Take-Two made a massive killing off Grand Theft Auto V. Throughout three releases over five platforms, GTA V has sold nearly 52 million copies since its initial launch back in September 2013, making it up there among the most successful games ever created. The past fiscal year saw Take-Two take in earnings which beat Wall Street estimated over their heads, partially thanks to microtransactions.
Grand Theft Auto Online allows players to purchase Shark Cash Cards, giving them in-game currency in exchange for real-world money. The digital sales of GTA V, combined with the sold DLC added up to 66% of Take-Two's quarterly revenue, as opposed to last year's 47%.
GTA V was also the fastest selling game in the history of the industry, netting Take-Two over $1 Billion in its first three days. However, despite still being popular among gamers, the number of GTA V copies sold is dwindling, so Rockstar has to find a way to complement the sales of additional content to secure their future.
Take-Two has begun its conversion towards a digital-focused publisher, much like Electronic Arts and Activision-Blizzard, however, their switch is less graceful. Digital sales only made up 37% of last year's revenue (most of which can be attributed to GTA V), while EA came in with 51% and A-B with 76%.
Take-Two does not have massively popular franchises with yearly releases like the other two publishers mentioned, so what do they have planned?
While it does have two sports titles with annual releases, they are hardly as popular as most EA Sports franchises. Despite this, NBA 2K and WWE do sell well, and we're surely getting new iterations of those. Take-Two, however, is focusing more on the upcoming online shooter Battleborn, and they have a new as-of-yet unannounced IP they will be showing off at E3.
We'll see what the future holds for Take-Two and Rockstar.
