BioShock 2 pushed to 2010

Take-Two Interactive announced that BioShock 2 has been pushed to 2010, and as a result, it has revised revenue and earnings guidance for fiscal 2009. Ain’t that a b*tch?  BioShock 2 has been moved from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2010 (FY 2010 begins in November of this year), “in order to provide additional development time for the title,” said Take-Two in a press release this afternoon. As a result, Take-Two updated third quarter and fourth quarter fiscal 2009 guidance to reflect “reduced sales of catalog products and lower than anticipated initial retailer orders of new releases.”

“We recognize that our revised outlook for the balance of fiscal year 2009, due to both internal and external factors, is a disappointment.,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two. “That said, we concluded that moving the release of BioShock 2 into fiscal year 2010 was the right decision for the product. We believe the result will be a more compelling consumer experience and a better performing product in the marketplace. At the same time, near term retail conditions have proven to be more challenging for our business than the assumptions built into our prior outlook. We remain confident in the long term potential for Take-Two’s business, and our ability to capitalize on that potential through our exceptional creative talent and solid balance sheet.”

While expectations for 2009 have been lowered, 2010 expectations are high because Take-Two has a ton of sequels coming out next year including BioShock 2, Mafia II, Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption.