Tag Archives: Ben Feder

Take Two’s announced Ben Feder will stand down as CEO of the publisher, effective as of January 1, 2011.

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Take-Two CEO Ben Feder told attendees at the G7 Think Equity conference last week the used game market is “interesting” and something developers should take part in.

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Take Two CEO Ben Feder has told attendees at an investors event that Wii HD exists today in the form of PS3 and Move.

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Take-Two said last night it expects Mafia II to be a “profitable title”.

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Take-Two CEO Ben Feder has admitted that BioShock 2 wasn’t the smash it should have been.

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Natal and Move? They’re so last year. 3D is the new black at E3 this year.

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Grand Theft Auto is great, sure. Outside of the Daily Mail lot, everyone loves it. But Take Two wants you to see it more than just as “the ‘GTA’ company”.

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Take-Two’s just said that three members of its Board are to be replaced at shareholders’ requests, including CEO Ben Feder.

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Grand Theft Auto titles do not need to be annualized said Take-Two during its Q4 fiscal call to investors.

According to Take-Two, GTA is a strong enough franchise that it does not need a new release annually, especially with the completion of the GTA IV story through DLC proving to remain profitable.

Guess GTA V will be landing sometime in 2011, then.

The call is ongoing, we’re listening, and will update you if anything interesting happens.

Borderlands’ expected to become a “key franchise” for Take-Two, according to both big bossman Strauss Zelnick and CEO Ben Feder.

This bit was cemented by the game’s “successful launch”.

So, it looks like there is more Borderlands in our future.

The call is ongoing, we’ll let you know if there is anything else you should be aware of.

Not only is LA Noire not dead, but it’s also “innovative”. Take-Two CEO Ben Feder said so in the publisher’s Q3 earnings call last night.

“It’s in development,” he said in response to a direct question on the game’s status from Janco’s Mike Hickey.

“Nothing to announce today. When we have more to announce we will announce it. We’re continuing to develop it. We think it’s pretty exciting and innovative, and when we have more to share we’ll share it.”

Interestingly, when Hickey asked if Rockstar San Diego was working on the game, Feder emphatically answered:

“It’s handled by Rockstar.”

Wasn’t Rockstar’s Australian team doing this?

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.

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.

While BioShock 2′s delay into fiscal 2010 quite rightly dominated last night’s confessional press release and subsequent conference call from Take-Two, you may not have noticed that it wasn’t the only big game to take a tumble.

Max Payne 3 has also been pushed into the next financial year, having been originally planned for a “winter” 2009 release.

Said CEO Ben Feder:

“The decision to shift a release date is never an easy one, especially with a product as highly anticipated as BioShock 2. We felt that it was essential to invest the additional time to ensure that this title will deliver what its fans expect and deserve.

“As a result, we will now be launching sequels to several of our strongest franchises – including BioShock 2, Mafia II, Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption – during the next fiscal year. These titles will anchor our lineup for fiscal 2010, and along with other products planned for next year, provide a platform for enhanced financial performance in what we hope will be an improved retail environment.”

Whoops.

Agent, the PS3 “exclusive” Take-Two announced in Sony’s press conference at E3, is set in the 70s, Take-Two boss Ben Feder’s told EG.

“It’s a completely different storyline, there is completely different character development,” the exec said of the title’s similarities to GTA.

“It’s a game about espionage, set in the 1970s. GTA is obviously more about an urban experience, a typically rags to riches experience. Very, very different storylines, very different character development. It’s going to be very fresh for gamers.”

Feder refused to flesh out what the firm meant by the term “exclusive” in regards to Agent.

“These are all relationship matters and contractual matters,” he said. “When we talk about our relationships and our exclusivity for PS3 and Agent, for example, we don’t disclose anything beyond what we’ve already said.

“But we think it’s important for us to be with Sony, and it’s important for Sony, I think, to be with us. The game promises to be one of the best games available because of who’s developing it, and because of the subject matter.”

Interview through the link.

Take-Two boss Ben Feder has explained the reasoning at announcing Agent as a PS3 exclusive at E3, citing timed GTA PS2 exclusives as examples of how the strategy can work for a franchise.

“The trade-offs a publisher will typically make is, if you’re platform-agnostic, you get a larger installed base,” he said, speaking to Gamespot on the E3 showfloor. “You’re platform exclusive when you get the right kind of support from first parties.”

