It wasn't all good news in Take-Two's stellar third-quarter earnings report and conference call today, as the company announced that the release date for Midnight Club: Los Angeles has been pushed back to Oct. 21 in North America and Oct. 24 in Europe. The new date follows previously announced North American dates of Oct. 7 and Sept. 9 for the game's release. Take-Two said the extra time is being used to help polish up the game and to make sure its release doesn't get lost amidst a competitive holiday schedule. Here's hoping this one finally sticks.

In light of all the important news coming out of Take-Two's just-released financial report, it would be easy to skim over the actual financial numbers at the core of the release. That would be a shame for Take-Two, as the report shows incredible growth for the company when compared to last year.

Quarterly revenues were up a staggering 163% year over year, from $205.4 million to $539.8 million, mainly on the strength of Grand Theft Auto IV (and not on the strength of titles like Go Diego Go! Safari Rescue). These revenues were enough to turn a loss of $29.2 million during last year's second quarter into a profit of nearly $115.4 million during this year. The company's coffers have ballooned to include nearly $1.1 billion in assets, up from $830 million at the end of the last fiscal year in October.

The report also reveals that 2008 might finally be the year that the PS2 finally starts its slow decline, at least from Take-Two's perspective. At this time last year, 37% of Take Two's revenues (a plurality) came from PS2 games. This year, that ratio is down to 10%, while the Xbox 360 and PS3 shot up to 41% and 31% of revenues, respectively. The company only has one PS2 game listed on tap for the rest of the year: MLB Power Pros 2008.

It's no secret that Electronic Arts has had its eye on Take-Two Interactive lately, but a purchase of the company means a lot more than logos and IPs.

What follows is an examination of the development resources under the Take-Two umbrella. Take a look, you may just be surprised how big that bumbershoot is. For instance, were you aware that that there are more than eight Rockstars? No? Well, what are you wasting your time here for?

It's time to get educated.

We got this information from yesterday's Take Two earnings call, but we wanted to break it out just to make sure you BioShock fans out there could get some sleep tonight. Chairman Strauss Zelnick stated during the call that series creator Ken Levine "will be working on BioShock 2."

Now, it remains to be seen whether he'll be working on the game or just sending encouraging email forwards about angels and pictures of cats hanging on branches to the 2K Marin team doing the bulk of the work. As gigantic, total, militant fans of BioShock, we certainly hope it's the former.

Rockstar's been awfully apologetic about the game-breaking bugs and glitches present in the Xbox 360 version of Bully: Scholarship Edition (as they should be). In the latest public apology, a Rockstar Games representative is promising a fix within the next week, in the form of a title update via Xbox Live.

The patch will likely fix the audio glitches, framerate stutters, and full-on crashes that have plagued the 360 version, yet have been entirely absent from the Wii version. It is unknown at this time whether Rockstar also intends to offer a disc replacement plan for 360 owners without access to Live (similar to Activision's replacement plan for Guitar Hero III on the Wii). We'll let you know when the buggy Bully patch is finally made available.

Take-Two Interactive has seen its fair share of ups and downs, and with stocks on the slow rise following the announced release date of GTA IV, it's rumored that media conglomerate Viacom might be moving in to make a bid on the company, to the tune of $1.5 billion USD.

MCV reports that Viacom is looking to buy majority ownership of the publisher and developer, with a reputed bid of $23 USD per share; Take-Two's current stock value was at around $16 as of last night. At this premium, majority shareholders could be convinced to sell their stock, giving Viacom an opportunity to seize control of the company.

True or not, the value of Take-Two is expected to rise tremendously following the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, making these early months the best time for a company like Viacom to make a move.

Update: Reuters says that "a source familiar with the matter" has disputed reports of Viacom's offer. The plot thickens ...

Despite receiving an M rating from the ESRB in the US, Manhunt 2 on the Nintendo Wii is still not appropriate for release in the UK, according to the British Board of Film Classification, who have once again rejected the title, despite changes made since the original rejection back in June.

Any hope of Manhunt 2's release in the UK now hinges on publisher Take 2 Interactive appealing the decision, but not before further changes are made to the final version of the game. David Cooke, director of the BBFC has stated that the changes made to the title thus far are not sufficient, and that the game still retains the same "visceral" and "sadistic" gameplay that warranted the original rejection.

It's unknown at this point whether Take 2 will once again appeal the rejection, or if Manhunt 2 is simply not meant for release in the UK.

Just a few hours after the good news hit, Take 2 has released a trailer for the upcoming Civilization Revolution game our handheld and console systems are already salivating for. Ok, so no actual gameplay is shown, just a bunch of orchestral music, pre-rendered cut scenes, and marketing speak reminding us why Civilization is one of the coolest franchises we've ever played. But come on ... this is Civilization. On your DS. On your Xbox 360. How great is that?

When Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick isn't having secret meetings with Jack Thompson, he's actually trying to turn the embattled company around. Although Zelnick's predecessor, Paul Eibler, pledged support for the Wii last year, Zelnick is really driving the point home. During their Q2 earnings call, which has been fully transcribed, Zelnick says, "To be perfectly frank, I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to realize what's going on with Wii and DS. I will tell you that very quickly we turned to both 2K and to Rockstar and said guys, we need a DS strategy and a Wii strategy and we are working on it. As we get into the next quarter and into budget season for 2008, everybody in this company is completely focused on it."

Zelnick says that development cycles are long and sports games aren't good to develop "for a specific platform," but that they are looking to put more on the Wii and DS. Given the phrasing of the statement, it sounds like Zelnick is talking about games specifically designed for the Wii, which would be nice considering that Manhunt 2 may work out really well, or feel really flat, because it was designed for multiple platforms. Designing a game for numerous platforms may be good for profits, but if Manhunt was only designed for the Wii, it might have ended up a totally different game because of the focus on motion control.

[Via GoNintendo]

It seems that Grand Theft Auto IV's downloadable content is shrouded in as much mystery as its hush-hush storyline. While Rockstar North once said that the PS3 would be getting "exclusive episodes" of the game, they weren't listed among a recent Take 2 investors report, while a listing for Xbox 360 episodes of GTA IV is sitting smack dab in the middle of the 2008 fiscal year.

Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean a death knell for GTA IV PS3 content, perhaps it was unintentionally omitted or maybe the content wont come to Sony's box until late 2008. Either way, this is still pretty muddy. We hope things will clear up by the time gamers are asked to plunk down their cash.

Did you catch the Take Two shareholders meeting yesterday? Don't worry if you missed it, the event turned out to be much less dramatic than we had hoped. However, it was not without some ruffled feathers, as now-former CEO Paul Eibeler was shown the door. Taking his place is Ben Feder, a former executive at News Corp, as acting CEO.

Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities expresses disappointment that the new management is giving themselves a three- to six-month window. Also, Pachter said of Feder, "he appears to have no meaningful experience managing a large organization, nor does his resume suggest that he has any practical experience in the video game industry."

Game Politics has a roundup of more opinions regarding this executive shuffle. Our take, however limited in scope, is that Eibeler was a beacon for bad news. His ousting can only spell an upward trend.

• Try this HD torrent. Remember to seed when you're done downloading!
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After postponing a shareholder meeting so as to court potential buyers, publisher Take-Two has announced that no deal has been made and the company will proceed with the shareholder meeting Thursday without any company interested in purchasing the controversy-laden publisher.

How bad will the meeting be for Take Two? Game Politics predicts that several major stockholders are planning to revolt, CEO Paul Eibeler will be ousted from his position and "T2-hatin' shareholder Jack 'RICO' Thompson may gain access to the microphone and spew his particular brand of vitriol at Eibeler and Take Two management."

Here's a plan: seeing as Thursday's event will be extremely entertaining, why not sell tickets to the event or broadcast the meeting, with advertising, on the internet? There's no perceivable way that the publisher will have an optimistic outcome, so they might as well monetize the entertaining disaster.