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Take-Two records $1.16 billion in revenue over last fiscal year, regains profitability
Take-Two Interactive, publisher of this year's Red Dead Redemption and Civilization V, among others, today announced net revenue earnings of $1.16 billion for the 12 months ending October 31, 2010, a 65-percent growth over the previous fiscal year's revenues. In all, after operating expenses and taxes, Take-Two earned $42.6 million in profit for the year -- quite a turnaround from the $140.5 million hole (read: net loss) it dug itself last fiscal year. Software sales slump, what now? In its fourth quarter alone (August–October), Take-Two brought in $373.7 million in revenue, roughly 32 percent more than in the same period in 2009, working out to $53.8 million in income for the close-out quarter. "We have achieved our goal of profitability in a year without a new release of Grand Theft Auto," boasted soon to be ex-CEO Ben Feder, citing Red Dead Redemption and NBA 2K11, "as well as strong sales of catalog titles and digitally-delivered content," as key to the publisher's success. Take-Two is currently in the midst of a five-month "transition period," having changed its fiscal calendar to now begin April 1 (instead of Nov. 1). Chairman Strauss Zelnick said the company will be focused on "newer areas of the interactive entertainment business, such as digitally-delivered content and the expanding Asian and Latin American markets" through the end of 2010.
Take-Two CEO Feder quitting to travel Asia, Zelnick to become CEO
Friday 29 October New British trainer at the gym tells me I'm 13 stone. That's better than 70-something kilos, but apparently I've put on weight. It's all my soon-to-be ex-CEO Ben Feder's fault. Food consumed today: Nothing, yet. But I'm sure the Federator is going to drag me out to McDonalds for lunch again (I do admit I love me a pair of McChicken sandwiches). The movie Super Size Me has nothing on him at the moment, he's taking in everything American he can before jetting -- you should see the pile of Jack in the Box Oreo milkshakes by his desk. Morning. Brisk autumn day in New York. Woe is me, Diary, Going to hold back the tears as I write this. My home slice, Ben Feder, is giving up his position as Chief Executive Officer of Take-Two to "travel Asia with his family for an extended period." I shoulda figured something was up, since every time we went out to a Chinese restaurant he would ask, "Do you think Chinese food is the same in China?" There is one benefit to the Federator leaving ... I'm gonna be CE-mutha-O! Tee-hee, Diary. Not gonna lie, it feels good to imagine myself as Capt. Picard: "Engage" all projects! Being Take-Two's Executive Chairman is great and all, but C-E-O! Anyway, one of my executive vee-pees, Karl Slatoff, will take on the "newly created role" of Chief Operating Officer. Oh Di, how silly is this "newly created role" business? Truth is, it hurt a little refilling the spot after my former COO Gary "Gar Bear" Dale left last year -- I left the door open for him and always set out an extra plate at dinner, just hoping he'd come back. Yeah, so, the official transition of all this will take place on New Year's Day 2011. Looking forward to having Feder show me the ropes of his job, but I don't think my body can handle doing it over lunch meetings at Mickey D's, Burger King and Wendy's every afternoon anymore. xoxo, ZelNicky
Mafia 2 likely to be profitable, Take-Two says
Speaking today during Take-Two's quarterly earnings call, CEO Ben Feder commented on Mafia 2's projected profitability. Perhaps directly rebutting one analyst's recent prediction, Feder assured investors, "Based upon the initial launch, we expect this to be another profitable title for Take-Two." He did not offer specific sales or shipment data for the game's first week at retail, nor did Feder note a general timetable for when to expect Mafia 2 to cross over into the black. Mafia 2 was released on August 24 to somewhat favorable critical reception, following an eight-year development process that began when 2K Czech set to work on a custom game engine. Our first glimpse of the game (pictured above) came just over three years ago.
Highlights from the future of gaming ... panel at the New York Gaming Meetup
If you didn't join us at last month's New York Gaming Meetup, there's a good chance you missed out on Take-Two Interactive CEO Ben Feder and Gamelab founder Eric Zimmerman discussing where gaming will be 30 years from now. Luckily for you, we captured highlights from the event on video and dropped them into a 10-ish minute vignette just after the break. We found Feder's take on hardware plateaus especially interesting. He believes developers will be free of technical constraints, allowing them to solely focus on creativity. Though he's not sure we'll reach that plateau in the next few years, he sees it as an inevitability. "There is an element of technology needed for innovation for sure," Feder said. "I think that's not going away -- that's going to be with us forever. Just in the way that humans will always invent new things and innovate to solve problems." Eventually, he said, entertainment technology will reach a point at which it's "Good enough to tell an interactive story. Or to play an interactive game." He then admitted, "I don't know when that is." Us? We're going with 25 years. Yeah, that sounds about right.
