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Mafia II, Red Dead Redemption delayed as Take-Two beats estimates

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted May 26, 2009 1:59 pm PT

Publisher posts better-than-expected $10.1 million quarterly loss on $229.7 million revs, but fiscal-year guidance sinks on delays; second GTAIV DLC dated for fall; BioShock 2 due Nov. 3.

It's not entirely fair to compare Take-Two's second fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2009, to the same three-month period of time this year. After all, during that window, the publisher shipped Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3, a $310 million event that secured a Guinness World Record for the Highest Grossing Video Game in 24 Hours and the Highest Revenue Generated by an Entertainment Product in 24 Hours.

Easy there, Quick Draw McGraw. You'll have to wait until November...at the earliest.

As such, it is no surprise that Take-Two saw a significant year-over-year dip in second-quarter revenues, which fell to $229.7 million from $539.8 million during the year-ago period. Nevertheless, the company's sales during the period beat previous expectations of $200 to $220 million.

As part of its earnings report released today, the publisher also said that net losses for the quarter stood at $10.1 million, down from a $98.2 million profit a year ago. Today's report increases the publisher's total losses for the first half of fiscal 2009 to $60.5 million on revenues of $486.5 million.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, which launched exclusively for the Xbox 360 in February, led sales for the publisher during the period. Other top performers included Major League Baseball 2K9, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Take-Two did not break out sales figures for any of the aforementioned games, the latter of which has seen heavy discounting at retail due to a less-than-fanatical commercial reception.

Take-Two also said today that it would be lowering its full-year fiscal guidance to between $1.05 billion and $1.15 billion from between $1.1 billion and $1.25 billion, thanks to two costly game delays. 2K Czech's Mafia II and Rockstar San Diego's Red Dead Redemption are now expected to ship during the first half of the 2010 calendar year. Both games were bumped in order to "allow additional development time for the titles and to maximize their full potential in terms of the quality of the player experience and market performance."

One product that isn't expected to negatively impact the publisher's current-year financials is Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony, the second Xbox 360-exclusive downloadable chapter for Rockstar Games' best-selling franchise. Take-Two today confirmed that the second add-on will be available through Xbox Live during its August 1 to October 31 quarter. The DLC will be available for 1,600 Microsoft points ($20).

Alongside that release, Rockstar will ship Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City, an Xbox 360-exclusive stand-alone retail product that combines the first two GTAIV add-on chapters onto one disc for $39.99.

Take-Two is holding its quarterly conference call with investors this afternoon. This story will be updated with details as appropriate.

[UPDATE] Highlights from the conference call are listed below:

--Take-Two chief financial officer Lainie Goldstein confirmed that BioShock 2 will ship in North America on November 3, with the European rollout expected a few days earlier on October 30.

--Take-Two CEO Ben Feder confirmed that 2K Sports' NBA 2K10 will ship for the Wii this year, having skipped the platform during the 2K9 season.

--Feder also noted that 2K Sports last year passed its MLB 2K baseball franchise to Visual Concepts, the same studio behind its well-regarded NBA 2K basketball series. MLB 2K9 received a withering critical reception after its launch across multiple platforms in March.

79 Comments

  • ps3_hero

    Posted Sep 2, 2009 5:07 am PT

    sweet i love western shooters like call of juarez and i like gta4 these combined will make me a very happy ps3 gamer!!!!!!!!!!! cnt wait.!!!!!!!!

  • julle23

    Posted Aug 30, 2009 9:47 am PT

    they are very aware that the game will be delayed but they do it so u want more, so when the release finally come more ppl will ahve bought it

  • dg3215

    Posted Aug 3, 2009 10:03 am PT

    I dont mind if a game is delayed for the purpose of making sure there are not any glitches. But to make revenue higher for a quarter to compair year-over-year earnings is cr@p and should be illegal.

  • paystation

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 7:58 am PT

    i am so glad that this is coming out. i loved the first one. i have always wanted a open world westen game. i hope it is online. then i will get it for def

  • moo223

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 1:38 am PT

    damn it tired of delays. seems to always happen to games im looking forward to, GTA 4, Batman, and now mafia. for once i would like to see a date that actually sticks for once. or don't tell us a date

  • 8smokes

    Posted Jun 13, 2009 8:23 pm PT

    Damn, I was really looking foward to Mafia 2 this holiday...

  • pspowerguy123

    Posted May 31, 2009 12:00 am PT

    OMFG!! All i was waiting for was a 3rd person western game on my PS3! I loved red dead and gun on PS2! Screw damnarion ! its fantasy! I waited to buy my PS3 this year so I could play REDEMPTION!! Now i gotta play KZ2 and LBP till next year? WTF!!! Ghostbusters better be good or I am gonna be F**KIN PISSED B**CHES!!!!