Feder said he believed Sony will offer the same kind of support that made GTAIII, Vice City, and San Andreas – all initially PlayStation 2 exclusives – three of the top 10 selling games of all time.

Said Feder, “At this phase in the cycle, when you’re trying to launch a new franchise, exclusivity can really help you launch the franchise. It can give you the kind of platform that you need to start exclusive, start in the right kind of way with the right kind of partner. Exclusivity does work.”

Full thing through there.

Ever wonder what game industry CEOs make in a year?  It’s loads more than any of us, we guarantee.

According to The Game Trade Journal, between bonuses, stock options and incentives, the following CEOs are paid the most according to proxy statements filed with the SEC.

• Activision – Bobby Kotick: $14.9 Million; Base pay is $899,560 plus $5 million in bonuses last year with $3 million in incentives with $5.9 million of that in exercised stock options. Before the Vivendi merger, his grand total for the year was $2.8 million. (Activision lost $107 million in 2008)

• Electronic Arts – John Riccitiello: $5 Million; Base is $750,000, $3.6 million in stock options, $625,350 in incentives. (EA posted a loss of $641 million in Q4)

• THQ – Brian Farrell: $2.7 million; Base pay was $600,000 lower than 2007 which last year amounted to $651,087 and $1.4 million in option awards (THQ posed a $192 million loss for Q3)

• GameStop – Dan DeMatteo: $4.9 million; Expected to get a $2.4 million bonus this year.

• Midway -Matt Booty: $387,584; That figure is since October 2008. The previous CEO, David Zucker took in $1.5 million.

• Majesco – Jesse Sutton: $943,847; Base pay of $356,073 and a bonus almost equal that amount (Majesco’s net was $3.4 million last year)

• Take Two – Ben Feder: $1; Take-Two paid him $1 last year excluding health benefits because his check comes from Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick. (Take-Two reported a profit of $97 million last year)

Thanks, Evil Avatar

Speaking in an earnings call following the release of full-year financials last night, Take-Two CEO Ben Feder said the firm was taking a harder look as which mature games could be brought to Wii.

“We believe we’ll continue to benefit from the growing install base of the Nintendo Wii,” said Feder. “Our relationship with Nintendo has never been stronger,” he added, calling it a “great foundation on which to build.”

“Even some of the M-rated content that we think is much more appropriate for the [Xbox] 360 or the PS3… we have to look at the Wii as a viable platform, because we can’t ignore that install base,” Feder said. “We just can’t.”

Wii’s Carnival Games was picked out as a hot title the company in 2008.

More on Gamasutra.

Speaking in an earnings call following the release of Q3 financials last night, Take-Two CEO Ben Feder said that old GTA titles have sold in seven figure units for the quarter.

“More than one million units of previous GTA titles were sold in the third quarter of fiscal 2008 alone,” said the exec.

“Based on GTA IV sales to date… we believe the lifetime Grand Theft Auto sales will ultimately track well ahead of any previous Grand Theft Auto titles.”

GTA IV, the publisher confirmed last night, has now sold more than 10 million units, and it to be pushed through the Christmas season by a new Rockstar PR and marketing campaign.

Read all the rest of our news from the financial release here.

In Take-Two’s third-quarter earnings call last night, CEO Ben Feder said that Rockstar is planning a new Christmas push for GTA IV.

“Rockstar is launching a new marketing and PR campaign which will start in the fall and extend into the Holiday season,” said the exec.

“Also as a must-have game for all fans of interactive entertainment, GTA IV we believe should receive a boost from the ramp up in hardware sales during the upcoming Holiday season.”

Feder said that Take-Two’s partner support for the game will extend through to 2009.

“In addition our hardware partners continue to be excited about the title and are planning to support GTA IV in a major way through early next year,” he added.

“The Japanese version of Grand Theft Auto IV is set for release on October 30th and the PC version is due out in November, both of which will open new chapters in the phenomenal performance of the game.”

Chairman Strauss Zelnick said he believed Christmas would be kind to the game.

“We’re comfortable where our inventory levels are and we’re comfortable that going into the fall and Holiday season that sales of GTA IV will pick up,” he said.

Take-Two confirmed last night that total sales of the action smash have moved through the 10 million unit mark.

Read all our news from the financial release here.