I think just a decade ago, if you told someone that a video game executive would one day be on the cover of a fitness magazine, they’d probably just laugh in your face. These days though…well, they’d still probably laugh in your face, but they’d be wrong. This month’s Men’s Fitness features a cover and interview with Take-Two Chairman, Strauss Zelnick, alongside such headlines as “The Two Best All-Body Exercises Ever!” and “No More Gut!” It’s the first time a video game exec has ever made the cover of a health magazine, and it’s like staring into a bizarro universe — there’s even a picture of a Big Daddy right next to him.

In the magazine though, the 51-year old exec divulges his secrets on staying in shape, which include 50-mile cycling treks and getting in exercise whenever he can (via DasGamer). Heck, the man even sees a gym session as a way to discuss business:

“I schedule exercise as though it’s a meeting and treat it the same way… When someone asks me to have a drink, I suggest the gym instead.”

He doesn’t mention it, but I’ll bet there’s one other tip from his daily regimen that could help: constantly resist the advances of rival publishers wanting to buy your company out. That’s gotta take some serious muscles.

2K Sports has revealed that their basketball title, NBA 2K9, is now available in retail stores for the PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360 with all new adaptive AI and online features including “Team Up” for 5 on 5 matches. With signature styles for each player, enhanced broadcast interpretation in “2K-HD” and living rosters with current player ratings and moves, 2K has promised the most realistic basketball experience to date.

If the game is not enough to curb your appetite for simulated hoops, you can add a bit more of it to your life by participating online with “The Other Season“, which is an online fantasy league where gamers on PSN and Xbox LIVE get to play for NBA players actively participating as fantasy team owners. Players will be drafted into an NBA player’s NBA 2K9 fantasy teams, startedin October 28 so don’t be surprised if Chauncy Billups or Andre Iguodala happens to pick you. The winning team will have $10,000 donated to the NBA player’s charity of choice.

Additionally, 2K Sports have also announced some good news for PC by revealing that NBA 2K9 will be available for the PC come October 21. This the the first time the franchise has appeared on a Windows based system, and should deliver the same basketball simulation experience as the console versions.

Looks like basketball simulation will finally reach gamers on a “global scale” where hoop trash talk will not be limited to just console players anymore.

Both the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers have already been knocked out of the 2008 MLB playoffs, and the season is nearing its end. But gamers needn’t worry as there’s more MLB action to be had this year — albeit in a slightly different form than they’re probably used to. MLB Stickball releases this week for 800 Microsoft points ($10), and as the name implies, it isn’t exactly your traditional baseball game in downloadable form.

We don’t know a ton about the game, but it is 2K Sports’ first release on XBLA. You can buy and collect Topps MLB cards that will unlock their corresponding players for use in the game. Environmental objects like fire hydrants and windows can be hit when you swing, each having a different effect like being an instant out — which makes this sound closer to a Mario baseball title than MLB 2K8. You can listen to the Sports Anomaly guys talk about the game’s announcement right here or check out the game for yourself this Wednesday.

After failing to come to an agreement with Electronic Arts, and deciding to look for other partnerships instead, Take-Two has instead decided to remain independent after all. This is a very anti-climatic end to the back and forth that gamers have been following closely since EA made their initial tender offer back in February.

However, according to recent comments made this morning by Take-Two’s Chairman of the Board, Strauss Zelnick, the company has decided that it would be better for stockholders if the company continued to do business as usual.

Zelnick feels that the company has great creative forces working for it, is financially stable, and still a big enough competitor to brush off any offers that should come their way:

“Our management and outstanding and talented employees have maintained an unwavering focus on our products and our business through this lengthy strategic review process and we are confident in our prospects. We remain focused on maximizing value for stockholders and are executing on our business strategies in a determined manner.”

