Grand Theft Auto Iv

PITY video game players under age 17, the cutoff to purchase and play "mature" rated games. And weep for gamers with high moral standards who turn their nose up at games with lax ethics. They'll miss out on one of the best gaming experiences of all time. Amazingly, the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV, which comes out today, manages to live up to its monumental hype. It shows the world the amount of depth that is possible with the technology of the current generation of game systems.

Video-game playing has become a mainstream activity, but gamer culture isn't quite opening up at the same pace. At the center of that culture is machinima, a fast-growing filmmaking method that's more than a decade old but still unknown to most non-gamers. A blend of the words "machine" and "animation," it describes animated work done by recording movements within a video game such as Halo, Grand Theft Auto IV or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The vast majority of machinima is by and for hard-core gamers, with stories that fit into existing game narratives or inside jokes for experienced players.

Activision Inc. is jamming, thanks to "Guitar Hero II." The Santa Monica-based company swung to a quarterly profit Thursday on strong sales of its video game that lets players pretend to be rock stars. Activision bucked the recent trend of game publishers posting summertime losses. "It was by far the strongest performance of any company in the industry this quarter," said Evan Wilson, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. is starting a new act. The video game publisher best known for the bestselling Grand Theft Auto series is poised for a high-level shake-up Thursday when shareholders are expected to elect representatives of activist investor Carl Icahn to three of its eight board seats. It was only three years ago that a team led by Chairman Strauss Zelnick, the former president of record label BMG Entertainment and movie studio 20th Century Fox, took over a company that was being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service and the New York district attorney's office.

It's the video game that launched a $2-billion takeover war. "Grand Theft Auto IV" is expected to have one of the biggest debuts in entertainment history when it hits stores Tuesday. Analysts predict it will ring up more than $400 million at retail shops in the first week, topping "Halo 3," which last fall smashed the previous record with $300 million in sales.

U.S. video-game sales increased 41% in May, led for a second month by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.'s Grand Theft Auto IV. Consumers purchased 1.31 million copies of the game at U.S. stores last month, Port Washington, N.Y.-based researcher NPD Group Inc. said. Video-game hardware sales rose 34%, led by Nintendo Co.'s Wii. Grand Theft Auto IV may generate more than $1 billion in sales by year-end, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey said in a note to investors.

Activision Blizzard Inc. sold a record 4.7 million copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on its first day in North America and Britain, taking in $310 million. The title, released Tuesday worldwide, was available at 10,000 retail locations in the U.S., the company said. The results topped the first-day sales record held by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.'s Grand Theft Auto IV, which sold 3.6 million copies globally for $310 million last year.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. reported a second-quarter loss after the video game maker's sales failed to match revenue from the year-earlier period during which Grand Theft Auto IV was released. The New York company lost $10.1 million, or 13 cents a share, in the three-month period that ended April 30, compared with net income of $98.2 million, or $1.29, a year earlier. Sales fell 57% to $229.7 million. Excluding some costs, the 4-cent loss was smaller than the 13-cent average loss estimated in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. asked a federal judge to block the Chicago Transit Authority from removing advertisements for its "Grand Theft Auto IV" video game. Take-Two filed suit in federal court, saying the CTA interfered with its right of free speech by removing ads for the game from the transit system. The ads may have been taken off because the game is rated "M," for mature users, according to the complaint. The game maker said it paid $300,000 for a six-week ad campaign and that the ads were removed shortly after they began appearing April 22. The company said that Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich had previously criticized other games in the "Grand Theft Auto" series.

One of the hallmarks of a healthy consumer society is that its older generation habitually despises and decries the entertainments of the young. The young, in turn, elevate their aesthetic rebellion to respectability over time. Thus, the Victorians -- those proto-capitalists -- denounced the youthful affinity for pre-Raphaelite emotional extravagance. Now it is the stuff of greeting-card cliche.

