Take-Two Q2 revenue up to $268M, BioShock 2 sales 'lower than expected'

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Jun 8th 2010 5:30PM

Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two has announced its financial results for its second fiscal quarter, which ended April 30, 2010. Net revenue of $268 million represented an increase of 54 percent over the $174.3 million recorded during the same quarter last year; a change that Take-Two attributes to sales of Major League Baseball 2K10, as well as the introduction of Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City to PlayStation 3 and PC.

In a related investor call, Take-Two Chief Financial Officer Lainie Goldstein noted that 32 perecent of revenue was driven by the publisher's catalog titles, including NBA 2K10 and Grand Theft Auto IV. And while BioShock 2 contributed to the increased revenue and became a profitable endeavor, Goldstein noted that the dystopian shooter incurred "lower than expected" sales. "The title was well-received by the media and was profitable for us," she said. "However, sales slowed down sooner than we had expected."

Operating income for the quarter rose to $16.9 million (last year's second quarter represented a loss of $10.4 million), while total revenue for the company's first-half financial year totaled $431.2 million.

Tags: BioShock-2, earnings, financial, financial-report, fy-2010, grand-theft-auto-episodes-from-liberty-city, grand-theft-auto-iv, Lainie-Goldstein, MLB-2K10, NBA-2K10, q2, sales, software, Take-Two

Reader Comments (47)

Was my $130 not enough? =O

Hopefully Red Dead Sales remain strong. I bought some stock because of that game and hopefully LA Noire is successful as well.

I know this is shallow, but I honestly couldn't play Bioshock II because that Big Daddy on the cover looks like Bomberman. I blame Joystiq for that of course. But they were right, I can't unsee it.

That's a terrible excuse to not play such a solid title.

Now that it's cheap I've been thinking of picking up Bioshock 2. I've heard that it's only half as good as the first one... Your opinions on this fellas? I played the original and had a blast.

I guess you will have half a blast then.

Oh, hardly. Bioshock 2 is probably MORE fun than the first. It gives you way more options on how to fight.

The game overall probably isn't as good, but it's certainly not a drastic decrease.

Well that sure would be a shame.

Bioshock 2 is great, in my opinion. Definitely holds up to it's predecessor.

@ Hank

Hell yeah, I personally loved BS2. Its just as every bit as good as the first one, and gameplay wise, it's even better. I think most people are complaining mostly due to the fact that it didn't improve enough compared to titles. Like other sequels such as Assassins Creed 1 to AC2 or Mass Effect 1 to ME2. Those titles pretty much revamped almost all aspects of their predecessors. In BS2 you feel like your playing BioShock with little improvements/revisions that were needed, which isn't a problem IMO. Also, there is still no Game Plus mode, Ill tell you that right now. After your done, you either play online or shelve it cause there is no multiple play thrus.

EXACTLY. It's impossible not to see a cute and cuddly Bomberman looking back at you. Sours the vibe a little.

Bioshock was a ton of fun. Its a shame that so many people seemed to have written it off. Many aspects of the game are even better than the first, its just that rapture isn't as "oh-ah" new. Minor flaw in the end.

Bioshock 2 is probably my favorite next gen title (besides the wonderful Super Mario Galaxy 2). It's just amazing how clever they laid out the storyline (if that makes sense), and the multiplayer kept me going for months. I'm still playing it.

By the way, I thought Hank Hill didn't like videuh gaems?

I had a great time with bioshock 2, I played through the original multiple times and am going to have a second play through the second to pick up missed achievements and get the "evil" ending

story and atmosphere are still very good and the game play mechanics are much better

I've heard the 2 reasons most people see 2 as inferior are:
A: 1's story was better and B: 2 feels too similar to 1, like something you'd play on DLC.

@ A and B guy - But thats the thing, besides the introduction to rapture and the big reveal of Bioshock, the story in Bioshock 2 was actually a lot more cohesive and interesting from start to finish. After the Big Reveal in #1 the story line and game were pretty weak.

RDR will be bring some serious revenue for Take-2 and R*. Rumor has that the game sold around 5 mill so far and counting. Also, w/ Mafia II and etc releasing this year, Take-2 should be doing ok for the rest of the year.

What's Bomberman doing in Bioshock?

I'm sorry . . . but you're wrong.

I can't recall too many boars in FPSs. Maybe you're thinking of MMORPGs.

:P

That's a crying shame. The lower sales were definitely due to the fact that hardly any PS3 folks bought it. That's just unacceptable. Jordan Thomas and his team at 2K Marin did a stellar job on BioShock 2. It had a personal story between the Big Daddy and Little Sister. It had a political story like the original but this time it was about collectivism. It had great new characters and a wonderful overarching story. It had improved combat. Was it as great as the first? Well, that's entirely subjective. Honestly, I like both of them equally for different reasons.

uh people on the PS3 didn't buy it because Heavy Rain was released around the same time. Most people went for Heavy Rain because it was something new and exclusive unlike BioShock 2

No, the truth is that the multi-player was so bad and the single-player campaign was short. My local GameStop had 10 used copies almost immediately after launch. There was no replay value so people sold it quickly. People who don't buy at launch generally buy used or wait for a price drop, so that's why sales stopped quickly.

