BioShock Infinite Sells 3.7 Million Units

Andy Chalk

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BioShock Infinite Sells 3.7 Million Units


Take-Two Interactive doubled its fourth-quarter revenues thanks to strong BioShock Infinite sales, but it still didn't manage to turn a profit.

Take-Two reported its fourth quarter and full-year financial results today and overall the situation looks pretty good. The publisher once known for living or dying on the fortunes of Grand Theft Auto reported that its revenues for the fourth quarter of FY2013 hit $299.5 million, doubling the $148.1 million earned in the same quarter of FY2012. The big boost was driven primarily by BioShock Infinite, which saw "significantly higher first month sell-through than any other BioShock release" and has sold more than 3.7 million units so far.

The company's full-year totals were up substantially as well, reaching $1.214 billion compared to $825.8 million in the 2012 fiscal year. It wasn't enough to result in a profit but it nonetheless improved Take-Two's financial position considerably; the company reported a loss of $31.2 million for the year, compared to a $107.7 million loss in 2012.

Take-Two credited the boost to solid performances from Borderlands 2, NBA 2K13, Max Payne 3 and XCom: Enemy Unknown, as well as continued sales from older titles Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption. Digital sales for the year were up dramatically as well, growing 148 percent on content for Borderlands 2, NBA 2K13, Civilization V, XCom and the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

"With BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2, NBA 2K13 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown, our 2K label released four of the past year's most critically acclaimed titles," Take-Two Chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick said in a statement. "With Rockstar Games launching Grand Theft Auto V in September, fiscal 2014 is poised to be one of our best years ever." He said the company expects to be profitable in FY2015 and "for the foreseeable future."



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Canadish

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What, ONLY 3.7 million? Not 5 million?

PFFFFFT. Scrap the franchise and fire the team involved. What a FLOP. That just won't do in today's competitive AAA environment!
 

DrunkOnEstus

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May 11, 2012
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Doubled revenue from same quarter last year
Full-year totals up to 1.2 billion
Wasn't enough to result in profit
What in the blue, high-definition fuck is wrong with either the expectations or the costs of this industry?

Edit: Oh, and Infinite has some shitty Tomb Raider kind of numbers. I was under the impression that it succeeded. Next time Levine, if you get a next time with this kind of abysmal performance.
 

Trishbot

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Square Enix would've blamed the game for underperforming and then talked about how much everyone loves Lightning.
 

lancar

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Hey, at least they didn't start blaming solid game markets as "underperforming". I think Take-Two is a publisher that takes a lot more risks than the others, so that they too take a some losses isn't much of a surprise. Their situation doesn't look anywhere near as grim as Squeenix's or EA's, so they'll probably be fine.

Probably wouldn't hurt to trim away some needless graphical fidelity fat, though, but as long as what they're doing is (mostly) working, and continue to produce titles that I actually want to play (since they're pretty much the only big publisher that still does that), then who cares.
 

thiosk

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I think we're seeing the screetching halt of the love train, here.
Take two has had, as the thing above notes, several major successes this year.

I think the publishing model is really dying here.
 

LiMaSaRe

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Today I realized I've been a huge fan of TakeTwo games all along. They've got some skilled developers.
 

shiajun

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WTF??? This AAA economic model is completely backwards. How can a company have not one, but several oustanding hits under its belt, plus continued earnings from previous games and still not turn a profit?? Seriously, what the heck kind of ultra kool-aid are investors drinking these days to imagine the outlandish sales the industry is simply not able to provide?
 

Shadow-Phoenix

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3.7 is a brilliant figure for sales and yet Square and EA would simply baw and kill their franchises for having a number like that which makes me sad.

Also I'm amazed I still haven't gotten this game yet but then again the last game I actually bought was Transformers Fall of Cybertron for 360 last summer.
 

PunkRex

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Andy Chalk said:
"With Rockstar Games launching Grand Theft Auto V in September, fiscal 2014 is poised to be one of our best years ever."
Not that we'll make any money from it.

What are they doing with that much moolah, having cocaine for every meal off the bellies of gold plated hookers surgically altered to look like Elizabeth!?
 

cookyt

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It stuns me that a publisher can have such an excellent year with both critical and commercial successes, and yet still not turn a profit. What are they spending their money on? My bet's on too much going into advertisements, but I'd love to see a breakdown of spending records.

