Following the October video game sales data, further information courtesy of Wedbush Morgan Securities shows that Take-Two was the only major publisher to show real growth in October. While EA's revenues were down 19%, Activision Blizzard's were down 43% and Ubisoft's were down 55%, Take-Two actually grew sales 73% for the month (and 554% sequentially).
And while Take-Two is often criticized for being heavily dependent upon Grand Theft Auto, it wasn't GTA that saved the publisher's bacon this time. NBA 2K10 sold 575,000 units in October (up 60% year-over-year) and outsold EA's NBA Live 10, by more than four-to-one, according to Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz [thanks Gamasutra] Creutz said that NBA 2K10 could sell 1.8 million units this year.
Additionally, Borderlands took some by surprise, selling 545,000 units across its SKUs, and Creutz has raised his forecast for the game, expecting it can sell 1.4 million units in its first year. Indeed, DFC Intelligence recently said that Borderlands "could finally be the new franchise Take-Two needs to go beyond Grand Theft Auto."
GTA: Episodes From Liberty City (the compilation disc of both downloadable GTA IV episodes) was only on sale at retail for three days in October and sold 57,000 units.
Creutz said Take-Two's October results "are an example of how publishers can succeed despite a difficult industry environment."
