Take-Two: More GTAIV 360 Content In 2009, No GTA For Wii

Publisher Take-Two has announced the results of its fourth quarter, showing sales up to $292.6 million on strong sales of BioShock, NBA 2K8 and Carnival Games, and losses halved to $7.1 million. The fourth quarter sales were up from $266.6 in 2006. The company said that distribution revenue also rose year over year fueled by the titles above as well as a "robust demand for Wii products." For its full fiscal year, sales were down from $1.04 billion to $981.8 million, while losses fell from $184.9 million in 2006 to $138.4 million. Take-Two says that its BioShock has this year shipped in excess of 2 million copies, and that its surprise Wii hit Carnival Games has shipped 500,000 copies, also noting that it plans to release a companion DS version. Looking forward to 2008, the publisher says it expects sales of between $175-225 million for its first quarter and $1.1-1.4 billion for its full financial year. Its proposed Q1 lineup includes College Hoops 2K8, Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Mermaids, Go, Diego, Go!: Safari Rescue, Deal or No Deal: Secret Vault Games and the Japanese release of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. For the rest of fiscal 2008, Take-Two has slated Borderlands, Bully: Scholarship Edition, Carnival Games, Don King Presents: Prizefighter, console version of Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Mermaids, and Go, Diego, Go!: Safari Rescue, Grand Theft Auto IV, Major League Baseball 2K8, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, NBA 2K9, NHL 2K9, Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution and Top Spin 3. Said chairman Strauss Zelnick, “Fiscal 2007 was a year of progress for Take-Two, capped by better-than-expected bottom line financial performance in the fourth quarter... Take-Two today is sharply focused on its core publishing business and is operating more productively and efficiently, while continuing to foster the extraordinary creative talent of our development teams.” Added CEO Ben Feder, “Take-Two enters fiscal 2008 with the strongest, most diverse product lineup in our history – much of it internally developed and owned IP – which positions us well for the continued growth of the interactive entertainment market.” [UPDATE: In an ongoing conference call with investors, Take-Two executives announced that beyond the releases in its upcoming fiscal 2008, which will include the previously announced exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV content for Xbox 360, the following year will also include additional episodic content for the 360. Elsewhere in the call, executives said that they planned to increase profitability in its sports business by expanding its selection of non-licensed sports titles, including the aforementioned Top Spin and Don King brands, which will also be boosted by higher average price points, and a larger installed base. Take-Two also said it had seven titles bound for the Wii, including Bully and Prizefighter, the latter of which they called "a pretty compelling game on the Wii," and reiterated that the company has seen a shift from a "non-Nintendo shop into one as focused on Nintendo as any other platform." They did laugh off, though, the prospect of bringing GTA to the Wii. Concluded Zelnick, "there are other titles better suited to the Wii than Grand Theft Auto."]