Take-Two beats Wall Street’s expectations for holiday quarter earnings

Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO) reported earnings that beat financial expectations for the third fiscal quarter ended December 31. The company managed to make adjusted net income in the quarter even though it didn’t have a gigantic benefit from a Grand Theft Auto game.

Wall Street always pays close attention to Take-Two’s capability to stay profitable long after the initial launch of a Grand Theft Auto, and the financial performance in the most recent quarter says a great deal about the company and how it makes money these days. In years past, Take-Two would lose money in non-GTA years, but now it isn’t entirely dependent on just a single intellectual property and its Rockstar Games label, such as its highly regarded NBA 2K series or the digital revenue from back catalog sales.