14 DAY TRIAL // Take Two, the parent company of both Rockstar and 2K Games, has announced record revenue for the fiscal year that ended on March 31 as the amount of money it has managed to get from its launched titles has increased by no less than 94 percent.
At the same time, profits reported were 361.7 million dollars (223 million Euro), which is a big improvement over the losses it reported for the previous tracked period.
The reason for the better than expected results for Take Two is the launch of Grand Theft Auto V, the video game created by Rockstar that was offered on the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 from Sony.
Strauss Zelnick, the chief executive officer of the company, is quoted by Gamasutra as saying that, “Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto V reached $1 billion (756 million Euro) in sales faster than any entertainment release in history, NBA 2K14 enjoyed the franchise’s strongest launch, Borderlands 2 became 2K’s top-selling title, and our digitally-delivered revenue grew to its highest level ever.”
The financial information once more shows that Take Two relies a lot on Rockstar and on the big hits it is delivering.
GTA V has managed to deliver 33 million copies to players since launch and Borderlands 2, the most successful title released under the 2K Games name, has managed a respectable but much smaller 9 million.
Strauss Zelnick says that Take Two is trying to diversify its portfolio of titles and that during the coming year, it will be working on a number of new projects that will use an entirely new game universe.
Karl Slatoff, the president of the company, explains that, “It's very important to us to be constantly reinvesting in new IP. That is a stated objective of our company. We don't feel comfortable sitting on our accomplishments... You've gotta keep the pipeline going, and it's the only way to do it. We really don't see ourselves as competitive with any other company or any other game, except perhaps in the sports business.”
The financial results were also used to reveal that Rockstar was working on a new game for the next fiscal year, although there are no details about the kind of experience that the team is preparing.
Most fans are hoping that a new Red Dead Redemption title will soon be announced.
For the coming year, Rockstar is expected to account for about 45 percent of all the revenue that Take Two will generate.