3 ms·

So sick. The scale of that is incredible. Facebook and MySpace don't make that much together in a year... And somehow this company is only worth $2B?

by aston 18y ago

eru 18y ago
Does Take-Two has such a week at least once a year? Perhaps - yes..
fallentimes 18y ago
While $500 million in sales is extremely impressive, they're still in the red when it comes to net income: http://finance.google.com/finance?fstype=ii&q=NASDAQ:TTWO http://finance.google.com/finance?fstype=ii&q=NASDAQ:TTW... Additionally, GTA sales aren't recurring each year and although the GTA effect will certainly help them this year there's a lot of time between GTA releases to account for. I'd say $2 billion is pretty reasonable for a company that lost $138 million in FY07.
- jcromartie 18y ago
  This really highlights just how tricky the video game business is. If any other software product could sell $500M in one week, the company would be in a great position. It makes one wonder if the current trend of such grand-scale commercial games is sustainable.
- aston 18y ago
  The bottom line is so-so, but the top line's great for a company like Take Two. EA can afford to spend money to get hits, they just need more of them.
pmjordan 18y ago
The game development company I worked for until a few months ago was bought out in early 2007, at a valuation that was far below the total value of the development contracts it was doing. I'd estimate the valuation to have been about a third or quarter of yearly revenue, although I had nothing to do with the financial side or the acquisition, so I might be somewhat off. Basically, there seems to be very little confidence that most game companies will ever be sustainably profitable. It's the hit-drivenness and therefore riskiness of the business that's discouraging everyone from investing. There is a slow trend towards smaller development budgets, but it's certainly not coming from within the existing players, profitable or not. (let's face it, having ~70 people work on one project for 2½ years is pretty insane if you have no idea whether anyone will even like it)

So sick. The scale of that is incredible. Facebook and MySpace don't make that much together in a year... And somehow this company is only worth $2B?

by aston 18y ago

So sick. The scale of that is incredible. Facebook and MySpace don't make that much together in a year... And somehow this company is only worth $2B?

eru 18y ago

Does Take-Two has such a week at least once a year? Perhaps - yes..

fallentimes 18y ago

While $500 million in sales is extremely impressive, they're still in the red when it comes to net income: http://finance.google.com/finance?fstype=ii&q=NASDAQ:TTWO http://finance.google.com/finance?fstype=ii&q=NASDAQ:TTW... Additionally, GTA sales aren't recurring each year and although the GTA effect will certainly help them this year there's a lot of time between GTA releases to account for. I'd say $2 billion is pretty reasonable for a company that lost $138 million in FY07.

jcromartie 18y ago
This really highlights just how tricky the video game business is. If any other software product could sell $500M in one week, the company would be in a great position. It makes one wonder if the current trend of such grand-scale commercial games is sustainable.
aston 18y ago
The bottom line is so-so, but the top line's great for a company like Take Two. EA can afford to spend money to get hits, they just need more of them.

pmjordan 18y ago

The game development company I worked for until a few months ago was bought out in early 2007, at a valuation that was far below the total value of the development contracts it was doing. I'd estimate the valuation to have been about a third or quarter of yearly revenue, although I had nothing to do with the financial side or the acquisition, so I might be somewhat off. Basically, there seems to be very little confidence that most game companies will ever be sustainably profitable. It's the hit-drivenness and therefore riskiness of the business that's discouraging everyone from investing. There is a slow trend towards smaller development budgets, but it's certainly not coming from within the existing players, profitable or not. (let's face it, having ~70 people work on one project for 2½ years is pretty insane if you have no idea whether anyone will even like it)