Take Two reports Q2 loss, signs new Sega deal

Publisher Take Two Interactive has announced that it made a significant loss in the second quarter, and dropped fiscal guidance for the rest of the year - although a new deal to co-publish Sega's sports range could bring the figures up once more.

The company reported a loss of $14.6 million on sales of $153.4 million for the quarter, which ran through to April 30th, reversing a profit in the same quarter last year of $14.6 million on sales of $193 million.

The larger sales figure last year was mostly accounted for by the continuing strong sales of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the PS2, as well as the launch of Midnight Club 2; by contrast, Take Two's line up for the first half of the year in 2004 has been fairly underwhelming.

The company also revised its financial guidance for the full year downwards, with net sales of between $1.125 billion and $1.145 billion now expected, as opposed to the previous projection of $1.17 billion; this due to a number of release schedule changes and lowered projections for sales of certain products, although the company's key forthcoming release, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, remains on track to be launched at the end of October.

Those full-year figures, however, do not take into account a new deal announced by Take Two this week - with the New York based company inking a deal with Sega to co-publish the ESPN-branded sports game range.

This multi-year agreement will see the range of ESPN games - which cover sports including American football, hockey, basketball and baseball - being co-published by Sega and Take Two's Global Star Software label, and distributed by Jack of All Games (a Take Two distribution subsidiary) in North America, and by Take Two Europe elsewhere.