Take-Two ends fiscal '12 with loss, high '13 projection raises eyebrows

Take-Two Interactive's revenues for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, were $825.8 million, short of last year's $1.14 billion, because it didn't have Red Dead Redemption in it. Last year's breakout star, L.A. Noire, did well with 5 million units shipped, but that doesn't compare to the more than 13 million units (8.5 million at that time) done by Red Dead Redemption.

Overall, the publisher had a net loss of $108.8 million for the year, compared to the $48 million profit in the previous year.

Here's where things get interesting: During this afternoon's investor call, CEO Strauss Zelnick reiterated a point from earlier in the call that there are "titles yet to be announced for fiscal 2013." This is significant because the company expects revenues of $1.75 - $1.85 billion for the fiscal year ending next March. Look back at that blockbuster Red Dead Redemption year, and note that revenues reached $1.14 billion. So, what's the deal?

Officially, at this time, Take-Two plans to launch Borderlands 2 in September, NBA 2K13 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown in October and, finally, BioShock: Infinite in February. Although any one of those could be a runaway hit, there's still $600-$700 million missing over that impressive Red Dead year to hit the projection. Either Grand Theft Auto 5 is secretly on the docket for this year or Take-Two is expecting blockbusters from more than one of the announced games.