Borderlands keeps Take-Two afloat

By Robert Purchese Published 18 December, 2009

Publisher focuses on a strong 2010.

Take-Two's financial results for fiscal 2009 are out and numbers are down, despite a sterling performance by Gearbox's new IP Borderlands, which passed 2m sales worldwide.

Revenues tumbled 37 per cent to $968m, although Take-Two had expected a weaker cash-flow after delaying key titles like Mafia II. Next year, however, Take-Two will hit back with Mafia II, BioShock II, Red Dead: Redemption and Max Payne 3.

Also, financial 2009 was always going to compare badly to 2008, the year in which Grand Theft Auto IV was released and broke sales records (before Modern Warfare 2 recently smashed those).

Other key sellers for Take-Two this year were Carnival Games with 5m sales, Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony and the GTAIV DLC double-pack, Episodes from Liberty City.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • shamblemonkee #1 2 years ago

    Borderlands sales are well deserved, excellent fun.

  • penhalion #2 2 years ago

    No sympathy for take two. For a long while now they have been relying on GTA to keep them afloat. Without it or when it finally stops being the big seller it currently is, they are stuffed. You simply can't be a one trick pony in this industry.

  • sarcasmoidosis #3 2 years ago

    Bioshock2, Mafia 2 and maybe Borderlands 2 = one trick pony?

  • mega7ech #4 2 years ago

    Was undecided on Borderlands upon release but have heard many good comments about it so may pick this up over christmas..

  • homerramone #5 2 years ago

    Bioshock2, Mafia 2 and maybe Borderlands 2 = one trick pony?
    theres 3 titles there - dont that make it a 3 trick pony at the very least :-)

  • davisorle #6 2 years ago

    "Next year, however, Take-Two will hit back with Mafia II, BioShock II, Red Dead: Redemption and Max Payne 3'

    We already have seen how awesome the first 3 titles are going to be, including the recent amazing video of Red Dead which surprised me by far more than anything cause it was too unexpected to look that perfect. The only thing we havent seen so far is Max Payne 3 except a couple of screenshots and those are scaringly showing that the franchise took a wrong turn.

  • gav_and_the_gavster #7 2 years ago

    Yeah, I'll join in the Borderlands praising I think, I also enjoyed it very much. Started out hating pistols but got an armour eroding beast of a pistol late in the game that became my weapon of choice and saved me no end. Called it "Petey".

  • Murton #8 2 years ago

    I think you'll find that you can very much be a one trick pony in this industry. Every single Activision game this year with the exception of Modern Warfare 2 has failed to meet sales expectations, the biggest offenders being Tony Hawk: RIDE and DJ Hero, 100 quid games with peripherals that can't be used with anything else, yet they're possibly the most successful publisher of 2009.

    It's been a quiet year for Take 2 and for their sales figures to be turned around almost solely because of a new IP that they deemed as "risky" makes it all the better, Take 2 at the very least may find themselves a little more open to new IPs in the future in an industry that is pretty much dominated by annually released stale franchises.

  • Tehren #9 2 years ago

    Enjoying Borderlands, getting more mileage than your average FPS out of it.

    Might tear myself away from Mass Effect for some decent shooting action.

  • Vixremento #10 2 years ago

    $968m. Shame.

    Anyway I'm pretty sure they've made provisions with the next GTA too...maybe not next year but in 2012?
    I'd think other options are open to them to with some of their own additional addons to GTA IV - how much money did the microsoft sponsored episodes rake in and how much more could they rake in if they created new episodes that were for all three platforms instead of just the 360?

    Looking forward to Mafia 2 and Bioshock 2 though!

  • brommers #11 2 years ago

    Borderlands. Now there's a game that took me completely by surprise. I grabbed it on the off chance and to be honest, my game of 2009. In this day and age where new IP's are deemed 'risky' it's good to see the few getting good sales.

  • Darkjinxter #12 2 years ago

    Borderlands FTW

  • penhalion #13 2 years ago

    @sarcasmoidosis

    Love the defensive line-up of Borderlands, Bioshock 2 and Mafia 2. The problem is that Take two were expecting the GTA episodes to sail into the high millions and they simply didn't. It's that word of mouth thing again. People have simply stopped trusting reviews and so didn't rush to get gay tony or lost and damned. The other titles you mention aside from borderlands aren't even out yet so aren't actually making take 2 any money at all.

    The fact remains that they thought the sales from GTA4 would be enough to keep the company going strong regardless of anything else they released and that proved to simply be a short sighted myth.

  • Les #14 2 years ago

    "The problem is that Take two were expecting the GTA episodes to sail into the high millions and they simply didn't."

    True, the episodic content failed to meet expectations. Whether that's the case because GTAIV just sucks or because there simply isn't that big a market (yet) for DLC is difficult to tell.

  • Murton #15 2 years ago

    Doesn't matter to Rockstar or Take2 how the GTA expansions went because they were paid a nominal fee of 50 million USD for the exclusivity before whatever percentage of the takings from the game they actually got to keep, even if MS pocketed all sales income that content didn't cost anywhere near 50 million to produce so they've made their money already.

    It was hinted at some time ago that once the 360 exclusive expansions for GTA were released there would be a multi-platform release but given the delays and not as good as expected reception of them they might be wary to bring out additional expansions. How many PS3 and PC users still play GTA4 and are they likely to buy DLC next year if it's offered? I'd think the vast majority of them will likely have moved on by now.

  • Les #16 2 years ago

    "Doesn't matter to Rockstar or Take2 how the GTA expansions went because they were paid a nominal fee of 50 million USD for the exclusivity before whatever percentage of the takings from the game they actually got to keep, even if MS pocketed all sales income that content didn't cost anywhere near 50 million to produce so they've made their money already."

    It matters because: a) they had expected to earn more than they actually did, so 50 million dollars or not, it's still disappointing for them and their investors; b) this can (and probably will) hurt future DLC deals, thus reducing the long-term earnings expectations for Take Two

  • dahsif #17 2 years ago

    Carnival Games sold WHAT?

  • bratmandu #18 2 years ago

    Think I lost the beat but mmm ch mmm ch, come on!

    Borderlands is a simple concept, incredibly well executed, games like that are the reason I'm a gamer. Proper good DLC too. Stand under a cow TakeTwo - you deserve a pat on the head.