14 DAY TRIAL // There are certainly a lot of game publishers out there, but among them only a few stand out in terms of franchises and of how much money they can produce every single year.
While behemoths such as Activision or Electronic Arts have the benefit of many yearly series, smaller companies, like Take Two Interactive, only have a few truly blockbuster franchises. One of them is the very popular Grand Theft Auto series, which broke a lot of sales records last year, gaining critical acclaim from the gaming industry.
Of course, this led to some nice profits for Take Two. Now, as the 2009 fiscal year is already underway, things aren't looking extremely good for the company, which won't release any substantial GTA title. But the chairman of the publisher, Strauss Zelnick, is quite confident that a profit will be recorded, and is eager to prove investors and analysts wrong.
“I think the investment community is analytical about our stock. What they’re looking for is more consistency. They want us to diversify and broaden our base of very successful titles. That’s what we are trying to do. It’s reasonable for them to say, 'Show me.' They heard us talk about how we would try to iron out some of the volatility in our results, and we’ve delivered some of that. It’s reasonable for them to expect us to deliver a breakeven performance in a year when we’re not releasing a major GTA title. This is that year. They want to see what we can do,” Zelnick told VentureBeat in a recent interview.
He didn't miss the chance to underline once more the great results that the recent GTA IV title recorded. “I think it’s appropriate for a company to be rewarded to deliver consistent results. Some inconsistency goes with running an entertainment business. GTA is the 1,000-pound gorilla and you don’t want to look at it as a negative. We announced that it sold more than 13 million units.”
Although there will be no GTA, big sequels like BioShock 2 or Mafia 2, alongside more casual-oriented titles like Carnival Games or Ringling Bros. will certainly manage to sell a lot of copies. Also, the sports franchises from its 2K Sports label will deliver consistent results, meaning that Take Two could register profit during this year.