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Grand Theft Auto 5 High Life patch adds apartments, removes alcohol-ception glitch
"Fixed a small issue where players could still activate the Apartment drinking activities after drinking themselves unconscious." So go the patch notes for Grand Theft Auto 5 update 1.13, dubbed "High Life." And don't worry, there's more. The High Life update, in addition to making sure players can no longer experience an alcohol-induced version of Christopher Nolan's Inception, adds five new high-end properties to own, 32 new suits for male characters, the Bullpup Rifle, new vehicles, the ability to own more than one property, and a Mental State that shows how often a potential matchmaking partner murders fellow players. Because hey, you might be a drugged-up sociopath out for nothing but the next big score, but that doesn't mean you should have to put up with mean people online. Check out the full list of High Life changes on Rockstar's website. [Image: Take-Two]
NBA 2K Online reaches 19 million registered ballers in China
While Take-Two was busy counting its fat stacks of cash following its healthy fiscal 2014 financial report, it also noted milestones in its collaborative efforts overseas. Namely, CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed during the company's call with investors today that "usage and player engagement with NBA 2K Online continued to gain momentum, and it's now the number one PC online sports game in China with 19 million registered users." NBA 2K Online was announced in June 2009 as one of Take-Two's major pushes into the Asian market. Arriving in October 2012, the game is a free-to-play basketball simulation for PC that features every licensed NBA team. It is the result of a partnership between Take-Two and Tencent, a developer with experience in crafting free-to-play versions of popular properties suited for the Chinese market, including Monster Hunter Online for Capcom and FIFA Online 3 for EA. [Image: Tencent Games]
Take-Two makes it rain $1 billion more in fiscal 2014
Take-Two reported net revenue of $2.35 billion for fiscal 2014 (the year ending March 31, 2014), a 94 percent growth from its reported revenue of $1.21 billion in 2013. It also reported a net income of $361.7 million, which compares rather favorably to the net loss of $31.2 million it suffered last year. As of the end of fiscal 2014, Take-Two had "cash and cash equivalents of $935.4 million," plenty to make it rain a few times. As for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, Take-Two's net revenue was $195.2 million, a 34.8 percent decrease compared to the same quarter last year ($299.5 million). It also reported a net loss of $30.8 million for the quarter, which compares to the net gain of $21.2 million reported in Q4 2013. The publisher's digitally-delivered revenue increased 65 percent year-over-year to $435.1 million on a non-GAAP basis (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). In its earnings call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick noted that Grand Theft Auto Online was the "single largest contributor" to the company's digital revenue growth. Take-Two also reported that it has shipped 33 million copies of GTA 5 to date. Looking ahead to the next fiscal year (ending March 31, 2015), Take-Two projects its non-GAAP net revenue to fall between $1.35 billion and $1.45 billion, and anticipates its net revenue between $120 million and $135 million for the next quarter, also on a non-GAAP basis.