On a side note, I never realized how many awesome games were published by Take Two.
 

Callate

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"How'd you do this year?"

"Oh, we brought in nearly one-and-a-quarter billion dollars."

"Bummer, man. Better luck next year."

...Pardon me while I bash my head against a wall...

I quite like many of Take-Two's offerings, but criminy, what are they doing with that money that 1.214 billion isn't a profitable year...?

Actually, on second thought, never mind, don't tell me. I'd like not to be angry with at least one major video game company, and if I heard that it was one more corporate structure top-loaded with people making multi-million bonuses while "times are hard" talks excused cutting into the rank and file, I couldn't keep my illusions.
 

vid87

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How does a company make over a billion - (B)illion - dollars AND NOT MAKE A PROFIT?! Why is it common that the major players in this industry are saying "we know we did good when our losses are only tens of millions?"
 

Erttheking

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I think we need to look on the bright side. The fact that Take Two's losses are rapidly dropping are a sign that they're recognizing their flaws and taking steps to fix them. It'll take time, but eventually they'll disappear completely.
 

Terramax

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I think the question needs to be asked 'why are they spending so much money?' Likely, they're investing lots on the development of GTAV.
 

RicoADF

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Jun 2, 2009
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lancar said:
Hey, at least they didn't start blaming solid game markets as "underperforming". I think Take-Two is a publisher that takes a lot more risks than the others, so that they too take a some losses isn't much of a surprise. Their situation doesn't look anywhere near as grim as Squeenix's or EA's, so they'll probably be fine.

Probably wouldn't hurt to trim away some needless graphical fidelity fat, though, but as long as what they're doing is (mostly) working, and continue to produce titles that I actually want to play (since they're pretty much the only big publisher that still does that), then who cares.
Lets be honest here, most of the costs would be GTAV, which when released in Sep will make that money back and then some, Take Two isn't concerned at all for a reason :)

Callate said:
"How'd you do this year?"

"Oh, we brought in nearly one-and-a-quarter billion dollars."

"Bummer, man. Better luck next year."

...Pardon me while I bash my head against a wall...

I quite like many of Take-Two's offerings, but criminy, what are they doing with that money that 1.214 billion isn't a profitable year...?

Actually, on second thought, never mind, don't tell me. I'd like not to be angry with at least one major video game company, and if I heard that it was one more corporate structure top-loaded with people making multi-million bonuses while "times are hard" talks excused cutting into the rank and file, I couldn't keep my illusions.
It's not unusual for profits - loss vary with companies, especially with a major project so close to release you can tell where most of it is going and it'll be made back. As I said above, there's a reason the management was so positive about the numbers.
 

CardinalPiggles

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I've been a big fan of Take Two's recent titles, so it's a massive shame they aren't even turning a profit. I mean, losing $31 Million is insane even if it is an improvement.

Props to them for being the only major publisher not churning out repetitive crap, and allowing their developers to flourish.
 

rbstewart7263

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lancar said:
Hey, at least they didn't start blaming solid game markets as "underperforming". I think Take-Two is a publisher that takes a lot more risks than the others, so that they too take a some losses isn't much of a surprise. Their situation doesn't look anywhere near as grim as Squeenix's or EA's, so they'll probably be fine.

Probably wouldn't hurt to trim away some needless graphical fidelity fat, though, but as long as what they're doing is (mostly) working, and continue to produce titles that I actually want to play (since they're pretty much the only big publisher that still does that), then who cares.
bioshock infinite wasnt that graphical tho. Its recommended was a gtx 560 in a market where the 660ti is only 300. You probably have a point but in the case of bioshock I wonder just how much trimming there was left to do.

I love what they did tho thing performed great on my 600 dollar hp with ati 3700 integrated graphics(ie integrated graphics = shit)
 

CharlesCarmichael

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Just remember that this is for the entire year, and that there wasn't really any sort of tent-pole games bringing in money in the first half of the year. They lost 204 million between Q1 and Q2, mainly cause all they had to rely on was catalog sales, the unfortunately lackluster Max Payne, and Spec Ops: The Game That Only Reviewers Could Love . This year they have the afterglow of a half dozen solid hits (plus more if they can get some good DLC out for their non-Borderlands titles) to tide them over until GTA in the fall.