Ben Feder, Chief Executive Officer of Take-Two added his two-cents regarding the decision to remain independent with the same amount of confidence the company has maintained over the past few months, by reminding the world of their recent financial cash cow, GTA IV:

“We have delivered solid financial results and expanded our portfolio of leading titles, which includes the powerful Grand Theft Auto franchise, as well as 15 other wholly owned brands with sales of more than one million units each..with no debt and an undrawn $140 million credit facility [this gives] us the financial flexibility to continue to do what we do best: innovate and create the great games that our customers have come to expect.”

Yes, it is easy to be confident when you have big name games in your portfolio coming to consoles like BioShock PS3, Duke Nukem Forever, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, GTA: Chinatown Wars and GTA IV coming to the PC in November. The biggest and most interesting thing I find though is that Feder states that they have no debt. How many companies can say that?

Take-Two sort of dodged the bullet on the EA take-over though, and while most companies would have been content to sell out to the first monopolistic giant to make an offer, they didn’t. While they did this in the best interest of their company, it is the gamers who are the big winners in the end.

Banner day for Take-Two and GTA IV fans. Lots of news so I will just state the facts.

• Eurogamer has reported that exclusive DLC for GTA IV should be hitting the Xbox 360 sometime in November.
• Take-Two is reporting that the DLC will hit during the Q4 of their fiscal year 2009 (Nov 08-Jan 09)- so we will keep you posted on that
• The DLC will consist of two 10-hour episodes
• GTA IV had now sold over 10 million units

All of this comes on the heals of Take-Two’s financial report which was released this morning, full of bragging rights. For example,  Q3 revenues are up from $206.4 million to $433.8 million with net income for Q3 totaling at $51.8 million or $0.67 per share. If you pull up numbers for the same time last year, you will notice that they reported a net loss of $58.5 million or $0.81per share.

For the nine months ended July 31, 2008, net revenues were $1,214.1 million, compared to $689.2 million for the same period a year ago. Net income for the first nine months of fiscal 2008 was $112.1 million or $1.48 per share, compared to a loss of ($131.3) million or ($1.83) for the 2007 period.

No wonder they are not ready to hand the reins over to EA just yet.

For the full press release which includes a slew of boring numbers, hit the jump.

Read the full article »

Rumors are flying surrounding EA and Take-Two negotiations. After all the time EA spent stalking T2 in an attempt at a hostile take over, it seems EA has walked out of their secret merger negotiations. According to Seeking Alpha, an investment site, T2 stock took a hit because of the rumor.

Yesterday’s session featured some strange exchanging of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO) shares, just one day before the company is set to release earnings.

There was no news released, though Barron’s later said that the price decline was due to rumors about Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) walking away from merger talks. ERTS had an executive speak at a conference right around noon.

GamePolitics finds the rumors believable given the open hostility between the two companies since the beginning of the year.

While Seeking Alpha ultimately discounts the rumor, it’s known that EA management is not especially fond of the Strauss Zelnick team at T2. That has a lot to do with the rich deal Zelnick put in place for himself and his crew in the event of an acquisition. Given that atmosphere, hardball tactics (such as a walkout) would seem to be in the realm of possibility.

I personally find it hard to believe that EA would walk out of negotiations. Playing hardball this late in the game is is fairly useless considering T2 knows just how badly EA wants to buy it out. Succeeding in dropping the value of T2 stock doesn’t change the fact that EA extended its final buyout offer deadline several times over the past year.

It’s unclear if the FTC’s now closed investigation was the only thing holding EA and Take-Two back from entering into negotiations, but regardless of that, an SEC filing made yesterday by EA has confirmed that the two companies have entered into a confidentiality agreement where Take-Two will reveal their three year product plans, according to Reuters. As a result, no further details on the negotiations will be revealed publicly unless the two decide to either end their discussions or formalize a deal.

The terms of the confidentiality agreement prohibit each of EA and Take-Two from, among other things, publicly disclosing the status or terms of any discussions or negotiations between EA and Take-Two unless EA or Take-Two notifies the other that it is terminating discussions. As a result, EA does not intend to make any further announcements regarding the status of any discussions or negotiations with Take-Two unless and until discussions between EA and Take-Two have been terminated or such parties have entered into a transaction. As previously disclosed, EA now requires due diligence to support any proposal to acquire Take-Two and there can be no assurance that any proposal, negotiations or transaction will result.

