Tue, Jul 31, 2012 | 22:05 BST

Take-Two Q1 – GTA 5 TBA, making “substantial progress”

Grand Theft Auto V has remained a steadfast “TBA” in Take-Two’s Q1 2013 financial release today, but the publisher assured the game is making “substantial progress”.

Take-Two Q1 – at a glance

Grand Theft Auto V is “in full development and showing substantial progress,” but remained as TBA on the company’s slate.

Zelnick on whether or not GTA V will release this year: “We haven’t talked about a release date, so we can’t talk about the credibility of a release date we haven’t announced.”

Max Payne 3 has “sold-in” more than 3 million units.

Max Payne 3 and Spec Ops: The Line were blamed for below expectations results.

Losses were up to $110.8 million from $8.6 million a year ago.

Take-Two said in its first quarter financial call today that Grand Theft Auto V is “in full development and showing substantial progress,” but didn’t issue any other information on the game. The next in core’s greatest franchise remained TBA in terms of both date and platform.

Company head Strauss Zelnick refused to be drawn on a direct question as to whether or not GTA V will release this year: “We haven’t talked about a release date, so we can’t talk about the credibility of a release date we haven’t announced.”

Zelnick was similarly tight-mouthed on Agent: “We haven’t announced anything about the title yet.”

The publishers numbers were also disappointing. Net revenue for the quarter was was $226.1 million, down from $334.4 million in the same period last year. Take-Two recorded a $110.8 million loss for the period, widened from $8.6 million in Q1 2012.

Executives blamed the slow figures on low sales of both Spec Ops: The Line and Max Payne 3.

Max Payne 3 has now sold-in more than 3 million units to date. New DLC will extend into the autumn.

Looking forward into the rest of the year was more positive, however. Borderlands 2 pre-orders are currently the third highest in Take-Two’s history, behind only GTA IV and GTA San Andreas. The RPG-shooter sequel will release in September.

Catalog sales grew 50% year-over-year and accounted for 26% of net revenue. Revenue from digitally delivered content grew 33% year-over-year and accounted for 14% of net revenue, driven by offerings for the Sid Meier’s Civilization franchise, the Grand Theft Auto franchise, the Max Payne franchise, NBA 2K12, and Red Dead Redemption.

Publisher boss Strauss Zelnick opened the investor call by calling the results “below expectation”.

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27 comment-trail-alt Posted in: take-two financials
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27 comments

#1

Edo
31/07/12, 9:35 pm

It’s not coming out this year,deal with it people.

#2

Moonwalker1982
31/07/12, 9:38 pm

I wasn’t expecting this anyway, it just sucks to keep seeing it being TBA. A expected release window would make me really happy, all this uncertainty fucking sucks. According to folks on this forum

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showforum=239

The predictions haven’t changed much, which should mean the game is coming out before March 2013. But i have no idea.

#3

SlayerGT
31/07/12, 9:44 pm

Fiscal year 2014?

EDIT: oh nvm that’s xcom

#4

Maximum Payne
31/07/12, 9:45 pm

Game like Spec Ops have really great ideas but its destroyed by ”consoles”. Game would be really amazing if it Dubai was open world like Stalker or Fallout.Whole finding civilians would give new meaning.Sand element and sand storm would come randomly a la Stalker …

#5

HeavyD-Love
31/07/12, 9:45 pm

GTAV. One of the final blockbusters for this generation…..I hope.

#6

Patrick Garratt
31/07/12, 9:45 pm

I reckon, yeah. I’ve added an image of their upcoming slate there.

#7

Erthazus
31/07/12, 9:46 pm

something tells me GTA V is for Xbox 360/PS3 and next gen consoles + PC.

GTA V would benefit from next generation because it will be not a horrible experience with horrible frame rates.
Maybe with next gen systems you will play it in 60 frames per second with good visuals.

#8

Patrick Garratt
31/07/12, 9:57 pm

It’ll be cross-platform. Both current and next gen.

#9

Patrick Garratt
31/07/12, 10:02 pm

Added a Zelnick quote on the GTA V date there: “We haven’t talked about a release date, so we can’t talk about the credibility of a release date we haven’t announced.”

#10

Maximum Payne
31/07/12, 10:06 pm

@7,8 That is also rumor for Modern Warfare 4.

#11

Fin
31/07/12, 10:06 pm

Can’t really see Rockstar having the resources to make V for five platforms (360, PS3, NGx2, PC).

Still think it’ll be this-gen, round April-May.

#12

Erthazus
31/07/12, 10:10 pm

Yeah, if someone really wants to play GTA V i suggest to buy next gen console or PC for sure because current gen consoles are just can’t do the work right with sandbox games and especially something huge as GTA V.

#13

Patrick Garratt
31/07/12, 10:11 pm

I reckon it’s next gen. Those games have a massive tail, so they won’t want to chop it off with new machines coming out. I this is has to be on everything.

