Take-Two gets US$ 50 million from Microsoft for GTA IV DLC exclusivity

A little while back, Take-Two Interactive made their Q2 fiscal year 2007 financial performance public, with much of the results hinting that all was not well with the company. Noting a huge sales drop of US$ 60 million, Take-Two also claimed that they were readying to undergo restructuring to make sure that they’re production and development grew to financially disciplined proportions.

 

A conference call was made just for Take-Two’s financial report, and in that same conference Take-Two hinted that Grand Theft Auto IV was going episodic across all platforms – or so it seemed. Unfortunately, GTA4.net’s optimism on the matter didn’t pay off, as the episodic content was clearly only for Microsoft‘s Xbox 360.

Now here’s a real kicker: Xboxic recently dived headfirst into the official transcript of the conference call, and it appeared that Take-Two was offered a huge wad of cash for the Xbox 360 content – more specifically the episodic content to come in the next year.

Or so you can conclude from the given statement by analyst Evan Wilson of Pacific Crest Securities, which, excerpted would read “it relates to the deferred revenue chunk associated with the episodic content on X-Box 360.” The deferred chunk value that Wilson mentioned points to two basic figures: 25 million as “current” and 50 million accrued as the next period passes.

Now the deferred amount, according to Take-Two’s newly appointed chief financial officer Lainie Goldstein, is split half-way because US$ 25 million is stowed away for the first of the episodes, which should hit the Microsoft next-gen console by March 2008 – well within the company’s fiscal year of 2007. The second episode costs just as much, although should be released “later in fiscal ’08.”

Via Xboxic

A little while back, Take-Two Interactive made their Q2 fiscal year 2007 financial performance public, with much of the results hinting that all was not well with the company. Noting a huge sales drop of US$ 60 million, Take-Two also claimed that they were readying to undergo restructuring to make sure that they’re production and development grew to financially disciplined proportions.

 

A conference call was made just for Take-Two’s financial report, and in that same conference Take-Two hinted that Grand Theft Auto IV was going episodic across all platforms – or so it seemed. Unfortunately, GTA4.net’s optimism on the matter didn’t pay off, as the episodic content was clearly only for Microsoft‘s Xbox 360.

Now here’s a real kicker: Xboxic recently dived headfirst into the official transcript of the conference call, and it appeared that Take-Two was offered a huge wad of cash for the Xbox 360 content – more specifically the episodic content to come in the next year.

Or so you can conclude from the given statement by analyst Evan Wilson of Pacific Crest Securities, which, excerpted would read “it relates to the deferred revenue chunk associated with the episodic content on X-Box 360.” The deferred chunk value that Wilson mentioned points to two basic figures: 25 million as “current” and 50 million accrued as the next period passes.

Now the deferred amount, according to Take-Two’s newly appointed chief financial officer Lainie Goldstein, is split half-way because US$ 25 million is stowed away for the first of the episodes, which should hit the Microsoft next-gen console by March 2008 – well within the company’s fiscal year of 2007. The second episode costs just as much, although should be released “later in fiscal ’08.”

Via Xboxic