Monthly Archives: September 2009

Take-Two’s reached a $20 million settlement in the Hot Coffee case, the company said today.

$15,200,000 will be paid by the company’s insurancers, and $4,915,000 will be paid by Take-Two itself.

Win for the prudes. PR after the break.

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During the Take-Two Q3 earnings call tonight, iPhone and digital distribution were discussed quite a bit. To say the least.

As a matter of fact, TT stated that both are “part of our strategy and innovation,” reminding investors listening to the call that the company outlined this plan two years ago.

According to Take-Two, iPhone and iPod Touch titles are part of the plan considering “six out of 20 people” have mobile devices capable of playing games.

“We are proud of our intellectual properties and we think we have the best collection in the industry. To bring that to mobile devices is important, because not all consumers have a console, or PC for that matter.

“We are going to continue to support mobile as it’s an opportunity we cant ignore, and what ever platform we are producing for should be no less than a AAA title.”

Admitting that it is unknown just how far digital distribution will excel in the future, Take-Two was quick to point out that no matter what, it would remain a presence in that sector and are looking at how best to take advantage of it.

The full transcript of the call to investors will be made available tomorrow, so the quotes above are transcribed for you to the best of our knowledge and listening ability at post time.

During the Take-Two Q3 2009 financial call tonight, company CEO Ben Feder told investors that while retail is important, downloadable content is a main component to the company’s game releases.

“It’s clear that retail is the channel for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, there is a download component to a lot of our games, and there’ll continue to be a download component,” said Feder. “The games live online and they live at retail: they live at both. Whether that’s download first, retail second, or retail first download second, or some combination of the two, that’s an area that we’re going to experiment with because we’re innovating in that area.

“And it’s likely to change from title to title, but everything is going to have a download component, needs to have a download component. It’s one of the key lessons [of The Lost and Damned]. We’ll see how GTA in the retail SKU performs; we’re actually pretty optimistic about it.”

What that means is that all Take-Two games will have downloadable content of sorts from here on out. Granted this has been said before by the company, still, it’s nice to hear.

Guess what? Take-Two really doesn’t want to talk about GTA V. This is what Strauss Zelnick said tonight to an analyst in its Q3 earnings call when asked to give an indication as to when the next title in gaming’s greatest franchise is going to be announced:

“We’re not going to announce it. We’re not going to announce when we’re going to announce it. And we’re not going to announce the strategy about announcing it or about when we’re going to announce it either, or about the announcement strategy surrounding the announcement of the strategy.

“Any other questions?”

Big Strauss is a card, non?

Take-Two CEO Ben Feder told investors during the company’s Q3 2009 financial call today that motion sensor kits are currently in-house and in the hands of its development teams right now.

“Natal motion-sensors – yes we have dev kits, yes we’re working on them,” he said. “Obviously, we can’t comment on games we haven’t announced. But those dev kits are embedded in all of our studios, or just about all of our studios, and everybody’s working with them to try to figure out new ways in which we can innovate and create the kind of content that this company is famous for.

“So yes, we’re working on it.”

At least we think it was Feder that said that. There were too many people adding their input on the question at the time. We will have another listen just to be sure.

Anyway, later on during the call, it was clarified that Sony’s motion controller was currently in-house as well.

So that’s good to know.

Rockstar’s Dan Houser reckons GTA IV’s DLC episodes have to come to discs because digital distribution for larger items just isn’t there yet.

“I know, as a consumer, I’m more comfortable buying songs, which are almost like playing a jukebox, than I am buying movies as purely digital items,” Houser told USA Today.

“We all feel that way, so we can surely get more people to experience it if we put it on a disc.”

However you end up consuming Gay Tony, it looks as though it’s going to be awesome. Houser expanded on the plot.

“Luis has to do some of these favors and see if he can get them out of debt,” he added.

“The situation with Tony’s drug problems gets worse and worse, and Tony gets more and more out of control.”

Sounds fun. The episode’s first movie was released tonight. It’s awesome. The content releases on October 29.

Take-Two has stated during it’s Q3 2009 financial call to investors that the “big four” that have been delayed into 2010 are still on track for the first half of the year.

While representative refused to give an exact date for each, Red Dead Redemption, Mafia II, BioShock 2 and Max Payne 3 will be released in a four month window.

It was also mentioned that each game is a stand alone product, and not a port created for each platform.

The call is still ongoing, and we will update you as it continues.

Take-Two’s shown a Q3 net revenue of $138.6 million compared to $433.8 for the same time as last year.

Big drop there, but you have to remember that GTA IV came out in Q3 last year.

Net loss for the third quarter was $55.5 million or $0.72 per share, compared to net income of $51.8 million or $0.67 per share in the third quarter of fiscal 2008.

For the nine months ended July 31, 2009, net revenue was $625.1 million, compared to $1,214.1 million for the same period a year ago, which included the release and strong post-launch performance of Grand Theft Auto IV.

Net loss for the first nine months of fiscal 2009 was $115.9 million or $1.51 per share, compared to net income of $112.1 million or $1.48 for the 2008 period.

The full thing is through the break, and the conference call to investors is ongoing.

We will keep you updated on any announcements.

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Microsoft has added GRAW and Splinter Cell: Double Agent to the Games on Demand Service on Xbox Live.

Both games are now available for downloading in the UK but the US does not get Double Agent, apparently, according to the “available regions”.

GRAW will run $29.99 and DA £19.99, so click here to have a look.

More information is posted over on Major Nelson, which is through the link.

Ericp Lempel, director of operations for US PSN, sat down with Varitey’s Video Business and had a chat.

During which, Lampel not only let slip that PSN has 12.5 million registered users in North America, bit that most users are educated males in their late twenties who apparently, have girlfriends if the type of movies rented are any indication.

“Right now [the userbase] it’s primarily male. The average age is 28 years old, in usually the middle- to higher-income range. They over-index against those with graduate degrees. But it’s expanding,” he said. “What we’re finding ever since we’ve introduced services like the video download service, we’re getting more of the household on the PlayStation Network.

“Some of the top rentals and sales on the video side have been content that probably doesn’t appeal exactly to that 28-year-old male. It’s more those movies that are geared toward women.”

Unless 28-year-old males secretly like Kate Hudson, we’d say the guys rented “movies that are geared towards women” for a gal-pal.

Via Kotaku.

Gran Turismo 5 screens were released by Polyphony Digital this afternoon.

‘Bout God damn time isn’t it?

While these are really nothing too revealing, as in giving away gameplay or anything, thar they blow anyway.

Go have a look on Joystiq.

SEGA has revealed its TGS line-up, and unfortunately it does not distinguish which games are playable and which are not.

We will send ‘em a mail and ask.

At any rate, here is the line-up:

• Puyo Puyo 7 (DS, PSP, Wii)
• The House of the Dead Overkill (Wii)
• Kyokugen Dasshutsu (DS)
• Bayonetta (PS3/X360)
• Chin Sports (Wii)
• Resonance of Fate (PS3/Xbox 360)
• Let’s Make a Pro Soccer Club! 6 Pride of J (PSP)
• Coropata (DS)
• Phantasy Star Portable 2 (PSP)
• End of Eternity (PS3/X360)
• MADWORLD (Wii)
• Up (Wii)
• Valkyria Chronicles 2 (PSP)
• Yakuza 4 (PS3)
• Tomoyo After ~It’s a Wonderful Life~ CS (Xbox 360)
• Poupée Girls DS (DS)
• Umihara Kawase (DS)
• Super Monkey Ball Athletic (Wii)
• J LEAGE Make a Pro Soccer Club! 6 Pride of J (PSP)
• Ryu Ga Gotoku 4 (PS3)
• LUNAR -HARMONY of SILVER STAR- (PSP)
• Little Busters! Converted Edition (PS2)

According to Andriasang, Yakuza 4 is not on the “official”  list but was listed in materials handed out to the press, therefore that’s why you see it listed.

EEDAR has conducted research comparing 2008 review scores for consoles games to titles released this year.

When looking at the first six months of both years and comparing them, scores for PS3 and 360 have remained level while scores for Nintendo have improved 6 percent from 60 to 66.

Guess that means Wii games are “getting better”.

More over on Kotaku.

The list of best selling PC titles for Steam and Direct2Drive isn’t inherently different this week, but there are some new titles that have been added to the mix

D2D saw the enhanced version of The Witcher and Call of Duty: World at War added to the mix, while Steam reports that the THQ Collector Pack and Call of Duty 4 made an appearance.

The full thing is below courtesy of Shack.

Steam Top Ten

1. Left 4 Dead
2. Aion Collector’s Edition (pre-order)
3. THQ Collector Pack
4. Counter-Strike: Source
5. Killing Floor
6. Team Fortress 2
7. The Orange Box
8. Fallout Collection (F1, F2, Fallout Tactics)
9. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
10. Valve Complete Pack

Direct2Drive Top Ten

1. Champions Online (pre-order)
2. Fallen Earth (pre-order)
3. Aion Collector’s Edition (pre-order)
4. Rise of Flight
5. Fallout 3
6. Hearts of Iron III
7. Civilization 4: The Complete Edition
8. Call of Duty: World at War
9. The Sims 3
10. The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Havok has announced that Capcom have struck a deal over usage of Havok’s Physics middleware for titles such as Lost Planet 2, Resident Evil 5, Dead Rising, and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles.

Capcom will continue using the the development tool because it’s the “fastest and most scalable physics engine available,” according to Jun Takeuchi, GM of R&D and consumer games research at Capcom.

Good to hear.

Full press release after the break.

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Some direct-feed multiplayer Modern Warfare 2 capture the flag gameplay footage has popped up.

We have it posted below.

It’s uncut, and was posted by Infinity Ward on its YouTube channel.

Thanks, G1GAHURTZ.

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Xbox 360 Elite sales were up 43 percent during the bank holiday weekend in the UK.

At the start of it on Friday, Microsoft dropped the console price to £199 undercutting the newly priced PS3 by £50.

“Sales of Xbox 360 are up 43 percent,” a representative for GfK Chart-Track revealed to GI.biz. “Essentially, looking at the price, obviously it’s the Elite that’s done the business with those sales.”

Citing it as “an early start” for Xbox 360, next week will be “quite a big deal for Sony.

More through the link.

Capcom wants you to get a gold jetpack for Dark Void when you preorder from GameStop.

There is even a special website set up here, and a video parody making fun of Cash for Gold commercials while telling you all about the deal.

Video is below, game’s out next year for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Thanks, Joystiq.

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The lovely ESRB has rated some classic PSOne games that are destined to hit PSN sometime or another.

Just look at that list. Full of win it is.

• Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
• Bloody Roar
• Cool Boarders 2
• Cool Boarders 3
• International Track & Field
• Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus
• Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
• Pandemonium!
• SimCity 2000
• Syphon Filter 2
• Tomb Raider
• Tomb Raider 2
• Um Jammer Lammy

Thanks, CVG (via Examiner).

The trailer for The Ballad of Gay Tony has been released and is posted following the break.

This new bit of DLC is out on Xbox Live for GTA IV on October 29.

Loads of dancing in a club is shown. Gotta love disco balls and floors that light up.

Only thing missing is John Travolta circa 1977.

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