Activision Blizzard Inc. sold a record 4.7 million copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on its first day in North America and Britain, taking in $310 million. The title, released Tuesday worldwide, was available at 10,000 retail locations in the U.S., the company said. The results topped the first-day sales record held by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.'s Grand Theft Auto IV, which sold 3.6 million copies globally for $310 million last year.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. reported a second-quarter loss after the video game maker's sales failed to match revenue from the year-earlier period during which Grand Theft Auto IV was released. The New York company lost $10.1 million, or 13 cents a share, in the three-month period that ended April 30, compared with net income of $98.2 million, or $1.29, a year earlier. Sales fell 57% to $229.7 million. Excluding some costs, the 4-cent loss was smaller than the 13-cent average loss estimated in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the video game publisher in acquisition talks with Electronic Arts Inc., reported a third-quarter profit that exceeded analysts' projections on sales of Grand Theft Auto IV. Net income of $51.8 million, or 67 cents a share, contrasted with a loss of $58.5 million, or 81 cents, a year earlier, New York-based Take-Two said. Sales in the quarter that ended July 31 more than doubled to $433.8 million from $206.4 million a year earlier and exceeded the $382.

U.S. video-game sales increased 41% in May, led for a second month by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.'s Grand Theft Auto IV. Consumers purchased 1.31 million copies of the game at U.S. stores last month, Port Washington, N.Y.-based researcher NPD Group Inc. said. Video-game hardware sales rose 34%, led by Nintendo Co.'s Wii. Grand Theft Auto IV may generate more than $1 billion in sales by year-end, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey said in a note to investors.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., publisher of the blockbuster Grand Theft Auto IV game, is in "formal discussions" with potential suitors, Chairman Strauss Zelnick said Thursday. Take-Two has been the target of a $2-billion takeover bid by Electronic Arts Inc., the game industry's 800-pound gorilla. Zelnick and his team at Take-Two have said the price was akin to highway robbery. Zelnick didn't name the suitors during a quarterly earnings call with analysts, saying Take-Two was not required to disclose the identities with the Securities and Exchange Commission until the "discussions" turned into "negotiations."

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. asked a federal judge to block the Chicago Transit Authority from removing advertisements for its "Grand Theft Auto IV" video game. Take-Two filed suit in federal court, saying the CTA interfered with its right of free speech by removing ads for the game from the transit system. The ads may have been taken off because the game is rated "M," for mature users, according to the complaint. The game maker said it paid $300,000 for a six-week ad campaign and that the ads were removed shortly after they began appearing April 22. The company said that Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich had previously criticized other games in the "Grand Theft Auto" series.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., publisher of the blockbuster Grand Theft Auto IV game, is in "formal discussions" with potential suitors, Chairman Strauss Zelnick said Thursday. Take-Two has been the target of a $2-billion takeover bid by Electronic Arts Inc., the game industry's 800-pound gorilla. Zelnick and his team at Take-Two have said the price was akin to highway robbery. Zelnick didn't name the suitors during a quarterly earnings call with analysts, saying Take-Two was not required to disclose the identities with the Securities and Exchange Commission until the "discussions" turned into "negotiations."

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the video game publisher in acquisition talks with Electronic Arts Inc., reported a third-quarter profit that exceeded analysts' projections on sales of Grand Theft Auto IV. Net income of $51.8 million, or 67 cents a share, contrasted with a loss of $58.5 million, or 81 cents, a year earlier, New York-based Take-Two said. Sales in the quarter that ended July 31 more than doubled to $433.8 million from $206.4 million a year earlier and exceeded the $382.

One of the hallmarks of a healthy consumer society is that its older generation habitually despises and decries the entertainments of the young. The young, in turn, elevate their aesthetic rebellion to respectability over time. Thus, the Victorians -- those proto-capitalists -- denounced the youthful affinity for pre-Raphaelite emotional extravagance. Now it is the stuff of greeting-card cliche.

PITY video game players under age 17, the cutoff to purchase and play "mature" rated games. And weep for gamers with high moral standards who turn their nose up at games with lax ethics. They'll miss out on one of the best gaming experiences of all time. Amazingly, the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV, which comes out today, manages to live up to its monumental hype. It shows the world the amount of depth that is possible with the technology of the current generation of game systems.