take-twointeractive posts

It's been almost a year since developer 3D Realms laid off the majority of staff from their long-in-development shooter Duke Nukem Forever. While 3D Realms' CEO Scott Miller insists the game has not yet stopped production there's been no real word on the game's progress. Oh, and there's still that pesky lawsuit filed by the game's planned publisher Take Two Interactive.

However some new footage from Duke Nukem Forever has supposedly found its way to YouTube (in fact the video has been there since December 2009 but was just noticed more recently). While some of the footage has been seen before, there are also parts of the video that have not been seen in any previous leaked gameplay footage. Meanwhile, there's been no news on the court fight between 3D Realms and Take Two on the game for some time.

In 2005 a mod maker found a way to unlock a hidden sex mini-game that was put in by the developers of Rockstar North for their PC port of the open world action game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The resulting firestorm of controversy cause some to file lawsuits against Rockstar's parent company Take Two Interactive.

The publisher eventually came to an settlement agreement in court where anyone who bought the original version of the game could get some cash for their trouble. Now Kotaku reports that those cash settlements, ranging from $5 to $35, are finally being mailed out to those folks who requested compensation for having that hidden "hot coffee" scene in the game.

If you have liked all the downloadable content that's been released for Borderlands so far, this news will make you happy. During publisher Take Two Interactive's conference call with investors today following their latest financial news results, the company's CEO Ben Feder stated, "We will continue to support the title with more add-on content."

Developer Gearbox Software has released three mini-expansions for the first person shooter so far (The Zombie Island of Dr Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdown Riot and The Secret Armory of General Knoxx) at a cost of $9.99 each. Specifics about the future DLC for the game has not yet been revealed.

The new year has barely begun but there are already accusations of poor working conditions at two of the development studios own by Rockstar Games (itself owned by Take Two Interactive). One is Rockstar's San Diego studio which is mostly a console-only dev company. The other is Rockstar Vancouver which is currently making the upcoming third person shooter Max Payne 3 for the PC and other platforms.

Our sister site Joystiq received word from anonymous sources that the studio has put in "enforced crunch mode through to the end of the project". That crunch mode gives employees "14 - 16 hour work days, six or seven days a week." The sources also say Rockstar Games eliminated a two week vacation for employees over the holidays. So far Rockstar has yet to officially comment on the allegations.

Publisher Take Two Interactive had warned us just a few days ago that their financial results would be below its previous expectations. Today the company released their official numbers, reporting that its revenues for the last fiscal quarter (which ended October 31) were $343.4 million, up slightly from $323.4 million for the same period a year ago. Take Two had a loss of $22 million for the quarter compared to a lost of $15 million for the same period a year ago.

The result would have been worse had it not been for the solid sales of Borderlands. Take Two stated that sales of Gearbox Software's shooter title have gone over 2 million units worldwide since its release last October. It stated the game has "established itself as a key franchise for Take-Two, for which the Company has long-term publishing rights." We smell a sequel coming.

Take Two Interactive's financial result always come about a month after every other publicly traded game developer released their numbers. That didn't change today as Take Two reported that it brought in $138.6 million in revenue for their last fiscal quarter that ended on July 31. That's well off the $433.8 million it brought in for the same time period a year ago. Take Two revealed a loss of $50.4 million for the quarter compared to a profit of $71.5 million for the same period a year ago.

Take Two had already braced their shareholders for bad news about their latest quarterly numbers two months ago including word that games like BioShock 2 and Max Payne 3 would miss their planned released by the end of this year.

In 2007, Rockstar Games's stealth action game sequel Manhunt 2 got hit with an "AO" rating by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board when it was supposed to be released for various consoles. Rockstar decided to delay the game's release and edit its content. It was eventually released, to mediocre sales and reviews, with an "M" rating in the US later in 2007. In the UK, the government's ratings board tried to ban the game from being sold but that decision was finally overturned by an appeals committee in 2008.

Now get ready for the controversy to hit again as Rockstar is apparently prepping the two year old Manhunt 2 to finally be released for the PC . . and in an apparently unedited version. A post on the ESRB's latest games list shows a "Windows PC" rating of "AO" for Manhunt 2 for "Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs". There's no current listing of Manhunt 2 shipping to any retail outlets. It's possible that Rockstar will make the PC version available as an downloadable game only. Many other "AO" PC games have been released in this way in the US.

[Via Joystiq]

Several months ago, it seems like the planned movie adaptation of BioShock was in danger as its movie studio Universal put the film on hold due to budget issues. Now Variety is reporting that things are back on track as a new director is now in talks to helm the movie version of 2K Boston's 2007 first person shooter.

According to the article, the new possible director is Juan Carlos Fresnadillo who scored a solid critical and box office hit with the 2007 zombie movie sequel 28 Weeks Later. Originally Gore Verbinski, of the Pirates of the Caribbean serie, was to direct but he will still be a producer of the BioShock film. BioShock's game publisher Take Two Interactive still has to approve Fresnadillo as the new director. Filming is now expected to be held overseas in order to cut the budget but there's still no word on when that might happen.

Today's news of the delay of BioShock 2 to sometime in 2010 (along with other games like Max Payne 3 and Mafia II) might sound like it's bad news for the game's publisher Take Two Interactive. After all the game is missing the lucrative fall/holiday shopping season where over 50 percent of all game purchases are made.

Not so fast, says Jesse Divinich. According to Destructoid, the analyst at Electronic Entertainment Design and Research says Take Two's move to push back BioShock 2 and other games could be the best thing possible for the publisher. Divinich is quoted as saying, "I originally anticipated that Take-Two would outperform the industry in fiscal 2010. Now, I expect them to dominate fiscal 2010." He basis this move on the belief that the release of BioShock 2, Mafia II, Max Payne 3 and other Take Two games in this period "should make fiscal 2010 the year of Take-Two."

It's by far the biggest game magazine in the US. thanks to the fact that it's GameSpot's in-house publication. For the April 200 dated issue (due out later this month) Game Informer's print magazine will have the first major preview of BioShock 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the 2007 critical and sales hit.

The cover clearly shows that we can expect a Big Sister to appear in the game and Game Informer is touting that its 10 page preview will show that the sequel (developed by 2K Marin) is "looking more amazing than ever." Oddly enough, the game's publisher Take Two Interactive has still not confirmed what game platforms BioShock 2 will be presented on.