Grand Theft Auto 5 ships 33 million units
That's a lot of violent, reckless criminals: Rockstar and Take-Two have shipped more than 33 million copies of Grand Theft Auto 5, Take-Two announced in its fiscal year 2014 report. "Grand Theft Auto 5 was the best-selling console video game of 2013 in North America, Latin America and Europe combined," the report says. "To date, Grand Theft Auto 5 has sold-in more than 33 million units." Sales of Grand Theft Auto 5 passed $1 billion in its first three days at retail. In March, Take-Two reported it shipped 32.5 million copies of Grand Theft Auto 5. [Image: Take-Two]
NBA 2K15 nets MVP cover athlete Kevin Durant
2K Sports announced its cover athlete for NBA 2K15 today, and it's none other than Oklahoma City Thunder small forward Kevin Durant. Durant was recently crowned the NBA's most valuable player, so there really is no better basketball player to have on the game's cover. NBA 2K15 will launch October 7 in North America and October 10 internationally. The basketball sim is in development by Visual Concepts for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. The last entry in the series, NBA 2K14, was the first to arrive on Xbox One and PS4 at each console's launch following its current-gen and PC release in early October 2013. The game suffered major server issues, which locked players out of MyTeam and NBA Today content entirely, even after the next-gen versions received a sizable patch. As of February, Take-Two had shipped more than five million copies of the game. [Image: 2K Sports]
2K's Zelnick: 70% of connected GTA5 players play GTA Online
Over 70 percent of players fired up Grand Theft Auto 5's multiplayer GTA Online component in the months after the game's initial release, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told Fox Business in an interview this week. "Just a few years ago when we put out a product, no matter how big, when we put out a hit we collected our money, we went onto the next," Zelnick said, addressing GTA Online's microtransaction-driven revenue model. "Now what we're finding is we're creating recurrent consumer spending and we have the gift that keeps on giving. I talked about that when we took over Take-Two six years ago. It's nice to see it coming true." Grand Theft Auto 5 shipped 32.5 million units worldwide as of February, and earned over $1 billion in revenue during its three days at retail. Developer Rockstar Games continues to support GTA Online with frequent content updates, and a new job creation system is set to launch this Friday. [Image: Rockstar]
Capture new job creation tools in GTA Online this Friday
Rockstar will launch the capture jobs creation system in GTA Online this Friday, April 11 and is offering a rewards boost in select online missions until then. Starting Friday, Grand Theft Auto 5 players can use the GTA Online Creator Tool to build missions using one of four capture job variants: Contend, GTA, Hold or Raid. For those unfamiliar, Rockstar describes the capture jobs as a "GTA twist on classic capture the flag style confrontations." To get players accustomed to the job style's unique brand of action, the developer upped the reward levels for all official capture jobs in GTA Online. Until Friday, jobs like "GTA: All Abhorred" and "Raid: High Road" will earn players double the GTA$ and RP. [Image: Rockstar Games]
BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode Two review: Forget Paris
This is a review of downloadable content for BioShock Infinite. As such, it may contain spoilers for the main campaign or "Burial at Sea Episode One". In some alternate universe, in some different timeline, BioShock Infinite's "Burial at Sea" was never split into two parts. I say "parts," and not "halves," because Episode One was, at best, a lackluster introduction. Its return to Andrew Ryan's submerged metropolis of Rapture was disappointing, its promise of noir intrigue petered out too quickly, and all we were left with was slightly different combat and a ham-fisted twist ending that was barely deserving of the term. It's a shame, then, that the BioShock Infinite creators in our universe chose to serve up Burial at Sea as two complementary products, because Episode Two is much stronger. Had Burial at Sea been released as one cohesive whole, the mediocre opening hours we know as Episode One might have been forgiven. As it stands (in this reality), "Burial at Sea Episode Two" is longer, it delivers a better story with more emotional drive, and its combat feels fresher. Even its obligatory shock ending feels more in line with BioShock's pedigree.
GTA Online giving you 'The Business' on March 4
Grand Theft Auto 5's "The Business Update" has been entered in the Excel sheet for a March 4 formulation on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. The update includes three new sports cars, two new guns (heavy pistol and special carbine, pictured), along with new clothing that's appropriate for the boardroom or the champagne room. This is also the last chance to get the items from the Valentine's Day Massacre Special, which will no longer be available this Sunday, March 2. So, get in gear, heartbreaker. [Image: Rockstar]
No murder, mo problems in BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Ep. 2's '1998 mode'