Once again, this doesn’t mean that an acquisition is imminent, but with EA having dropped its hostile takeover attempts and the two sides seemingly on the same page, the possibility of a buyout is as real as ever.

The latest rumor concerning GTA IV’s upcoming DLC says that the first batch of new content will add 15 hours of extra gameplay to the hit title. The news apparently stems from web comic, RPG-TV, though the author has since removed this information. This is kind of disappointing, considering initial rumors on the DLC indicated they would be adding whole new cities comparable to San Andreas. Now it sounds more like they’re just adding some extra missions. Hopefully we’ll actually hear some official news on the additional content soon.

Via ShackNews

CNet’s Digital Home asks a compelling question, “Does it matter who buys video games?” In this recent article, the author sites a survey that finds 17% of the GTAIV videogames sold were bought by or for kids ages 6-17. Given that 80% of the kids of the kids that didn’t buy it themselves got it from their parents or older siblings the author takes a stance against regulating the sale of M rated games. His point is that these kids’ parents are likely to go get it for them anyway.

The original intent of not allowing underage kids to buy video games was to stop them from picking up a violent title that their parents didn’t want them to play and bring it to a friend’s house where they wouldn’t know. And while that is an admirable idea, it simply doesn’t hold up.

To think that ID’ing kids for a video game will somehow stop violence and the proliferation of violent video games is extremely foolhardy. If they’re turned down, they’ll simply go to the next place and see if they can win someone over there. And if all else fails, they can enlist the help of an older person.

Stopping underage children from buying video games may be a great PR stunt, but that’s all it is. Children are getting their hands on M-rated games and there’s no changing it. So we have one of two options: ignore it or just forget about age limits altogether. I vote for the latter.

I have to say that I’m going to have to agree to disagree. As a father, I feel it’s important to have those ratings and prohibitions in place. I reserve the right to decide which mature rated videogames… if any my children can play. I also should have the right to purchase those titles which I approve of for my children.

Many parents seem not to be as involved with their children or aware of their activities as they should be. Having an age limit in place serves as a protection to children who might not be able to handle a mature title when parents fail to do their job.

It’s a well know fact that videogames are a recent favorite scapegoat for the media and politics. Videogames are the latest bad influence on today’s youth like comic books, rock and roll and so many other controversial forms of media and art that have been targeted over the years. Unfortunately, it seems these talking heads are doing their job well.

According to a recent survey by parental advisory website What They Play, parents are more worried about their kids being exposed to Grand Theft Auto than beer or pornography.

The poll, which ran August 1-6, 2008, queried parents on what they’d be most concerned about their 17-year-old child indulging in while at a sleepover. More than 1,600 respondents revealed they’re more apprehensive about their child smoking marijuana (49 percent) and playing the video game Grand Theft Auto (19 percent), than watching pornography (16 percent) and drinking beer (14 percent).

The poll is a follow up to a survey seeking to find out whether sex or violence triggers parents’ anxieties more:

The results of the initial What They Play online poll, conducted April 4-10, 2008, found that the 1,266 participants were most offended by the following in a video game: a man and woman having sex (37 percent); two men kissing (27 percent); a graphically severed head (25 percent); and multiple use of the F-word (9 percent).

No one should really be surprised at these results. It’s pretty obvious that games including adult sexual situations will earn a mature rating more often than one featuring graphic violence. While we’ve become placidly inured to gore and violence, our nation holds true to its Puritan roots remaining squeamish over sex and nudity.

The latest Question of the Day survey in progress is based on Gears of War 2 which will offer parental controls to turn off blood and foul language. Personally I don’t understand why a mature rated game should offer these features at all. The Gears of War series and many others like it were never intended for children.