Take-Two financials: XCOM slips to FY14, Max ships 3M

Take-Two has released its results for Q4 and year end 2012, announcing Max Payne 3 has sold-in nearly 3 million units,  as well as a delay into FY14 for the XCOM shooter reboot.

Max Payne 3 sold-in approximately 3 million units during its initial launch on consoles, according to the firm, which also reiterated the June 1 release of the game on PC.  Max 3 is expected to be one of the most "significant" releases of FY13, and the firm also touched upon the DLC line-up for the game, which continues into the fall.

The XCOM shooter reboot, which is in development at 2K Marin, has been delayed into FY14, according to T2. Announced in 2010, the title was slated for release in 2011 before being delayed into 2012 prior to today's announcement.

NBA 2K12 was the highest rated title in the history of 2K Sports with an average Metacritic score of 90 and for the second year in a row, sold-in over 5 million units.

The BioShock franchise has sold-in over 9.5 million units to date, and Borderlands has sold-in 6 million copies.

The firm reiterated that GTA V is in full development, but would not be drawn on a release date by investors.

For the year ending March 31, 2012, net revenue was $825.8 million, compared to $1,136.9 million for the same period the prior year. Losses came in at $107.7 million, compared to $53.8 million in losses the prior year.

The strongest contributors to revenue in FY12 were: L.A. Noire, NBA 2K12, the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Duke Nukem Forever and Red Dead Redemption.

Digitally delivered content accounted for 13% of net revenue, compared with 9% in FY11, and was primarily driven by the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Red Dead Redemption, the Civilization franchise, Borderlands and L.A. Noire.

For Q4 net revenue was $148.1 million compared to $182.3 million year-over-year, which benefited from the post-launch performance of Red Dead Redemption.

Q4 losses came in at $66 million, compared to $22.4 million for the same period the year prior.

The strongest contributors to net revenue in Q4 were new releases including: NBA 2K12, MLB 2K12 and The Darkness II, as well as catalog sales led by the Grand Theft Auto franchise and Red Dead Redemption.

Digitally content accounted for 19% of revenue, compared to 15% in Q4 2011, which was driven by offerings from the Grand Theft Auto franchise, the Civilization franchise, Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands, NBA 2K12 and L.A. Noire.

"Fiscal 2012 was a year of creative, operational and strategic achievement by our Company," said CEO and chairman Strauss Zelnick. "We delivered groundbreaking titles, including L.A. Noire and NBA 2K12, which set new standards for excellence; grew our revenue from digitally delivered content and mobile offerings; made substantial progress on our online gaming initiatives; and bolstered our already strong liquidity through a convertible notes offering.

"While our financial results were disappointing, the decisions we made position Take-Two for growth and profitability both this year and over the long-term.

"Fiscal 2013 kicked off with the successful launch of Max Payne 3, which received outstanding reviews and promises to be another hit for Rockstar Games. We have a fantastic lineup of upcoming releases for the balance of the year and the strongest development pipeline in the company's history."

During the call to investors, Zelnick said he expects Take-Two to be "at the front of the line," with next-gen releases, but wouldn't comment on hardware as such information is up to the console developers.

The firm's strategy, he said, is to release strong games when they are ready. When the transition occurs it will be "challenging" for all development and publishing firms, and while T2 is being "thoughtful about the future," there's a lot of opportunity to create new IP and expand on current franchises with next-gen as long as the content is fresh, added COO Karl Slatoff.

"Our mission is to serve consumers where they want and how they want it," he said.

Take-Two is also bullish on tablets, and think the tech makes for a great platform. That being said, there's still plenty of work to be done on the business model without counting out the consoles.

Consoles owe success to being much better platforms than PC, said Zelnick, with the later a much better platform than it was previously, due to the release of better processors. When the processing power is there for tablets, the consumer "will see much better games," but only once the business model is streamlined, he said.

Reiterating its upcoming line-up, the firm torched upon the following release dates:

• XCOM: Enemy Unknown - October 9 in North America and October 12 internationally.
• BioShock Infinite is now planned for launch on February 26, 2013.
• Borderlands 2 - September 18 in North America and September 21 internationally.
• Spec Ops: The Line - June 26 in North America and June 29 internationally.
• Sid Meiers Civilization V: Gods & Kings - June 19 in North America and June 22 internationally.
• XCOM - releases during fiscal year 2014.
• NBA 2K13 - October 2012
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown - October 2012

For fiscal year 2013, the firm expects revenues for Q1, ending June 30, 2012, to hit between $225 to $275 million, and $1.75 to $1.85 billion in revenue for the full year, ending March 31, 2013.