Grand Theft Auto
Take-Two looks for life beyond 'Grand Theft Auto'
September 21, 2012: 12:31 PM ETThe video game company recently released Borderlands 2, which Take-Two hopes will help plug its financial holes and give it a new star franchise. It might be a long shot.
A scene from Take-Two's Borderlands 2
By Chip Lebovitz
FORTUNE -- 2012 was supposed to be a banner year for video game maker Take-Two Interactive. The spring was supposed to mark the triumphant return of Max Payne, one of the gaming world's traditional heavyweight franchises. But positive reviews, eight years of development, and one of the company's largest marketing campaigns ever couldn't convince gamers to purchase Max Payne 3, the franchise's latest installment.
Take-Two (TTWO) had had a rough go of it lately, and in July the company missed analyst's estimates for the second straight quarter. With no release date in sight for Grand Theft Auto V -- the latest sequel to the company's best-known and most profitable franchise -- Take-Two must rely on space western shooter Borderlands 2, which hits shelves this week.
Take Two is also likely hoping that Borderlands can help the company rely a little bit less on Grand Theft Auto. Despite the lack of updates to the franchise, Grand Theft Auto product sales accounted for almost 14% of the company's net revenue in fiscal year 2012. As of September 2011, Grand Theft Auto titles had sold 20 million more units then the rest of Take-Two's catalogue combined. That's over six times the number of games sold by Take-Two's second most successful franchise.
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This unbridled success has given Grand Theft Auto's in-house developer, Rockstar Games, free reign over the studio's development process. Rockstar takes a considerable amount of time between releasing its games (the latest Grand Theft Auto game was released in 2008), driving up Take-Two's overall development costs. More
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Confessions of a CityVille addict
Why Zynga's casual gaming is minting money and hooking so many people -- including yours truly.
I'm taking a break.
Right about now, I take a few minutes to harvest crops, put up several small businesses, collect rent, and hire Facebook friends to work at community halls. That's because last month, I joined the legions on CityVille, the city-building simulation game from Zynga that annoys Facebook users with News Feed MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer - Mar 14, 2011 3:17 PM ETPosted in: Britney Spears, Casual game, CityVille, Facebook, Farmville, game boy, Grand Theft Auto, Zynga -
Nintendo's big bet on small games
Spore, the highly-anticipated PC game, will come to the Nintendo DS. Image: Electronic Art
By Yi-Wyn Yen
LOS ANGELES - Turns out the next big thing from Nintendo will be new games for its miniature console, the DS.
Despite all the speculation of what's in store for the major video game consoles - the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360 (MSFT), and Sony PlayStation 3 (SNE) - Nintendo (NTDOY) is paying a lot of MORE
yiwyn - Jul 15, 2008 5:36 PM ET -
Take-Two in possible talks with Electronic Arts
By Yi-Wyn Yen
Perhaps the third time is the charm for Electronic Arts. After its offer expired Friday, the video game publisher extended for another month its $2 billion tender offer to Take-Two Interactive's shareholders.
Many industry watchers say that EA (ERTS) and Take-Two (TTWO) are working on a friendly deal behind the scenes. Take-Two, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto IV, admitted Monday that it is in "formal discussions" with interested buyers. MORE
yiwyn - May 19, 2008 12:15 PM ET
