Take-Two Interactive today reported its first quarter fiscal results for the period ended January 31. Sales grew from $149.4 million a year earlier to $163.2 million for the quarter, while net loss was narrowed from $53.8 million to $33.8 million. Sales were driven by Borderlands, NBA 2K10, Grand Theft Auto IV,Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City and Carnival Games.
Take-Two also confirmed previous reports of corporate restructuring at the company. The Jack of All Games distribution business was sold to SYNNEX Corp. on February 26 as part of a transaction "valued at approximately $44 million, including $37.5 million in cash at closing and up to an additional $6.75 million in deferred payments subject to the achievement of certain objectives after the close of the transaction."
Moreover, the publisher's "targeted restructuring of its corporate departments in order to align resources more closely with its current goals" has resulted in a 15% reduction in corporate headcount; this will lead to approximately $8 million in savings in fiscal 2010, and $15 million on an annualized basis, the company said.
In terms of game sales, Take-Two said that BioShock 2 has now shipped 3 million copies and the franchise as a whole is now up to 7 million sold. Additionally, NBA 2K10 has shipped over 2 million units, the Carnival Games franchise on Wii and DS has sold over 6 million units, and GTA IV has now surpassed 15 million copies sold worldwide.
Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two, commented, "We are pleased to begin this fiscal year with better than expected results that reflect our ability to produce compelling titles and to enhance the potential of our franchises through downloadable content and digital offerings. We've also taken important steps to improve the efficiency of our business and align our corporate cost structure more closely with our current goals. Our updated outlook for 2010 underscores a prudent approach toward what we still believe to be a challenging year ahead. We remain committed to creating long term value, and continuing to improve upon our execution and efficiency."
Ben Feder, Chief Executive Officer of Take-Two, added, "Our first quarter performance was driven by the market dominance of NBA 2K10, successful launch of Borderlands, growth of our digital business and continued strength of our catalog titles. We are building upon this success with the global launch of BioShock 2, and have a strong line up of triple-A titles from our diverse portfolio of proven brands planned for release this fiscal year. Take-Two has been strengthened through our cost savings initiatives and the sale of Jack of All Games, which allows us to focus our resources solely on our core business. We will continue to evaluate our cost structure for additional savings, and work to maximize the value of our intellectual property by selectively engaging in strategic opportunities in emerging markets and new platforms."
Update: We forgot to mention that as part of the fiscal announcement, Take-Two shifted the release of Rockstar's next game Red Dead Redemption from April to mid-May. The game is now slated for launch in North America on May 18, which better aligns it with the unchanged European release on May 21. "We shifted the launch of the game by several weeks into the third quarter. We believe this is the optimal time frame to release what is being hailed as the next generation of sandbox games," said Feder.
Update 2: We also overlooked this line in the announcement: "L.A. Noire, Mafia II, Max Payne 3 and Sid Meier's Civilization V are all planned for release in the fourth fiscal quarter; however, the Company's fiscal year 2010 guidance reflects the potential movement of one of these titles into fiscal 2011." So that's nice and vague - one of those big properties just might get pushed back and nobody knows which one.
