Take-Two Unveils '100-Day Plan,' says 'GTA is Our James Bond'

April 10, 2007 | By: James Brightman

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Take-Two's new management has held its first public conference call only a little over a week after taking control of the publisher. Chairman Strauss Zelnick unveiled the company's "100-day plan" to revitalize the business, he stressed the importance of GTA, and also said that Nintendo is definitely important to Take-Two's future.

In the very first conference call after taking the reigns at publisher Take-Two, new chairman Strauss Zelnick and acting CEO Ben Feder outlined a so-called "100-day plan" for revitalizing the company's business. Among other things, the plan includes optimizing the organizational structure of the publisher, hiring replacements for management that left the company (such as CFO Karl Winters), and addressing cost structures at the company.

Management said that it will be looking for strategic alternatives for any non-core or non-profitable divisions of the company. At the same time, Take-Two will seek out ways of making its core business more profitable. The publisher is optimistic about its 2K Sports division but Zelnick noted that profitability could be delayed until 2008; Take-Two had originally predicted that 2K Sports would be profitable in 2007.

The company also said that it intends to overhaul its greenlighting process so that game titles have proper market potential. And if it looks like certain titles don't have that potential, then they'll be cut early on instead of wasting further resources. Zelnick stated that titles like GTA IV, BioShock and Manhunt 2 certainly have that market potential they're looking for as a publisher. He confirmed that these titles remain on schedule for release this year.

The last (but certainly not the least) part of the 100-day plan is to ensure that Take-Two's regulatory and litigation woes are finally fully in the rear-view mirror. Zelnick said that the fact that Take-Two just announced its compliance with Nasdaq is already a good sign.

Zelnick said that the company is sticking to its expectations that second-quarter revenue will fall 25 percent year-over-year. Overall, Take-Two is expected to post a loss of 41 cents per share with revenue of around $211 million. Although revenue is down, a loss of 41 cents a share would be narrowed from last year's loss of 71 cents a share.

While Take-Two is not changing its product portfolio for calendar 2007, management did reiterate how important the Grand Theft Auto franchise is. The publisher has often been accused of being overly reliant upon the GTA games, but Zelnick doesn't appear concerned that the franchise might lose its popularity one of these days. He said that they view the GTA series as their "James Bond" of sorts � meaning that they are confident that Rockstar has the ability to totally reinvent the game whenever the franchise needs to be reinvigorated. It's a tough task, but Capcom was certainly able to do it when they needed to with Resident Evil 4. Continuing the Bond analogy, Zelnick made it a point to mention that the recent Casino Royale was the highest grossing Bond flick yet, proving that even a venerable IP like James Bond can be reinvigorated and keep going.

It's also worth noting that Zelnick seemed committed to working with Nintendo. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime recently said how important Take-Two is to Nintendo and that he expects more support from the publisher. If Zelnick's comments are any indication, it looks like Reggie will get his wish. Zelnick said that Take-Two is concerned with all next-gen platforms and that they want to "make great games for Nintendo." Time will tell just how great those games are.

Following the conference call, shares of Take-Two were up 14 cents to $2.52 in extended trading.