Take-Two earnings beat expectations

Take-Two’s Q1 2014 earnings have beaten expectations, but it has still claimed a loss of nearly $62 million.

This is a substantial improvement over previous estimates of over $124 million in net losses, and last year’s loss of $110 million.

Net revenue was down from last year as well to $142.7 million from $226 million, largely because the company had only one major release during the quarter.

That release was BioShock Infinite, which sold over four million units.

Digital sales were up to a record 52 per cent of sales, helped by Borderlands 2 DLC and season passes.

Borderlands 2 shipped a staggering seven million units by the end of June, which CEO Strauss Zelnick noted put it on track to become 2K’s best selling title to date.

"With Grand Theft Auto V launching on September 17th, followed by the releases of NBA 2K14 and WWE 2K14, fiscal 2014 is poised to be one of our best years ever,” said Zelnick.

“Looking ahead, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the upcoming launches of the next-generation consoles. We have an extensive development pipeline, highlighted by proven franchises and groundbreaking new intellectual property."

The future pipeline might be a bit sparser though, as Take-Two reported that $29.6 million of its quarterly loss was an impairment for capitalised software development for a 2K title.

This could suggest a game has been cancelled, though the company declined to confirm if the project was still in development or had been scrapped.