Take-Two hopes BioShock 2 can sell 5 million

Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two Interactive, has revealed that the company is hoping for sales of its forthcoming BioShock 2 title to hit 5 million.

That would represent a 67 per cent increase on the original game's 3 million units, and could be enough to give the company a boost in a non-Grand Theft Auto release year.

"We have enough hits," he told Venturebeat. "We have an unmatched hit ratio. BioShock is a great example. It won 50 game-of-the-year awards in 2007. We announced it sold around 3 million units.

"I'd like to see a title like that sell 5 million units. That would make the difference for us. If you have four or five titles that are significantly successful, that will meaningfully change our profitability."

But he was adamant that the publisher didn't face the prospect of struggling to break-even in the 'off' years.

"Thank god we don’t have that problem," he said. "We have control on our overhead. We are seeing pressure on development spending like everyone else. We have 1600 full-time developers in 15 studios.

"We don't have the breakeven problem that you described. That would be pretty risky. That means everyone has to have a hit or you don't break even. We don't have that problem."

BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams is currently slated for release in the Autumn of this year. The Take-Two share price meanwhile was up over 5 per cent to USD 7.90 at the close of the markets yesterday.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...sell-5-million