Take-Two Interactive revealed today that its 2K label will announce a new franchise later this month.
2K Games, the label best known for a variety of annual sports titles, as well as the Mafia series, Borderlands, XCOM, Civilization, and Bioshock, has not had a major release thus far in 2021. While NBA 2K22 and WWE2K22 are forthcoming, the only games released by 2K in 2021 have included NBA2k21 Arcade Edition on Apple Arcade a variety of Borderlands 3 expansions. When 2K reveals its new franchise later this month, it will be the first new franchise published by the company since Battleborn in 2016.
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There's no telling what 2K's new game will be, but rumors that began circulating just before E3 suggested that XCOM developer Firaxis is working on a new Marvel-themed strategy game. If a Marvel-style XCOM is the new game 2K is announcing, it will be welcome news for Marvel fans who are also about to be treated by both Square Enix's Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and the upcoming War for Wakanda expansion in Marvel's Avengers.
In the earnings report, Take-Two revealed that its first-quarter reports were down. According to gamesindustry.biz, both revenue and net bookings were down for the first fiscal quarter of 2021, but net income was up over 72% year-over-year. The companies growth was attributed largely to Grand Theft Auto V, which has sold over 150 million copies. The company also revealed that Grand Theft Auto Online's audience has grown 72% larger than it was this time two years ago.
Take-Two also explained that its first-quarter performance will be offset by two delayed games, which it described as "immersive core titles," which the company intends to ship later in the fiscal year than previously expected. It's unclear at this time if 2K's unannounced title is among those that have been delayed.
Altogether, Take-Two plans to bring 20 games to market this year, and a similar number of games over the next two years. According to Take-Two chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick, the company expects to "set records again starting in fiscal '23."
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