NEW YORK The initial success of Grand Theft Auto IV is, by all accounts, phenomenal and the results have gone straight to parent company Take Two Interactive Software's bottom line.
Breaking global sales records left and right, GTA IV is an entertainment juggernaut. In the midst of trying to fend off an unwanted $2 billion takeover bid from rival Electronic Arts, the country's largest game publisher, Take Two reported second-quarter revenues climbed 160 percent from the previous year, to $539.8 million, partly on the early strength of GTA IV. The company earned a quarterly profit of $98.2 million, compared with a loss the previous year of $51.3 million, and raised its outlook for revenues and profit in the current quarter.
Actually the sixth installment in the groundbreaking series, GTA IV suffered from the worst possible thing a game can experience prior to its release: hype. And after months of delays, critics and customers were concerned the game wouldn't live up to expectations. But virtually out of the box, GTA IV was heralded by critics as the game of the year and possibly one of the greatest video games of all time.
As a result, GTA IV sold 3.6 million copies on the first day of its release, racking up a colossal $310 million in sales. By the end of the first week, Take Two's haul topped $500 million, with unit sales of more than 6 million games. Through the end of May, the company said it sold 11 million copies of the game to retailers.
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