Carnival Games

After listening to what was called an “exciting” earnings call by someone who’s listened to far more than I have, a few interesting facts can be gleaned from Take-Two’s second quarter earnings call to investors (and media obviously). After the publisher crowed about just how awesome Red Dead Redemption is doing in sales and critical response, they mentioned the biggest downer of the call, which was Max Payne 3 being delayed again, this time out of fiscal 2010. For non-business smarty-pants, this means sometime after October 31, 2010. Whether that results in it being a big November title or if it’s going to slip into 2011, they wouldn’t go into any more details, but don’t expect to touch this one any time soon...

MCV: Take-Two's casual offering is the third best-selling third-party title on Wii, behind only Guitar Hero and Mario & Sonic

Taking place on Thursday April 23rd at The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London, this year's MCV Industry Excellence Awards will be the most hotly-contested ever, with 17 accolades up for grabs, across a diverse range of categories covering the entire industry. Nintendo, EA, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Sega and Activision will battle it out for the Games Publisher Award, whilst individual titles Guitar Hero World Tour, GTA IV, FIFA 09, Fallout 3, Wii Fit and Call of Duty: World At War compete for Game Campaign.

Helping to get 2009 off to a great start, 2K is pleased to announce a limited-time coupon, offering a $10 discount on some of its hottest gaming titles. The coupon will be redeemable at participating retailers until January 31, 2009.

Console Central writes: Take 2 have admitted that 'Carnival Games' for the Nintendo Wii doesn't offer much choice in the way of skin colour, but are promising to fix that for the sequel to the game stating that it was a complete oversight. 2K Play marketing director Christina Recchio admitted the exclusion of a skin color palette was a problem. We knew it should've been in the first one, she said. Unfortunately by the time it had gone to manufacturing, it was something that couldn't be changed in the original product. But when we were developing for the DS, it was the first thing that we put in there because we knew we needed a larger variety. But how could such a thing happen in the first place?

MTV Multiplayer's Tracey John writes: Earlier this year, I complained about the lack of skin color choices for the Wii title Carnival Games. I was bothered that a casual, family-oriented game didn't include any skin tones other than pale, Caucasian ones for its character customization. 2K Play marketing director Christina Recchio admitted the exclusion of a skin color palette was a problem. We knew it should've been in the first one, she said. Unfortunately by the time it had gone to manufacturing, it was something that couldn't be changed in the original product. But when we were developing for the DS, it was the first thing that we put in there because we knew we needed a larger variety. But how could such a thing happen in the first place?

MTV Multiplayer's Tracey John writes: Are you surprised at how well mini-game collection Carnival Games has sold? So were the folks at publisher 2K Games. It definitely exceeded our expectations, 2K Play marketing director Christina Recchio said when I asked her about the success of the carnival-themed Wii game. 2K Play did not forecast a million units since it was an original property and a fairly new system.

In an article from Worthplaying: Carnival Games: Mini-Golf is home to larger-than-life, theme park style miniature golf courses. Whether back in time to the land of dinosaurs, keeping order in the Wild West or searching for treasure on an island full of pirates, the game combines traditional miniature golf fare with action-oriented game play.

Publisher Take-Two has announced the results of its fourth quarter, showing sales up to $292.6 million on strong sales of BioShock, NBA 2K8 and Carnival Games, and losses halved to $7.1 million. In an ongoing conference call with investors, Take-Two executives announced that beyond its upcoming fiscal 2008, which will include the previously announced exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV content for Xbox 360, the following year will also include new episodic content for the 360.