BioShock Infinite's next DLC offering, Burial at Sea - Episode 2, encourages players to step out of their comfort zone and rely solely on non-lethal tactics in 1998 mode. Avoiding mass murder in a BioShock game? That's just ... weird. Irrational Games says 1998 mode was borne from the testing phase where developers were self-imposing non-lethal playthroughs; the titular date is a callback to the original Thief game (nice timing!) and places "a focus on balance and stealth mechanics," says Ken Levine, creative director of Irrational Games. Burial at Sea - Episode 2 launches on March 25. Irrational Games was severely downsized last week and Ken Levine, its current creative director, announced he was forming a new outfit within publisher Take-Two Interactive. Support from the gaming community at large quickly followed, in both the form of the "#IrrationalJobs" hashtag on Twitter and local Boston studio Fire Hose Games, which has offered free desk space for any affected developers looking to go the indie route. [Image: Irrational Games]
BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 2 surfaces next month
BioShock Infinite plunges into the second episode of its DLC campaign Burial at Sea on March 25, a worldwide release date that's confirmed for Xbox 360, PS3, and Windows PC. The game's third major DLC will be priced $15, or you can get it via the $20 season pass that also covers the previous two add-ons. The news comes shortly after series creator Ken Levine revealed the second episode will last around "five, maybe six hours." As we noted in our spoiler-coated review, the first episode of the single-player campaign takes around two hours to complete. Talking of spoilers, there's a rather large one given away by a newly released Episode 2 screenshot - we'll just link to it here. Now it's up to you to keep your hands over your eyes and ears for the next seven or so weeks. [Image: Take-Two Interactive Software]
Borderlands 2 is 2K's highest selling game
Among all the highlights from Take-Two's financials yesterday comes confirmation that Borderlands 2 is now the highest-selling game in 2K Games' history, with over 8.5 million units shipped to date. That's another million on top of last year's figure, which had the game tracking to be king of 2K mountain. And yes, more content is still planned for Borderlands 2. With Valentine's Day right around the corner, we imagine the folks of Pandora will give each other boxes of guns, 'cause you never know what you're gonna get. [Image: 2K Games]
Take-Two revenue nears $2 billion in Q3 2014 because GTA5
Take-Two's GAAP net revenue was $1.86 billion in Q3 2014, up from $415.77 million in Q3 2013 and led by sales of Grand Theft Auto 5, NBA 2K14 and WWE 2K14, the company reported today. Though Grand Theft Auto 5 launched during Q2 2014, Take-Two pushed its results to Q3, citing the later launch of Grand Theft Auto Online. Grand Theft Auto 5 has shipped 32.5 million copies and NBA 2K14 has shipped more than 5 million copies, making it 2K's most successful basketball game to date. Take-Two's net revenue got a kick from digital content sales, a segment that grew 42 percent year-over-year to $132.8 million (in non-GAAP terms). Digital sales were boosted mainly by Borderlands 2, BioShock Infinite, and the Grand Theft Auto and NBA 2K franchises, Take-Two reported. There's no mention of Grand Theft Auto 5 for PC or next-gen consoles in Take-Two's statement, but CEO Strauss Zelnick said there's more news to come: "Looking ahead, we have a robust pipeline of both new intellectual properties and offerings from our proven franchises in development, including more than 10 unique titles for the next-generation consoles."
Grand Theft Auto 5 ships 32.5 million copies
The total number of Grand Theft Auto 5 copies Take-Two has shipped to date now exceeds 32.5 million. The number comes from the company's fiscal third quarter 2014 earnings report, in which it declared its money-making game the "best-selling video game of 2013," citing data from NPD. By comparison, the publisher also noted the entire NBA 2K series has shipped 35 million units to date. The number of copies shipped by Take-Two doesn't precisely indicate the number sold to customers, of course. GTA 5 has sold well regardless, earning an estimated $1 billion for the publisher in its first three days at retail. It sold 3.67 million copies at retail in the UK in 2013, leading all games in the region.
NBA 2K14 shipments eclipse 5 million
NBA 2K14 is Take-Two's most successful basketball game yet. The latest entry in Visual Concepts basketball sim series has sold-in (see: shipped) over five million copies, Take-Two announced today. Take-Two has shipped over 35 million NBA 2K games to date. NBA 2K14 first launched on PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 1. Next-generation versions followed in November to correspond with the launch of the Xbox One and PS4. According to data provided by the NPD, NBA 2K14 was the top-selling sports game on both next-generation platforms in November. [Image: Take-Two]
Grand Theft Auto Online class-action lawsuit dismissed
A class-action lawsuit filed against Rockstar Games and Take-Two has been dismissed by a US District Court in California today, Game Politics reports. The plaintiffs in the class-action suit argued that Rockstar and Take-Two failed to deliver the full, promised Grand Theft Auto 5 experience – specifically, the online portion of the game, GTA Online. The suit claimed the state of Grand Theft Auto 5 at launch last September was "unlawful," "unfair" and "fraudulent" on the part of Take-Two and Rockstar. Judge Virginia A. Phillips disagreed, citing there is no language on the Grand Theft Auto 5 packaging guaranteeing the online portion of the game "immediately." GTA Online launched on October 1, weeks after GTA 5 made its $1 billion debut at retail. Since then, Rockstar has iterated on its multiplayer offering by adding race and deathmatch creation tools, along with Rockstar Verified Jobs. Co-op heists will be added to GTA Online later this year.
