Take-Two "very pleased" with Evolve sales

Expectations were high for Take-Two Interactive's Evolve when it launched last month, but the initial reception has been a bit mixed. The PC version of the game sits at a 77 Metacritic score, and while it was the best-selling game of the week upon its release in the UK, it quickly slipped down the charts and now resides just inside the top 10.

Speaking at the Piper Jaffray Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Conference today, Take-Two president Karl Slatoff said the company is happy with that performance. His comments also suggested that the game's extensive downloadable content plans have been well received commercially.

"When we first picked up Evolve... our instincts told us we had something really special," Slatoff said. "And as the game evolved--I guess the pun is sort of intended--but I think our instincts have proven out right. We're very pleased. We've had an incredibly successful commercial launch with Evolve. We're very happy where things are going, particularly on the digital side. Digital has been very strong for us, not only with full game downloads but also the attach rate for our season pass has been very strong. I'm not going to give you specific numbers but we're very pleased with those. So I would say in general, Evolve has been a fantastic experience for us and we're very pleased with it."

Later in the presentation, Slatoff was asked if the transition to digital is happening as quickly as Take-Two would like.

"It's not really a question of wanting it go in that direction," he responded. "I think it's going to go there whether we like it or not. It's clearly moving in that direction, although maybe not necessarily at the pace people think it's moving."

Slatoff acknowledged that there are some advantages to digital games--higher margins, no used games, unlimited shelf space--but added the publisher was happy having a physical market as long as the consumers wanted it.