paidContent - Take-Two Cuts FY'09 Guidance On BioShock 2 Delay

Take-Two Interactive is pushing back the release of its hotly-anticipated BioShock 2-and has been forced to lower guidance for its fiscal year 2009 by as much as $190 million as a result. (Not good for a company trying to come back from sequential quarterly losses).

The game, a sequel to the 2007 best-seller BioShock, was slated for release later this year; CEO Ben Feder said the publisher wanted to spend more time on development. The new release date will be in the first half of calendar 2010-meaning it will miss the holiday game sales rush. The news sent Take-Two's shares down by as much as 13 percent ($7.76) in after-hours trading, though some analysts, like EEDAR's Jesse Divinich, are viewing it as a positive move in the long run:

"Take-Two (NSDQ: TTWO) has made a very intrepid move by putting gamers before investors, an act most publishers wouldn?t usually consider ... Now, I expect them to dominate fiscal 2010," Divinch said, rattling off a list of titles, including BioShock 2, Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption, that the publisher would be releasing next year. "As far as I am concerned, Take-Two is just moving numbers from one financial year to another."

The decision to push back for the sake of game quality does make sense-particularly if Take-Two wants to get out from under the bias that its a "one-trick pony" beholden to strong GTA sales if it wants to survive. A critically-acclaimed, well-received BioShock 2 could drive record-breaking sales next year; a game released this year full of bugs or otherwise subpar gameplay could have ended up tarnishing Take-Two's brand equity-and stunting sales of its future titles. Release.

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