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Grand Theft Auto IV has shipped a massive 13 million copies (figures to the end of January 2009) since being released on April 25th 2008.
Likewise the servers over at Microsoft have been pumping out copies of The Lost And Damned to Xbox 360 owners with 1 million downloads served. Video game analyst at Wedbush and Morgan, Michael Pachter has been quoted as saying RockStar can expect to see this hit 2 million before the year’s end.
There are further potential GTA franchise sales set to burgeon once ChinaTown Wars hits the mega-selling Nintendo DS soon. Then there are the semi hot key titles of Midnight Club: Los Angeles, NBA 2K9 and upcoming Red Dead Redemption set to bolster Take-Two coffers over the short term.
Why then is Take-Two still in the red?
According to recent financial results , the company's Q1 net revenue was US$256.8 million, up a modest US$16.4M over Q108's $240.4M.
It still lost money however, with the net loss for the quarter being US$50.4 million, US$12.4M worse than Q108's $38M.
With the GTA franchise accounting for just on 40 percent of the revenue, around US$60 million, and other Take-Two franchises such as the Wii platforms Carnival Games putting in significant money, where does it all go?
Despite revenue being up, losses also increased by some US$2.4 million, with Take-Two bean counters pointing to increased marketing, legal and R&D costs bloating the expenditure column of the balance sheet.
The official investor statement from Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick reads:"Looking to the balance of the year, the economy remains challenging and uncertain, and our industry will not be immune to this environment. Consumers will continue to be highly selective in their purchases, including interactive entertainment," adding, "We need to deliver innovative, exceptionally compelling products to compete for this more limited consumer spending, and we are confident in our ability to do so."
