14 DAY TRIAL // Take Two announced last week that it would have a bad 2009 and that the prospects for 2010 were not looking much better. The company said that Max Payne 3 was once again delayed for a few months and projected a fall in sales related to poor performance from the MLB franchise, which is not having a good year. Immediately after the unveiling, the market reacted by taking shares of Take Two on a downward ride, closing down more than 30% lower than at the beginning of the trading day.
Evan Wilson, who is an analyst of the videogaming industry working for Pacific Crest Securities, has stated that he has little confidence in the management of the company and that “We believe there are better ways to invest in video games via names that are not inextricably tied to a single franchise with a management team that has not established an investable track record.”
Take Two has long been described as being a one-trick pony, a publisher that depends of regular releases in the Grand Theft Auto franchise in order to thrive. Wilson has also stated that the practice of delaying all major releases for a few months needs to be eliminated to make the company more believable when it says it will be returning to profitability.
People are expecting an official announcement related to the GTA series, which will probably be getting a new title in late 2011. The developers at Rockstar have said that they are still preparing ideas about the content that will be included in the coming title and the management team of Take Two has been reluctant to talk about GTA V, saying that it will not answer questions related to it.
The manual for the recent Ballad of Gay Tony DLC content for the latest title in the series mentioned that Liberty City would no longer be a setting for the game but apart from that, there's no indication of GTA V.