GTA Chinatown Wars on iPad this month
Take-Two is set to release its least portable version yet of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. G4 reports that, during yesterday's investor conference call, CEO Ben Feder outed plans to release an iPad version of the game, which was originally designed for the Nintendo DS and has since been ported to PSP and iPhone. No specific features were named for the upgraded version, though we can expect improved graphics and virtual controls that occupy less of the screen space. Feder said that the iPad port will be available "later this month."
GTA: Chinatown Wars accounts for 50% of M-rated sales on DS
Here's how you make Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars sound like a massive sales success: "As of February 2010, Chinatown Wars' unit sales in the US represented nearly 50 percent of the unit sales of all M-rated DS titles in the history of the platform." That's Take-Two CEO Ben Feder, via MCV, putting Chinatown Wars' sales into perspective. That means it met the combined sales of the 6 M-rated games on DS to date, which include Dementium: The Ward, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence and Ultimate Mortal Kombat, and the smaller releases: Theresia, Touch the Dead and C.O.R.E. Despite comparing GTA's sales to 3 games most people have never heard of, 2 games that most people didn't know were on DS, and Dementium, Feder kind of admitted that the game's sales weren't where Take-Two wanted them to be, echoing Nintendo's statement last December. What's to blame? Piracy, of course. "Piracy is a real and present danger for our industry and must be addressed, especially in the handheld market," he said. "The commercial performance of Chinatown Wars has certainly suffered at the hands of piracy."
Take-Two CEO thinks Grand Theft Auto 4 DLC was late to the party
Fielding a question on today's quarterly investors call regarding the performance of Grand Theft Auto 4's DLC double-header and the accompanying retail bundle – The Lost and Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony, and Episodes from Liberty City, respectively – Take-Two CEO Ben Feder admits, "Both we and Microsoft believed there was a big market for GTA 4 episodic content and some factors affected their performance." Calling the two companies' relationship "a historic, strategic partnership" – remember this? – and calling the episodes themselves "profitable contributors to the company," Feder nevertheless offered some insight into what his company could have done to make them even more profitable. "Both were released significantly after the launch of the core unit," Feder says, referring to the April 2008 launch of Grand Theft Auto 4. "And therefore weren't able to leverage GTA 4's initial marketing campaign and initial launch fervor." With The Lost and Damned coming out in February of this year, some 10 months after GTA 4's initial release, and The Ballad of Gay Tony this past October, 18 months after the initial release, we'd have to agree that timing played an issue; the GTA 4 hype machine had worn off. %Gallery-75593%
Take-Two: Agent is about espionage, set in the '70s
Agent will be "a game about espionage, set in the 1970s" and will be "very, very different" from Grand Theft Auto, according to Take-Two's CEO, Ben Feder, in an interview with Eurogamer. Yeah, it's not much, but at least it's more than a name. He goes on to discuss the success of GTA IV and Chinatown Wars, and gives his refreshing take on the role of censorship in the video game industry. Feder also discussed exclusivity in the industry today, calling them "relationship and contractual matters," where much information is left undisclosed. With regards to the PS3 exclusivity of Agent, Feder says the company "won't disclose anything beyond what we've already said." Though he does go on to say that "it's important for us to be with Sony, and it's important for Sony, I think, to be with us." As for whether the GTA IV DLC packs will come to the PS3? "We don't talk about that, unfortunately."
Take-Two decides to go it alone
Take-Two Interactive announced this morning that it's staying solo. The board met with "various interested parties" over the last five months and decided it was in the best interest of the stockholders to continue building the company independently.Despite Take-Two's recent stock slump following the EA buyout saga, the company's chairman, Strauss Zelnick, believes it remains competitive in the industry and will maximize value for stockholders. CEO Ben Feder says the company has 15 "wholly owned brands" with sales of over a million units, no debt and an "undrawn $140 million" to play with. Yeah, let's see if that cash gets spent on keeping GTA's Houser brothers.
GTA IV is gold and 'en route' to stores
Grand Theft Auto IV has gone gold and is "en route" to stores, which means any fears of an eleventh hour delay for the game can be squashed like a snitch's head in a vice. Take-Two's CEO, Ben Feder, stated during the shareholder's meeting last night that the game is in production and should arrive at retailers soon.GTA IV, expected to have a massive launch on Xbox 360 and PS3, won't be available to purchase until April 29. So, if you've got a friend working in retail who's got access to the stock room -- now's the time to tell them how much you love them!
Shorn sheep
In response to our story yesterday about Electric Sheep Company dropping a third of its staff, the Sheep's Valerie Williamson chimed in to assure us that Electric Sheep Company had grown tremendously through the year so far. Maybe that's so, and I hate to look like I'm knocking Ms Williamson (I'm not), but that's straight out of the layoffs handbook.