Neither is a competitor, as they're completely different games. Why can't 2 great PS3 games show up on the top 10 NPDs (Heavy Rain and BioShock 2)? The 360 and Wii have multiple games in the top 10 each month, so why didn't the PS3 base support both?

I bought both and supported both.

The same reason people choose Taco Bell over McDonalds, or vice versa. It's about what you want. In this economy it's hard for people to drop $120+Tax on 2 games at once.

Raiki:

The multiplayer is very solid.

And the single player was 10-12 hours, which is the average to above average length of a linear, story driven experience.

Heavy Rain was even shorter at 7-8 hours and no multiplayer.

BioShock 2, much like Heavy Rain, were both worth buying. And both the single player and multiplayer were meaty enough for the price that was being asked. It was #1 in the NPDs for Xbox 360 the month it released, so there's no excuse thtr it wasn't even in the top 10 on PS3.

Spike Spiegel - Humble Bounty Hunter:

That's not really my argument. If a person can buy a few games a month, like myself, then all the better. However, many 360 and Wii games make it into the top 10 each month. Hell, BioShock 2 and many other releases on Xbox 360 (mostly multiplats) made it in the top 10 NPDs. That doesn't mean one person bought both games. It means that there was an audience for each release, including BioShock 2. Why doesn't the PS3 have this audience? Your system should be capable of churning more than one top 10 NPD chart spot each month. Both of those games should've made it. Heavy Rain was either #9 or #10, and that game arguably deserved a higher spot, too. But BioShock 2 for PS3 was nowhere to be found.

Very valid point. Not sure why the PS3 version didn't do so well. It sold about 200k copies vs the 360's 500k something. I am just tired of seeing Just Dance up top for so long.

The multiplayer was not solid at all. I bought Bioshock 2 on the PC (as well as Heavy Rain that week) and I found there to be so many issues with the multiplayer. In addition, when they made a new update there was so much lag, it was unbelieveable. Maybe it was different on the consoles, but it was a PC trainwreck.

RDR has board but isn't first person.

*boars

You couldn't be more off on a game, seriously Bioshock 2 was excellent. I can't wait for a 3rd game. They should do some single player DLC if they don't want to make another full retail game just yet. I loved both 1 and 2.

I agree with you Jesse!

I bought Bioshock on PS3 after hearing so many great things about it. Played it, and thought it was a resounding meh on the first time through. Thought i'd play it through again and was too bored to even finish it.

/prepares for downvote

Bioshock 2 is perfect example of a game that did not need to be made, the first BioShock was amazing and had a great/complete story. I for one didn't see the need for a sequel thus didn't bother picking it up. I would rather just play the original over and over again.

Utter nonsense. You're punishing the company because the original game was too good? Or that it didn't have a cheap cliffhanger ending?

"Wow 2K, just finished Bioshock and loved it. It was so good in fact that if you made another very good game in the same universe I would refuse to play it. The first was *that* good."

That's just dumb.

It still looks like Bomberman.

If it had lower than expected sales, I think their expectations were likely too high. The first game was a bit of a surprise hit, and without the lead designer, or a clear reason to extend the story, many gamers simply weren't interested in a sequel.

Apparently, they predicted 5 million units sold, and have only hit 3 million so far. I would have predicted 1.5 million units, and been pleasantly surprised.

I read jessetaylor's post when the hype was big and everyone was replying but I didnt get it , it just seemed stupid are boaring to me.

Then I tried to read Carl's sequel but I just have no interest in lamers anymore.

Bioshock 2 was quite good. I loved the first one immensely, but Bioshock 2 was a worthy sequel. It had some elements that were an improvement, but unfortunately it took longer to draw you into the story than the first one did and I think that caused a lot of people to judge it more harshly in comparison.

I just picked up Bioshock 2 yesterday at Fry's for $33

Fry as in Futurama?

No seriously. Is fry's a major gaming outlet?

I bought the first bioshock because I liked system shock 2.

When I found that they had stripped out all of the interesting non linear rpg elements and turned it into an FPS I lost interest in the franchise.

It annoys me when devs cash in on a franchise to make a flavour of the month game. If you want to make an fps, start another franchise, dont butcher an existing one to cash in on the brand awareness.

BS2 was entirely unnecessary for me.

Currently in my second run of Bioshock 2. Anyone who liked the first one should like the second - it has the same atmosphere, the same polish, and the same feel. Only complaint is that I actually preferred the hacking mini-game from the original Bioshock over the timed press thing there is now.

In fact, if 2K made a downloadable version of Bioshock's hack-pipe-goo game as a standalone game I would be all over it.

Can't...Unsee....Bomberman. Arggg!

Bioshock seemed like a one-off type game. I didn't get the second b/c I didn't feel there was anything else to it. I'm probably wrong in my assumption, but my gaming time is limited and being sucked up by Borderlands now.

Here is hoping this makes them create another great new game franchise. I am kinda sick of sequels, feels like that is really what we get these days.

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Take-Two Q2 revenue up to $268M, BioShock 2 sales 'lower than expected'

Reader Comments (47)

Posted: Jun 8th 2010 5:34PM Spike Spiegel Humble Bounty Hun said

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Posted: Jun 8th 2010 5:47PM Hank Hill said

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