Year-End Financial Update for Take-Two

[Ginger_Ale]

Earlier this week, Take-Two released preliminary financial data for the fourth quarter and entire fiscal year 2009.

For the quarter, Take-Two achieved a slightly positive earnings per share of about $0.05 on revenue of $325 million. For the year, earnings were -$1.10/share (therefore, a loss) on $950 million in revenue.

Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two, stated, "Our anticipated results for the balance of fiscal 2009 primarily reflect the challenges related to our Major League Baseball business, inventory write downs in our distribution business, and retail conditions that have proven to be more difficult than the assumptions built into our prior outlook. These factors were partially offset by the performance of our catalog business and a number of our holiday titles...Looking ahead, we remain committed to our goal of operating profitably on a non-GAAP basis; however, we do not currently expect to achieve that goal in fiscal 2010."

Take-Two currently seems to be unable to turn a profit, at best breaking even. How this affects the future of the Civilization franchise and Firaxis is unclear. For previous Take-Two finance updates, see this thread.

>> Read the full press release

 

[GarretSidzaka]

worst or best news, i dunno

 

[Dementual]

The only answer is to unite with a different independent developer.

Or come out with more awesome titles, but that's not really so easy to do.

 

[Soda7777777]

Maybe Firaxis should transfer, and get a different company to publish their games.

 

[zulu9812]

I'm sure if Civ5 came out, TakeTwo would make a bundle of money...

 

[remake20]

I agree. They need to release a new civ (or find some other awesome title to release). No new civs came out in '09 and I don't think the will get paid very much for civ net.

 

[Vael]

Maybe Firaxis should transfer, and get a different company to publish their games.

That might be kinda hard considering Take 2 owns 100% of Firaxis and all of their games. Time for a civil war?

 

[Jetal]

I thought this quote was pretty funny:

we remain committed to our goal of operating profitably on a non-GAAP basis

Couldn't anybody operate profitably without following GAAP

 

[Darth Fred]

I'm sure if Civ5 came out, TakeTwo would make a bundle of money...

Maybe now would be a good time to unvail that X-Com (If they're really doing it)remake too.

F

 

[toft]

Guess civ5 is going to be crap then... a quick moneycow, if ever released...

 

[remake20]

Guess civ5 is going to be crap then... a quick moneycow, if ever released...

I wouldn't think so. I bet you that they would be willing to go almost bankrupt to produce civ 5. And as I know of firaxis the next has to be better and they're not going to let money stand in there way. Anyone agree with me?

 

[pat4]

Hmm I was reading about this on another gaming site and they never mentioned civ. They just talked about how GTA coming out every three years would keep the company afloat. Seemed strange but I suppose GTAs sales are probably way above civ.

 

[BSmith1068]

I thought this quote was pretty funny:



Couldn't anybody operate profitably without following GAAP

I saw the same thing, but you beat me to it…

I’m not sure what is scarier – them talking about trying to be profitable without following GAAP, or the fact that they are apparently not profitable even when they don’t follow GAAP.

BTW – nice first post and welcome to CFC!

 

[Whomp]

Hmm I was reading about this on another gaming site and they never mentioned civ. They just talked about how GTA coming out every three years would keep the company afloat. Seemed strange but I suppose GTAs sales are probably way above civ.

GTA has sold 80 million copies to Civilization's around 8 million. That's not to say Civilization isn't a valuable franchise to Take Two but T2 has shown the only year since 2005 they've been profitable is 2008 when they released GTA 4.

The more difficult part to understand is they're saying they won't make a profit in 2010 even though they're bringing four of their biggest games – "BioShock (3 million copies sold)" "Mafia", "Max Payne" and "Read Dead Revolver". They did say they're bringing another top title in 2011 along with GTA. Civ 5 after the Facebook experiment in 2010?

Maybe they should stick to "Carnival Games" which sold 4 million copies for Wii.

 

[pat4]

GTA has sold 80 million copies to Civilization's around 8 million. That's not to say Civilization isn't a valuable franchise to Take Two but T2 has shown the only year since 2005 they've been profitable is 2008 when they released GTA 4.

The more difficult part to understand is they're saying they won't make a profit in 2010 even though they're bringing four of their biggest games – "BioShock (3 million copies sold)" "Mafia", "Max Payne" and "Read Dead Revolver". They did say they're bringing another top title in 2011 along with GTA. Civ 5 after the Facebook experiment in 2010?

Maybe they should stick to "Carnival Games" which sold 4 million copies for Wii.

Reminds me of Bloomsbury, the company that published the Harry Potter books. They made huge losses in the years when there wasn't a HP book but their shares just kept rising. I suppose its something similar here.