Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, is looking forward to a busy 2017. Not only is Red Dead Redemption 2 scheduled for an autumn release, but 2K will launch a debut title for the upcoming Nintendo Switch console.
What's more, Take-Two has just announced a $250 million deal to acquire formerly indie mobile developer Social Point. Take-Two will be adding to that acquisition price an additional $25.9 million, partially in stocks, should the dev achieve certain criteria and milestones.
We believe that Social Point's deeply engaging mobile offerings will be a perfect complement to our business. Social Point is one of the few mobile game developers that has a proven track record of growing revenues and delivering multiple hits, and we expect this growth to continue given the company's exciting development pipeline.
On February 7 further details about Social Point's future with Take-Two will be revealed. It has been announced as the date when Take-Two's quarterly earnings report and call with investors will occur.
Don't let the name of this call fool you — it's more than just dry business talk. These calls are sources of valuable information to players and are luckily open to the press as well.
These investor calls often reveal the current state of GTA 5's sales. For example, in the last quarter, we learned that the game had passed the 70 million shipped copies milestone, and that does not account for digital sales.
We wouldn't be surprised if the game has racked on a few million since then, though hitting the 80 million mark is likely a way off. A year passed between the 60 and 70 million milestones, after all.
That said, GTA 5 did make headlines recently about creeping back to the peak of the UK gaming sales charts, so for all we know the game is selling better than it did last year. It was the tenth week the game enjoyed the first place, a feat few other games have ever managed.
While the call might contain valuable GTA related info, it's more likely that RDR2 and the recently acquired Social Point will enjoy the spotlight. Social Point is known for major freemium hits such as Monster Legends and Dragon City. We're interested to see whether Take-Two will use its new acquisition to give some of our favorite Rockstar and 2K franchises the mobile treatment.
GTA: Mobile City, anyone?
