Items tagged with Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive nearly acquired Codemasters in a deal worth approximately $994 million. In fact, the publisher thought it was a foregone conclusion, having announced in November that it had reached an agreement with the developer of Dirt 5 and other racing sims. But then Electronic Arts swooped in at the final hour with a better offer, announcing today it has reached an agreement to buy Codemasters for an implied enterprise value of $1.2 billion. Cue the State Farm commercial with the elder fisherman dangling a dollar and taunting, "Ooh you almost had it, you gotta be quicker than that." "Electronic Arts and Codemasters have a shared ambition to lead the video game racing category. The Board...
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Ah nuts, Kerbal Space Program 2 will stay grounded this year, and instead will launch sometime in 2022. This adds to a string of delays for various reasons, one of which was attributed to the Coronavirus pandemic. But hey, at least it has not been cancelled (and 2022 is not far away, though it's not clear when exactly next year the game will launch). Kerbal Space Program 2 has a bit of weird history that includes talent poaching and a cancelled contract. It is the sequel to Kerbal Space Program, which launched to PC in 2015, followed by releases to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 a little over a year later. Had things gone to the initial plan for Kerbal Space Program 2, it would have launched...
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In early August, Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two Interactive CEO, attempted to justify why a price hike for games was needed. Now that next-gen console announcements are floating about, Zelnick is elaborating on his stance in a new interview. As technology improves, the game development industry has had to adapt over time to provide a good experience for gamers. As such, the cost of development has likely increased. Similar to his previous statements, “The bottom line is that we haven't seen a front-line price increase for nearly 15 years,” Zelnick said to Protocol. “Production costs have gone up 200 to 300%. But more to the point since no one really cares what your production costs...
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At least one publisher is planning to charge a premium for games released on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X (some of them, anyway), compared to what the same titles will go for on current-gen consoles (Xbox One and PlayStation 4). As such, pricing for NBA 2K21 has been set at $69.99 for the PS5 and Xbox Series X, and $59.99 for current-gen consoles. And according to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick, the price hike is "justified." Whether other publishers follow suit remains to be seen. But for Take-Two Interactive, a $10 bump is a "modest price change" that is perhaps long overdue. "There hasn't been a price increase for frontline titles for a really long time, despite the fact that...
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Take-Two Interactive is definitely not a fan of “Hot Coffee”, and no, we are not talking about your favorite Starbucks order. Take-Two recently demanded that a Red Dead Redemption 2 mod with sexual themes be removed. The Red Dead Redemption 2 mod “Hot Coffee” allows players to have physical intercourse with women in the game. The game already includes some nudity and brief sexual content, however, players themselves are not permitted to engage in it. This Red Dead Redemption 2 mod is inspired by the minigame “Hot Coffee” from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Carl "CJ" Johnson, the main character in GTA: San Andreas, takes one of his girlfriends out...
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Take-Two has a long history of being heavy-handed with projects based on its franchises. The most recent legal battle is with developer Jonathon Wyckoff, who was working on Red Dead Redemption Damned Enhancement Project. The goal of that project was to enhance the graphics and visuals on the original Red Dead Redemption game and to make the game playable on Windows PCs. Take-Two filed a lawsuit against Wyckoff on December 26. While Red Dead Redemption 2 is officially supported on Windows, the original game was only playable on PC using the PlayStation Now streaming service. Wyckoff posted in September that the project was "halted," but he had resumed working on it in November. He announced on...
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It has been nearly six years since the release of Grand Theft Auto V, and fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of the series’ next installment. Rockstar Games has not yet announced Grand Theft Auto VI, but rumors are already flying. The leaks include information about potential content and cloud gaming. The alleged leaks have been pieced together from a variety of websites. Many of the posts have since been deleted. A third-party developer who is reportedly connected to Sony posted several rumors on Pastebin, a text storage site. The developer claimed that GTA 6 will likely be available for the next generation of consoles. Rockstar has purportedly been working alongside Microsoft...