  • Boromir028

    Posted May 30, 2009 2:25 pm PT

    All this "XBox 360-exclusive" crap makes me want to fricking puke.

  • Gtgamer13fresh

    Posted May 29, 2009 7:51 pm PT

    aug_ga_man5-
    "LOL based off the videos Gamespot showed us of the multiplayer for Red Dead Redemption, it needed to be delayed."

    iwantasong-
    "aug_ga_man5 .... the multiplayer vids you are thinking of aren't Red Dead Redemption, those were Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. There are no gameplay vids for Red Dead Redemption."

    ROFL. And Call of Juarez is coming out in a month. Just lol.

  • n_8_z

    Posted May 28, 2009 9:43 am PT

    DAMN!!!...Oh well..more time for the developers to "maximize their full potential" in MAFIA 2, and RDR!!!

  • ImsoniacShadow

    Posted May 28, 2009 9:03 am PT

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
    WHY U DID THAT ROCKSTAR
    I WAS THIS WEEK ON GAMESTOP AND I ASKED RED DEAD REDEMPTION´S RELEASE DATE AND THEY SAID SEPTEMBER 2!!!
    U DID THE SAME THING WITH GTA 4!!!
    THE ONLY GOOD THING IS THAT U WILL DO SOME WORK WITH THE GAME
    IT COULD GET BETTER
    BUT DAMN
    WE HAVE TO WAIT¿!?!

  • Revan_911

    Posted May 28, 2009 4:31 am PT

    What's wrong with Dreamfall? And if GTA IV didn't sell good for PC it was nobody's fault but Rocktars. I mean we all know what they did there. And you are right not to expect much from Mafia. It's probably being super optimized for the consoles atm so we will need quad cores to get decent fps.

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted May 28, 2009 2:14 am PT

    @ james007_14, you're probably right that they meant Chinatown Wars was the poor seller, but the PC version of GTA IV was still listed in the 'secondary list' where sales numbers were not given out, so it still wasn't good.

    I must admit, I am surprised at the optimism in this thread, Imean other than Hl1 then HL2, what good follow-ups have we seen? Especially on PC? Who's to say Mafia II, if it comes out on PC, wont be another Deus Ex 2 or TLJ: Dreamfall?! There haven't been that many successful follow-ups, and when you consider what the PC market was when Mafia came out and what it's like now, I HOPE Mafia II will be a great follow-up, but I am not optimistic that's for sure! As a PC gamer, of course, I am reminding myself that Mafia was written for PC and came out for PC. This follow up is a'multi-format' release. How that changes the game who knows?! Dumbed down? More action based? Gamepad style gaming? I am just going to wait and see.

  • AOldDog

    Posted May 28, 2009 1:09 am PT

    I was hoping that i could get my hands on both Red Dead Redemption and Mafia 2 , this year. Especially Mafia2 ! I cant wait till next year ..... ! @#$@#$%@#$^%^&& !!!

  • wars45

    Posted May 28, 2009 12:05 am PT

    in nov it wont sell when its up with call 4 2 and bio shock 2 and uncharted 2 cant see it doing well

  • Lothos_Delion

    Posted May 27, 2009 11:57 pm PT

    Man loosing Mafia 2 hurts me worse than anything I've been looking forward too. Im sure its sales alone would be enough to really make their books shine. But I think they want next years first quarter to sparkle thus the bump which stinks.

  • iwantasong

    Posted May 27, 2009 7:31 pm PT

    aug_ga_man5 .... the multiplayer vids you are thinking of aren't Red Dead Redemption, those were Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. There are no gameplay vids for Red Dead Redemption.

  • zunit88

    Posted May 27, 2009 4:00 pm PT

    yea Xboxers stick to those exlusive DLCs that am not interested in anyway...coz am stickin to other better exlusives

  • Mr_Fujiv1

    Posted May 27, 2009 12:23 pm PT

    what the hell! :[ so whens mafia 2 actually coming out then. i have been waiting ages now! i thought it was coming out oct 8th

  • snake3rules

    Posted May 27, 2009 10:58 am PT

    Who gives about MP in a gta-style western ... Or are you the one person still playing GTAIV MP? Every game doesnt need MP, and games liek this are worse for it, cause now I have to wait indefinitely so they can refine a feature that shouldnt be there to begin with... also its likely somebody realized how good this essentially cast off and left-for-dead game will be and decided to throw more time and money at it, but I wish if that were the case they hadnt teased it with previews for the last three months in magazines, only to delay it for the foreseeable future.

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