14 DAY TRIAL // Take Two is reporting the best quarter it has ever had as a videogame publisher, with the board saying that for the fifth time in a row the company did better than it had predicted. Sales went up to 433 million dollars, which is more than double the $206 million sales it reported for the same quarter of last year.
The biggest contributor to the excellent results of the company was, of course, GTA IV which has sold, as of August 16, more than 10 million units worldwide and which can claim to account for 60% of the revenue that the company reported. Sid Meier's Civilization Revolutions and Top Spin 3 brought in significant amounts of money too.
Profits also went up to $51.8 million and Take Two reports that it is now debt free, having repaid all of its credit lines. Chief Executive Officer Ben Feder said "We're delivering on our pledge to make Take-Two the most creative, most innovative and most efficient company in the industry, and we look forward to further accomplishment in the future."
Rockstar is said to be getting ready for a holiday PR blitz that aims to put GTA IV again on the map for Christmas while also releasing it on the PC. Microsoft is also saying that this fall the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV should receive significant exclusive DLC, which will also rekindle interest from those who did not pick up the game when it was initially launched.
Despite the good results there are still fears that Take Two is too dependent on just a few titles, while a majority of its games have big development costs that they cannot recuperate from sales.
Take Two is also playing up the possibility of developing Nintendo Wii games, citing the newly announced GTA Chinatown Wars for the DS as an example of how a big franchise can move to a Nintendo platform.
Chairman Strauss Zelnick played up the achievements of its company by saying that "We've broadened our portfolio, streamlined and strengthened our operations, and demonstrated our ability to consistently deliver outstanding financial results."