None
Take Two Interactive revealed their third quarter earnings earlier this week, posting an almost unbelievable leap from $94.9 million for third quarter 2009 to $354.1 million for the same period this year. What’s even more impressive is that they did this without the presence of Grand Theft Auto. That being said, we might not have to go without their flagship franchise this year, as some healthy speculation this week is indicating. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes the next Grand Theft Auto will be out before the end of January 2012. The reason behind this speculation, says Pachter, is tied to Take Two’s contract with some integral staff members at Rockstar North expiring.  “It seems rational to us that Take-Two management would have entered into the three-year contract only if there was some required delivery of GTA,” Pachter says. “Equally, it makes sense that the three key employees would be motivated to deliver a GTA title before the expiration of their contract, in order to gain negotiating leverage for the next contract.” Also lending to the idea that we can expect a new GTA this year is the fact that Max Payne 3 is no longer appearing on the company’s ‘upcoming release’ listings, which, Pachter says, leads him to believe that some of the members of the development team may have been pulled to help wrap up the development of GTA V. Whatever happens, it’ll be interesting to see how Take Two follows up on Red Dead Redemption’s success. |