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It's not exactly easy to create a game that players love so much they continue to buy and play for many years after launch. Most games start to fizzle out only a year or so after launch, but Rockstar Games has created a game with serious staying power in Grand Theft Auto V, which launched in 2013. Five years later, the game has hit a significant milestone with 100 million copies shipped to retail. With the "shipped to retail" caveat on the number, actual purchases are likely less as copies are certainly sitting on shelves around the world. Word of the milestone for GTA V came during Take-Two Interactive's recent earnings call where the company announced net revenue growth of 11% compared to the...
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Part of the reason why PC gaming continues to thrive is because of mods. Fans of franchises have proven themselves to be highly creative individuals with a penchant for creating fun mods, but unfortunately it can be a sticky situation when legal red tape is involved. That is the case facing a promising Red Dead Redemption for Grand Theft Auto V. After Take-Two Interactive caught wind of the project, it sent out a cease and desist order and shut things down. "I know this is a hard pill to swallow, but as you may have noticed we did get contacted," a modder who goes by the name Mr. Leisurewear stated on GTAForums.com. "And we sadly have to say we are stopping this project. So thanks guys, we were...
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Labor Day Weekend is upon us, which for many students marks the last few days of freedom before school starts up again. How will you spend them? If you're having trouble answering that question, then here's a heads up that Evolve is playable at no cost this weekend on Xbox One consoles and Windows PCs (check out our gameplay and performance review). You get full access to everything the game has to offer -- four monsters, 18 hunters across four unique classes, five game modes, 19 maps, and the newly released Hunt 2.0, which introduces improvements to the matchmaking, overall user experience, and revamped leaderboards while playing Hunt mode. Publisher 2K Games isn't being stingy with its weekend...
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The Grand Theft Auto franchise is still making Take-Two Interactive bookoo bucks, with the latest installment -- Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) -- having now sold more than 45 million units on console, including 10 million on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game has yet to launch for PC -- it was originally supposed to debut on Windows on January 27, 2015, but was delayed until March 24. Sales of GTA V contributed to $531.1 million in revenue for Take-Two's fiscal third quarter ended December 31, 2014, on a GAAP basis, along with net income of $40.1 million, or $0.42 per diluted share. On a non-GAAP basis, revenue came to $954 million, with net income reaching $211.6 million, or $1.87 per diluted...
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Back in July, Lindsay Lohan filed a lawsuit against Grand Theft Auto V developer Rockstar Games. In her lawsuit, the actress claimed that a GTA V character named Lacey Jonas resembled her in looks and shared a similar voice. Now, Lohan has filed a 67-page complaint, an amended version of the original 10-page complaint, against publisher Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games for using her likeness. The complaint features 45 pages of pictorial evidence that includes a picture of one of the game discs that shows a blonde woman wearing a red bikini and making a peace sign that supposedly bears a resemblance to the actress. The complaint states that the publisher “used a look-a-like model...
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When it comes to lucrative game franchises two of the most well-known ones happen to be Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. Activision publishes the CoD franchise while Take-Two Interactive is responsible for publishing GTA. However, there are rumors floating around that Activision might be trying to purchase Take-Two. Speculation began when a research note from Benchmark analyst Mike Hickey talked about “an emerging romance” between both companies. Hickey said, “For Activision, acquiring Take-Two Interactive would be a no-brainer, in our view, circling some of the strongest development talent and owned IP in the world, within a company that has nearly $1 billion in cash and...
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Let me state right off the bat that I'm primarily a PC gamer. You might not know it if you set foot in my living room, where you'll find an Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii all jockeying for attention in my home theater rack, but outside of sports titles and the occasional party-type game played through the Kinect, I play games on a PC. I bring this up because Grand Theft Auto V isn't yet available for the PC, marking one of the title's few shortcomings in what's otherwise an engaging, open world with a connected storyline that's masterfully woven through the perspective of three playable characters, each with different skill sets and personalities. It's also relevant to understand my...
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Consider Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto franchise a guilty pleasure, and we're willing to admit we're looking forward to the next major installment, Grand Theft Auto V. Unless something went terribly wrong in the design phase, you can expect more in-game violence and blatantly illicit jobs set in the franchise's biggest open world to date, which will task us with running around doing things that we'd never do in real life (for the most part, anyway. As if gamers weren't already looking forward to GTA V's release, Rockstar Games has begun accepting pre-orders and is tossing in extra goodies at each tier. There are three versions to choose from: Standard Edition, Special Edition, and Collector's...
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