take-two-interactive posts

Last month we got a chance to try out the new Monk character in Diablo III at BlizzCon. It was a lot of fun to run that character around the desert and dungeons and use his fighting skills and powers to take out various monsters. But what if you were playing Diablo III not as a top down isometric action-RPG but as a true first person shooter that still retained things like loot and item drops and some other elements?

That's basically what you can expect from Borderlands, Gearbox Software's upcoming sci-fi shooter that is shaping up to be a true sleeper hit. The PC version of the game was tucked away in Nvidia's booth during PAX 2009 and the Xbox 360 version, with four player co-op, was playable at the booth of the game's publisher 2K Games.

Check out even more info after the jump:

Last month at E3, Gearbox Software showed off their FPS-RPG hybrid game Borderlands to the press. At the time the team said the game might be out in October but to not hold them to that date. Today, GameSpot reports that the final release date for the game has been locked and as predicted it will ship to stores on October 2 in the US. The game will ship on October 23 in other parts of the world.

Publisher Take Two Interactive has a lot riding on Borderlands' success, especially since it decided to pull the rest of its announced hardcore gaming line-up into the first half of 2010. The game itself was first announced two years ago but revealed a massive change in its art style only this year.

The saga of Duke Nukem Forever continues even as its developer 3D Realms and its publisher Take Two Interactive fight it out in court over the long-in-development game's release. Now it looks like "Duke Nukem's" Facebook page has been updated with some new images from the stalled first person shooter.

The new shots show off mostly creature model images with some glimpses at levels, including what looks like a boss battle near Hoover Dam. Even though most of the game's development team was laid off last May, 3D Realms continues to state that the company is still operating and that development of Duke Nukem Forever continues.

During Take Two Interactive's conference call to financial analysts today, company execs confirmed that three of their biggest upcoming games won't be released in the calendar year of 2009. Those games are the 2K Games-branded titled of BioShock 2 and Mafia 2 and the Rockstar Games-branded title Max Payne 3. All three of these games will now be released sometime in the first half of the calendar year of 2010.

This is a huge blow to Take Two Interactive, particularly for the release of BioShock 2, which was one of the most anticipated games in the industry and one that was originally planned for release in the fall of 2009. Take Two's new release schedule still contains Gearbox Software's Borderlands as coming out in their current fiscal year for 2009 (which ends Oct. 31) but it looks like with BioShock 2's delay Borderlands will be 2K Games' big holiday title this year. Take Two execs stated they do feel that the holiday period is getting crowded with titles and that BioShock 2's delay will actually benefit the game.

As we mentioned before the summer season is also the "silly season" where some games that were scheduled for release this fall get pushed back to sometime in the next year. Today, Take Two Interactive announced the latest such delay. BioShock 2 ,which they had planned to release in their fourth fiscal quarter of 2009 (which ends Oct. 31) will now be pushed back to sometime in their 2010 fiscal year which begins on November 1, 2009. Take Two stated the delay was ordered "in order to provide additional development time for the title." Technically that means the game could still be released sometime in the 2009 calendar year but Take Two has not yet specified a new release date for the game.

Because of BioShock 2's delay and other factors, Take Two is lowering its financial outlook for the rest of its fiscal year. Its current third quarter is expected to bring in between $120 milion to $130 million in revenue to the company (compared to their previous prediction of between $145 million and $165 million) and the upcoming fourth quarter is now expected to bring in $350 million to $400 million in revenue (compared to their previous prediction of between $420 million and $500 million). The entire 2009 fiscal year is expected to bring in between $960 million to $1 billion in revenue (compared to their previous prediction of $1.05 billion and $1.15 billion). Take Two will be holding a conference call at 4:45 pm ET today and we will listen in to see if there's any more info on the company's release date slate.

Update: As we mentioned here, Take Two has now confirmed that BioShock 2 will be released sometime in the first half of calendar year 2010.

