14 DAY TRIAL // Christmas has always been a time when video game developers and publishers from across the world enjoy boosted sales. That's why many games are released during this period - and the same should've happened with Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 4. Initially scheduled for October 2007, the game has been delayed until early next year, because more development time was needed.
In other words, according to thestreets.com, this means that Take Two now has its entire fate in the hands of the highly anticipated game, after recording a loss of about $70 million from January to July. Also, last month, the company increased the five year credit facility with $40 million, from 100 to 140 million dollars.
But Grand Theft Auto might just be the best plan when it comes to turning things around and analysts say that Take Two can pull it through if it manages to release GTA 4 early next year. And this is because sales of about 8 million copies are expected to be recorded until October 2008, with a total of 11 million in the first full year.
"That game will dominate Take-Two's story all year," said Brian Sozzi, analyst from Wall Street Strategies. "It's going to be huge because it is one of the strongest franchises in the industry, going beyond Guitar Hero and almost on par with Halo. The game will release to an even larger installed base of consoles next year, which means cash flows only got pushed out from this year to the next", the analyst added.
Even though things don't seem to be really serious, it is, however, interesting to note that Take Two, ranked the sixth largest game maker in the world, only relies on one big title for survival. Just imagine what would happen if one GTA title wouldn't be a hit - it would be plain bad, both for gamers and the company.
However, with recent speculation linking Rockstar and EA, after the ActiBlizzion merge, these latest reports only add some fuel to the fire. And it's a big one already!