Grand Theft Auto 5 listed for PC on Amazon Germany, Amazon France
Crime epic Grand Theft Auto 5 was listed earlier today on Amazon France (since removed) and it's still sitting pretty on Amazon Germany for pre-order. An almost identical listing for a PC version of the game occurred around this time on the two sites last year, so please temper expectations of validity. Retail listings don't guarantee a product is real ... that's what ratings boards are for. Not to crush hopes and dreams entirely, Take-Two Interactive, parent company of Rockstar Games, will announce its third quarter earnings on February 3. Announcing the PC and next-gen versions of GTA 5 around that time would be a reasonable course of action. You know, if any exist.
2K Czech shake-up, resources shifted to US
2K Czech, home of the Mafia series, is being restructured, a fancy business term equatable to how mob movies end with a bunch of bodies and a few survivors. Eurogamer reports 2K Czech will shut down its Prague office – where Mafia 3 was rumored to be in development – with the remainder being centralized in Brno (location of the other 2K Czech studio) and "transferring some development resources" to 2K headquarters in Novato, California. "This transition will both strengthen the integration of the 2K Czech team with our award winning development teams, and better align cross-functional business practices. As part of this realignment, we are adjusting our staffing levels, resulting in the elimination of some positions," Eurogamer was told in a statement by 2K. Eurogamer also reports "10 key developers from 2K Czech are also said to have been relocated" to Novato. The obvious conclusion is it has something to do with whatever former Epic and Irrational development head Rod Fergusson is up to with his new 2K studio.
MLB 2K baseball series canceled
2K Sports has officially canceled its MLB 2K baseball game series. A 2K representative told Joystiq today that it has "decided not to renew our MLB 2K series for 2014. We are very proud of the achievements made by the MLB 2K team and look forward to their contributions to our future titles, including NBA 2K - our industry's #1 rated and #1 selling basketball franchise." The final game in the series was MLB 2K13, a game that was panned critically for its stark similarities to its predecessor, MLB 2K12. The confirmation of the series' closure comes after the publisher took steps to remove the brand from its various pages – an indicator that it no longer has the appropriate licensing obligations to fulfill. As pointed out by Pastapadre, 2K Sports recently took down its Facebook page for the series, videos from its YouTube page and forwarded each landing page for games in the series to its global 2K website. Of the few MLB-branded pages that remain are a few of the game's online manuals, though it's uncertain how long those will be available to view. Being that 2K Sports was the only company delivering a simulation baseball game for Microsoft's Xbox 360, thanks to an exclusive third-party licensing agreement it signed with the MLB, the Xbox One will be without a Major League Baseball game for the time being. The MLB: The Show series is developed by Sony's San Diego studio, which will launch MLB 14: The Show this spring on PS3, PS4 and Vita.
GTA Online rifles and accessories are half-off this weekend
Rockstar is bringing holiday cheer to Grand Theft Auto 5 with a couple of discounted pieces of in-game content for GTA Online. Players can celebrate Thanksgiving with half-off deals for all rifles and rifle ammo and attachments, specifically the game's assault, carbine, heavy, advanced and sniper rifle weapons. The sales start tomorrow and last through December 1. Additionally, Rockstar discounted all black-colored clothing, accessories and vehicle modification items to celebrate Black Friday by 50 percent (though the sale for these items are also good through December 1). The vehicle modification items include window tinting, black license plates and black tire smoke for your car of choice.
