Even Take Two's Investors Want More Grand Theft Auto V Info

[Karloff]

Even Take Two's Investors Want More Grand Theft Auto V Info

"Will GTA:V come out this year" was the question Take Two's CEO didn't want to answer

You can hardly blame investors for getting a little nervous about Take Two. Their first quarter investment call [http://ir.take2games.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=86428&p=irol-news&nyo=0] wasn't exactly filled with joyous tidings, and one of the sticking points was Grand Theft Auto V. There have been screenshots and some news buzz but no real marketing push or a release date announcement. When the board opened the investor call up for queries Mike Hickey of National Alliance Securities asked the question the whole room wanted to know the answer to: "what believability do we have at this point that this game will come out this year?"

"We can't talk about the credibility of a release date that we haven't announced," was CEO Strauss Zelnick's response, and he wasn't much more forthcoming when Hickey followed up with a question about communications with Rockstar. "We wouldn't talk publicly about the way that we communicate with our teams internally," Zelnick responded, "we're blessed to be in business with the Rockstar folks ... we have the best creative teams in the business, throughout our company."

This comes at a time when Take Two - financially stable though it may be - hasn't had much good news to report. L.A. Noire and Duke Nukem Forever sold better this time last year than Spec Ops: The Line and Max Payne 3 did this year, and net sales are down 32% on the financial quarter. Not that last year was any cornucopia of delights either; said Zelnick, "we had a disappointing year last year, and now we've had a disappointing first quarter."

Still, the board were upbeat. COO Karl Slatoff confirmed that the commercial disappointment of Spec Ops: The Line "would never prevent us from taking risks and chances and innovating in the future." Zelnick had nothing but praise for his teams, and said that the challenge was to perform to the expectations of what he described as "discerning customers" who only want "high quality games."

Source: Joystiq [http://www.take2games.com/]


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[mirage202]

With all the buzz surrounding Spec Op's story, you'd think they would do something like reduce the price and see if that encourages better sales of what is otherwise, a mediocre third person cover based shooter.

Well, that and fix shoddy mouse acceleration on the PC port.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

It's sad that Duke Nukem: Forever and L.A. Noire didbetter than Max Payne 3 and Spec Ops: the Line this year, considering that the latter two titles are much stronger games.

With all the buzz surrounding Spec Op's story, you'd think they would do something like reduce the price and see if that encourages better sales of what is otherwise, a mediocre third person cover based shooter.

GameStop had this game on sale for 47.99 for three weeks running. Same with Max Payne. But I agree, a bigger sale may be needed. Spec Ops's demo is pretty under-whelming.

 

[Rednog]

With all the buzz surrounding Spec Op's story, you'd think they would do something like reduce the price and see if that encourages better sales of what is otherwise, a mediocre third person cover based shooter.

Well, that and fix shoddy mouse acceleration on the PC port.

Spec Ops was 50% off 5 days after launch on amazon for 2 weeks, and steam had it on sale for 33% off.

 

[GonzoGamer]

If it were coming out this year, they would've been hyping it up already: R* loves to pile on the hype.

I was also wondering when Grand Theft Auto 5 would come out
... back in 2010!

Why IS everything selling so poorly this year?

I can't speak for anyone else but I hardly buy anything at launch anymore. I always give them at least a couple of months to patch it up. Then if they're already piling on the dlc (which they almost always do these days), I'll wait a little longer for a "complete edition."
Borderlands 2 is probably going to be the only game I buy at launch this year and that's mostly because I really liked the last one.
Also, I rent a lot now and I gotta say there aren't a hell of a lot of games worth buying. Then there are those games that might be worth buying but I'll never know because I wont pay a $10 online pass for a rental. Some of these companies (like EA & Sony) need to realize that the online pass scheme isn't going to make them any money if the single player campaign isn't very compelling.

 

[metal mustache]

so like, by "discerning customers" and "high quality games", did he actually mean "dick headed sheeple" and "boring safe games"?

 

[SecondPrize]

Sitting on a license to print money and anxious because it hasn't happened yet. This is just not going to end well if these people can't be held off from rushing things too much.

 

[Legion]

Why IS everything selling so poorly this year?

Not saying it's a definite reason, but shops certainly seem to be pushing for the higher prices more recently. Normally there is a ridiculously high RRP, which shops never actually sell it for, but more and more of them seem to be trying to push it at that price.

Plus due to so many cash-ins, rushed, and buggy games. People are much more wary of handing over money for a title at full price.

 

[getoffmycloud]

Sitting on a license to print money and anxious because it hasn't happened yet. This is just not going to end well if these people can't be held off from rushing things too much.

Well judging by the fact that 2K are suffering it would seem people do want boring safe games.

 

[GenGenners]

"So, ummmm......2k, about that money printing machine you've got........."
"HUH? What machine? Nothing to see here guys!"

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I was also wondering when Grand Theft Auto 5 would come out
... back in 2010!

Why IS everything selling so poorly this year?

I'd say it's because people are tired of this generations limitations and a lack of innovation.

 

[Callate]

It's sad that this seems to suggest Duke Nukem Forever and L.A. Noir sold better than Spec Ops: The Line and Max Payne 3. Everything I've read seems to suggest that the latter are the superior games (albeit all with fairly different sub-genres etc.)

 

[1337mokro]

Last time I checked Revenue was up in 2011. What the fuck? I think they had a net income, as in PURE PROFIT of over 50 million dollars. That is compared to a net loss of about 100 million in 2010. The company is doing better.

What the hell? Your company is MAKING 50 MILLION in PROFITS and the total revenue was like 1.1 billion dollars last year. How is that doing badly? What do these investors want? Even more money? Of course they do. You can't just own a company that has a profitable line up. You need to own a company that literally prints money.

Can't have good thing without trying to ruin it by demanding more profits faster.

 

[gyroscopeboy]

GTA:V will be the game that compels me to buy a new xbox360

 

[Strazdas]

well after the GTAIV disaster they are right to be worried. while GTAIV sold a lto because its been wiated for for almost 10 years and hyped a lot, what we got was a turd on a stick. and peopel will be much more careful about buying the GTA5 one, especially since its going back to Los Santos and many pople will think "it will ruin it".

P.S. capcha: i like humans

GameStop had this game on sale for 47.99 for three weeks running.

47.99 is not a sale, its an overprice. 19.99 would be a sale.

 

[THeFraz]

People saying Max Payne 3 and Spec Ops: The Line are stronger titles than Duke Nukem Forever is like saying Concrete is stronger than tooth paste.