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General discussion (archive)"You can never go wrong with zombies"(3 posts)(3 posts)
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Posted February 08, 2011
I'm a bit of a finance geek and this caught my eye. Interesting results for Take Two in their most recent quarter. Earnings per share were up year over year by about 4%, yet gross revenue was down by 7%. The article doesn't get into the specifics, but I'd like to know what cost cutting measures they employed to increase margins on declining revenue. Marketing? Development? Anyway, if I was a potential investor, I wouldn't be too enthusiastic (but neither would I be too pessimistic).

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/take-two-earnings-climb-on-strong-holiday-sales-2011-02-08?dist=afterbell
Posted February 08, 2011
If it were my job to bitch about stuff at random, I'd bitch about how gaming journalism isn't taken very seriously, and why it isn't is because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Gaming is a HUGE freaking industry worth billions, but the detail in stories about the business of gaming is typically too sparse to be terribly useful.

That said, the companies (all companies in all industries) are far more tight lipped about details than they used to be years ago. But I agree that the question is an interesting one and I'd like to know more too.

I imagine a lot of the reason is found in the bit given about back-catalog sales. Big numbers on titles that are beyond development are pure profit. They aren't spending on patching old GTA titles (or even the current one, frankly) and support costs are probably at low levels now compared to when they were released.
Posted February 09, 2011
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HoneyBakedHam: If it were my job to bitch about stuff at random, I'd bitch about how gaming journalism isn't taken very seriously, and why it isn't is because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Gaming is a HUGE freaking industry worth billions, but the detail in stories about the business of gaming is typically too sparse to be terribly useful.

That said, the companies (all companies in all industries) are far more tight lipped about details than they used to be years ago. But I agree that the question is an interesting one and I'd like to know more too.

I imagine a lot of the reason is found in the bit given about back-catalog sales. Big numbers on titles that are beyond development are pure profit. They aren't spending on patching old GTA titles (or even the current one, frankly) and support costs are probably at low levels now compared to when they were released.
Great points, HBH. If I were a shareholder in Take Two, I'd like to know what they plan to do to address the decline in revenues first and foremost. Gaming is a hyper-competitive industry. And while back catalogue sales are pure profit, they reach a saturation point. I think of it analgously to Big Pharma. Sure, your current products are selling, but what's in the pipeline? According to the story, there's no timeline on the latest iteration of GTA, so what's going to reverse the decline?
Post edited February 09, 2011 by HomerSimpson
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