3D Realms (under their Apogee Software parent name) has now officially responded to Take Two Interactive's lawsuit filed last month concerning the shut down in the development of Duke Nukem Forever. In the 20 page response filed on Friday (found by GamePolitics) with the US District Court in the Southern District of New York, 3D Realms/Apogee denies most of the allegations made by Take Two in its lawsuit.

However the response has also revealed that 3D Realms entered into an agreement with Take Two for an all new Duke Nukem game, Duke Begins. The agreement was made in 2007 and the development would be handled by an unnamed third party game studio, not 3D Realms, and published by Take Two's 2K Games brand. According to 3D Realms, Take Two/2K Games ordered work halted on Duke Begins in April 2009,something which 3D Realms says Take Two has denied.

The legal fight between 3D Realms/Apogee Software and publisher Take Two Interactive over the long awaited FPS Duke Nukem Forever remains one of the biggest news stories of 2009 so far and now more info on the lawsuit has come to light. A filing made by Take Two to the New York State Supreme Court on May 11 and posted on the court's web site on June 13 gives Take Two's side of the story in full.

In short, Take Two states that in early 2009 they came to 3D Realms/Apogee to work on an agreement to make an Xbox 360 version of the game alongside the PC version. According to the Take Two statement, 3D Realms requested that they fully fund the game. Instead Take Two said they would fund 50 percent of the game's development for the PC and Xbox 360 version and would fund the remaining 50 percent when Duke Nukem Forever was completeted. Take Two stated that 3D Realms rejected this offer.

As we reported, Take Two Interactive issued its quarterly financial report today. However during the conference call to discuss the results with analysts, its CEO Ben Feder revealed that the highly anticipated BioShock 2 would be released on Nov. 3 in the US with an earlier October 30 date planned for Europe.

Oddly, BioShock 2's platforms are still "TBA" at least according to Take Two's own release calendar. However the game's official community site The Cult of Rapture has revealed that the game will indeed be released for the PC platform and that it and the console versions will all be released at the same time.

After nearly two weeks of rumors and a lawsuit against the company by publisher Take Two Interactive, Duke Nukem Forever's development studio 3D Realms has finally sent out an official response to the shut down of development for the long awaited first person shooter. Big Download received a press release via email from 3D Realms in which they state while they indeed let the Duke Nukem Forever development team go on May 6, "3D Realms (3DR) has not closed and is not closing." Even though their last news post on their official web site does indeed say "Goodbye" today's statement says they are still in operation as a smaller development studio and are still working on co-developing and licensing the Duke Nukem IP for new games.

Their statement says that 3D Realms has only received a $2.5 million payment from Take Two Interactive in July 2008 "in connection with another agreement for an unannounced game." 3D Realms claims they did not receive a $12 million payment from Take Two in 2000 as Take Two claims in last week's lawsuit. In fact that $12 million went to GT Interactive "to acquire the publishing rights for the DNF game." 3D Realms claims that aside from $400,000 from GT Interactive in 1998 and the 2008 money from Take Two they have receive no other funds from publishers for Duke Nukem Forever. They also claim to have spend a total of $20 million to develop Duke Nukem Forever.

Last night news broke that Take Two Interactive filed a lawsuit against 3D Realms and its parent company Apogee over the failure to complete the long-in-development FPS Duke Nukem Forever. Now Shacknews has some more info based on photocopies of the lawsuit.

Basically Take Two is asking that the source code for the game remain intact while the lawsuit proceeds through the court system and that they get a copy of that source code to "ensure the code is preserved and remains unharmed during the pendency of this lawsuit." Meanwhile a message post on Shacknews that alledgedly comes from 3D Realms's co-founder Scott Miller states that the developer "didn't get a penny of that money" that Take Two Interactive states it gave 3D Realms in 2000 for the publishing deal (Take Two claims they gave 3D Realms $12 million). The post reads, "This, along with so much else, is 100% spin, being eaten up by those who have no clue whatsoever. But, we cannot talk yet. We will, soon..."