.5million times, how can you expect the fewer number of PC/PS3 owners to download it 2.5million times to make up the $50million?
Neither the receipt of the $50million LOAN nor the repayments will have any effect on the Profit figure for the year, it's purely a balance sheet item.
360 owners do not in any shape of form out-number gaming PC owners.
Intel estimates that there are more gaming PCs than all three consoles combined world-wide, almost twice over. They didn't explain their definition of a 'gaming PC' however, but it strongly suggests the PC is the single largest platform.
It's entirely possible that the vast number of gaming PCs used by Asia's computer cafes easily match the number of current-gen consoles in circulation.
GTA IV would have put Take-Two in good health if they had their priorities right: such as spending that 200k on QA rather than largely ineffective DRM. The PC version remains a mess. No western developer has *ever* made a successful franchise without the PC, or without treating the PC market respectfully. GTA IV is a continuation of something that has become a constant, I'm surprised it's not been considered an informal Law by now. Developing the new engine cost a LOT of money and they had to go and ruin it by being overly-conservative about their bottom line in regards to the PC.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
