Max Payne 3, Spec Ops: The Line sales “lower than anticipated”, reports publisher

Despite wowing the critics, both Max Payne 3 and Spec Ops: The Line didn’t wow potential buyers enough to make expected sales targets, according to publisher Take-Two’s latest financials. Max Payne 3 sold three million copies, but that was apparently “lower than anticipated”. Three million sales wasn’t enough. Oh, what crazy times we live in.

The company lost $110.8 million this quarter, a massive drop on the $8.8 million loss recorded for the same period last year. Net revenue is also down to $226.1 million, much lower than the $334.4 million banked same time last year.

Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick remains optimistic about the publisher’s upcoming launches, however.

“The outlook for our slate of upcoming releases is stronger than ever,” he said. “Early consumer enthusiasm suggests robust demand for our extraordinary lineup of upcoming releases, particularly Borderlands 2, NBA 2K13 and BioShock Infinite.”

BioShock Infinite? Oh yeah, that’s the one that’s been delayed, like, a thousand times already. Maybe if the game had launched now instead of next year like it was supposed to, Take-Two would be going to space on their gold-plated starship instead of all this, huh? Yeah. Maybe not.