BioShock 2 Shipped 3 Million Units, DLC Coming

Take Two has managed to offer analysts and financial markets better than expected results, showing sales going up by a little over 9% year over year for the quarter of the fiscal year, which ended on January 31, reaching 163.2 million dollars. The publisher also managed to reduce its losses by more than a third, to 33.8 million dollars, mainly through internal restructuring.

Ben Feder, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Take Two, said, “Take-Two has been strengthened through our cost savings initiatives and the sale of Jack of All Games, which allows us to focus our resources solely on our core business.”

The company also had a surprise hit in Borderlands, the mix between first person shooter and role playing game, which Gearbox developed, while a more traditional title like NBA 2K10 also put in a solid sales performance. Take Two singled out continuing sales of GTA IV and its two expansions as bright spots for the company, alongside Carnival Games on the Nintendo Wii.

Take Two is also saying that BioShock 2 is performing very well at retail, managing to move more than 3 million units since it was released and being on track to outperforming its predecessor. The whole series now has more than 7 million units sold worldwide and Take Two says it will support the sequel with a constant stream of downloadable content, although it's not clear for how long this will go on. Ben Feder commented, “We've seen an impact on our BioShock 1 catalogue as a result of BioShock 2. We're pleased with it.”

Future performance for the company will depend on the successful launch of titles like Red Dead Redemption, from Rockstar, and Mafia II, from 2K Czech. The company also plans to launch Civilization V from Firaxis during the fall, with initial previews showing some pretty significant changes to the long standing formula.