#14

Razor
31/07/12, 10:26 pm

“Zelnick was similarly tight-mouthed on Agent: “We haven’t announced anything about the title yet.”

… and probably never will :D

#15

Moonwalker1982
31/07/12, 10:49 pm

Guys don’t forget the possibility that GTA V’s development is probably coming along nicely but they just don’t want to give an expected releasedate before they are 100% sure of it. They don’t want to delay this one and announce that.

Aaaaaaaaand what i find odd…

TakeTwo still expect 55% of their earnings from R*

#16

AHA-Lambda
31/07/12, 11:14 pm

So Max Payne 3 was a disappointment for T2? Called it.

Don’t worry T2, it was a big disappointment for me too ;)

#17

DSB
31/07/12, 11:19 pm

I don’t regret playing it, but Max Payne 3 felt like a hijack to me.

They just took Max Payne and put him in a typical Houser story. The tech was great as always, but with (at least) 3 hours of cutscenes in a 10 hour game, I’m kinda glad that more people didn’t buy the hype.

It was Houser-meets-Kojima. Not much of the Remedy touch left.

#18

NocturnalB
31/07/12, 11:36 pm

I full expect to see GTA V on next gen consoles, my only hope is that it’s on a newer engine. I can’t wait to start seeing stuff running on things like UE4 and PhysX (think someone mentioned that in another thread).

Don’t get me wrong i don’t have to have top end graphics to get my kicks i’m a gameplay > graphics guy, but still it gets me excited.

#19

AHA-Lambda
31/07/12, 11:39 pm

So GTA5 is still TBA? I’m getting more nervous about it even being May 2013 now =/

#20

OrbitMonkey
31/07/12, 11:54 pm

GTA, A parody that now takes itself seriously. Yawn.

#21

NocturnalB
31/07/12, 11:57 pm

@20 Have you seen the amount of cock jokes in GTA IV??? Hey Patrick i just answered the cock trolls question! Ha!

#22

monkeygourmet
01/08/12, 12:00 am

I would hope these kind of games get a boost on next gen consoles as previous posters have mentioned.

For MS in particular… Imagine a launch of 720:

GTA 5 (special edition)
MW4 (again optimised)
Watch Dogs
Ryse (or whatever that comes out as)
New Bungie IP
Red Dead Redemption 2
Fable (of some description)
Forza 5
Etc…
Etc….

Now… Not all of this will happen, but I believe, a big selling point of the new Xbox / ps3 would be the enhancement of a few core titles…

#23

Erthazus
01/08/12, 12:02 am

@22, i won’t buy that for console because i have a good rig, but i definitely see the appeal.

console gamers should stop playing shit in current gen that is 7 years old. It’s time to move on and it’s time for console gamers to have something better for 60$

Because paying 60$ for a game that can barely do 30 frames per second is just stealing.

#24

drewbles82
01/08/12, 12:50 am

If both this gen and next gen. I can see maybe MS doing a big deal with them for DLC again. E3 next year they would probably announce it.

#25

Moonwalker1982
01/08/12, 1:00 am

Something is going on folks, i can feel it.

TakeTwo said they expect 55% of 1.8 billion from R* before March 2013!!!!

HOW? seriously….how? All they have left now is some Max Payne 3 DLC. And it hasn’t been reported on VG247 yet, but Rockstar today announced that the 5 previously planned DLCs for Max Payne 3 have now become 3 DLC packs. It’s clear that they realize MP3 wasn’t a smash hit succes and DLC’s really won’t be able to make those numbers. What else besides GTA V can? Also…during this call Zelnick said something about unnannounced titles. Now GTA IS not unannounced, but it’s releasedate is. It’s interesting…if anything.

Oh someone worded it much better and more detailed than me:

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=519029&view=findpost&p=1061535963

#26

TD_Monstrous69
01/08/12, 1:45 am

The more and more I keep seeing TBA for both release window and platforms, the more I can’t help but wonder if GTA V is even coming for this current generation of platforms. Though hearing it’s made susbstantial progress, and the fact that Take Two’s finincial forecast expect a big profit coming from Rockstar Games in the later quarters can’t help but make me think otherwise (barring a huge reveal from Agent, or a RDR sequel).

#27

Moonwalker1982
01/08/12, 5:02 am

Something very interesting has been found. The website for The Epsilon program has been updated. GTA fans know what that is. The website has been updated with a mention of how you can follow them on Twitter now. If you go to the Twitter and you check out some followers, you will see some curious names. Someone called BoneCounty and so on…Bone County is a real place but also in San Andreas.

Could it be the start of GTA V marketing? It’s rather damn interesting!

https://twitter.com/EpsilonismToday

The website on there is Rockstar’s own website for The Epsilon Program.

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