“Borderlands continues to build on its success in the market,” Feder said during the company’s quarterly financial earnings call. The Secret Armory of General Knoxx was the “highest scoring in the series”.

“We will continue to support the title with more add-on content.”

The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, released last month, was the third downloadable pack released for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 game.

Speaking with Kotaku this morning, Gearbox senior designer Paul Hellquist declined to comment on the release of future DLC for Borderlands. He did say that the developers have considered a number of different approaches to future Borderlands DLC, including a pot luck pack that would include a number of small things that could be sold for less then the $US10 the other three sold for.

Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said during today’s quarterly earnings update that the role-playing shooter, which had a “successful launch,” shows signs of “becoming an important long-term franchise” for the company. That’s not official confirmation of a Borderlands 2, but it’s about as close as we’re going to get.

Given Borderlands development delays and Take-Two’s increasing inability to ship many of its “AAA” calibre titles on time, just don’t expect that Borderlands 2 to show up any time soon.

Take-Two CEO Ben Feder sheds a little more light on the mysterious PS3 game to Eurogamer, saying that Agent will feature “very, very different storylines, very different character development” from the wildly successful Rockstar North series Grand Theft Auto.

“It’s a game about espionage, set in the 1970s. GTA is obviously more about an urban experience, a typically rags to riches experience,” Feder says. “It’s going to be very fresh for gamers.”

Officially, Take-Two says that “Agent takes players on a paranoid journey into the world of counter-intelligence, espionage and political assassinations during the height of the Cold War at the end of the 1970s.”

Take-Two’s Ben Feder Interview [Eurogamer]

During the company’s conference call to discuss second quarter financial results, Take Two CEO Ben Feder announced that BioShock 2 will hit Europe on October 30 and North America on November 3.

The game, which is expected to ship on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, is listed in the company’s press release for second quarter earnings as coming to platforms “TBA.”

BioShock 2 is in development by 2K Marin and is the sequel to 2007’s hit BioShock from 2K Boston and 2K Australia.

Take-Two CEO Ben Feder was asked that very question during today’s quarterly earnings conference call to which he responded that Chinatown Wars was an important step in its relationship with Nintendo.

“Without commenting specifically on whether GTA is coming to the Wii or not, I will say that Nintendo and Take-Two work very very well together”, Feder explained. “Rockstar and Nintendo work very well together. We intend to continue to grow that relationship.”

Feder also noted that the company has invested “an enormous amount of time and effort working with Nintendo” and while he fell short of announcing a major product during an investor call, it certainly sounds like the door is open.

With over two million Carnival Games shipped on Nintendo platforms, it just makes sense.

While Rockstar has traditionally stuck with PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms, it has brought Smugglers Run to the Gamecube and Grand Theft Auto to the Game Boy Advance. We’d say think that, given the hooker beating simulating properties of the Wii nunchuk, it’s a no-brainer.

Now, it’s a different story — Grand Theft Auto IV and BioShock are some of the highest-rated titles on Metacritic, and Take-Two is the number three publisher in the industry. The turnaround strategy seems to be working.

I do believe that consolidation ultimately is inevitable…Video-game development is not getting any cheaper. It’s a capital-intensive business, and I don’t see that going away. That will drive some of the smaller competitors out.

Sure will! Then the new big, mean companies can go stale, break up and we can kick the cycle off all over again! Can’t think of a more entertaining way to lose a few billion investment dollars, can you?
Consolidation inevitable, says Take-Two CEO [GI.biz]

Asked whether one console in particular was the root of the problem, Zelnick diplomatically responded that “I know there have been rumours in the marketplace about frame rate and some other issues. We don’t think it’s helpful or beneficial to go into exact details of what the technological issues are. We’re pushing the envelope on both the platforms.” Crap. Now I don’t know which torch to light!

Zelnick explained that “the final say” to delay GTA IV was with him, but that “This wasn’t a decision we took lightly. This wasn’t a decision [Rockstar] took lightly.” Having reviewed a build just a day prior to the announcement Take-Two felt that there was no way it could meet the game’s October 16th release date.

On the subject of the Xbox 360 exclusive episodic content—the first episode of which was due in March—Zelnick responded that it wouldn’t affect the deal, telling analysts that “We’re not gonna send money back to Microsoft. That’s not part of the deal.”

No time frame was provided during the call for Rockstar Games’ other release, Manhunt 2, with executives claiming they’d erred on the side of caution and won’t provide an updated release date until they have an M-rating.

Zelnick and Feder also noted that they hate your guts and don’t want you to have any fun. Yes, you.