Rockstar's latest sells in 3 million copies in first week as 2K Marin shooter delayed; Take-Two posts $107.7 million loss for fiscal year.

Max Payne 3 shipped 3 million copies at launch, parent publisher Take-Two Interactive announced today as part of its latest financial report. The game shipped last week to a warm critical reception, with one analyst projecting it will go on to sell 4 million copies during its lifetime.

Max Payne 3 came out guns blazing.

Elsewhere in its report, Take-Two revealed that 2K Marin's new first-person shooter XCOM has been delayed yet again. The shooter is now scheduled to arrive between April 1, 2013, and March 31, 2014. The game was originally expected to ship on March 6, 2012, before being pushed to a release by March 31, 2013. No reason was provided for the delay.

The PC version of Max Payne 3 also suffered a delay, albeit a short one. That version is now scheduled to arrive on June 1 worldwide. Previously, it was expected to hit North America on May 29.

Take-Two also parsed new shipment statistics for some of its major properties. The company said franchise shipment figures for Borderlands have reached 6 million units, while the BioShock series now stands at 9.5 million copies.

As for Take-Two's actual earnings, the company reported net revenue of $825.8 million for the period ended March 31, 2012, down 27 percent from the $1.13 billion recorded for the year prior. The company attributed the downturn to tough comparisons against the year prior, which benefited from the success of Red Dead Redemption. The firm took a loss of $107.7 million for the year, compared to a profit of $53.8 million a year ago.

Take-Two specifically called out L.A. Noire, NBA 2K12, Grand Theft Auto catalog titles, Duke Nukem Forever, and Red Dead Redemption as the "strongest contributors" to the company's net revenue for fiscal 2012. Digital content made up $106.6 million, or 13 percent of total revenue for the period, up four percentage points from the 9 percent notched a year ago. The company's digital business was spurred by offerings for GTA titles, Red Dead Redemption, Sid Meier's Civilization games, Borderlands, and L.A. Noire.

The company's fiscal fourth quarter 2012 period was also down, with Take-Two recording revenue of $148.1 million, down from $182.3 million. Again, the firm said the year prior had benefited from the postlaunch performance of Red Dead Redemption. Take-Two suffered a loss of $66 million for the period.

Looking to its current fiscal year, Take-Two expects to notch $225 million to $275 million for the company's first quarter ending June 30, 2012, and $1.75 billion to $1.85 billion for the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.

[ Watch Video ]

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot