Take-Two warns investors that review bombing may lead to loss of revenues and "reputation harm"

GTA publisher Take-Two has updated the list of risk factors that may affect its financial performance and business reputation. One of the new additions is review bombing.

Grand Theft Auto III — The Definitive Edition

Take-Two shared concerns with investors in its 10-K filing for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024. The document was published in May, but was just spotted by Stephen Totilo in his Game File newsletter.

In the “Risks relating to our business and industry” section, the company emphasized the importance of maintaining the high ratings of its games, saying that it could be difficult for players to find titles with lower scores and make them less appealing to the audience in general.

And here is an interesting part regarding review bombing: “In addition, we may be subject to negative review campaigns or defamation campaigns intended to harm our ratings.” Take-Two noted that this may “lead to loss of players and revenues, additional advertising and marketing costs, and reputation harm.”

Take-Two is no stranger to negative reviews. Most games in the NBA 2K franchise sit at “Mixed” ratings on Steam, with the latest installment in the series — NBA 2K24 — having a “Mostly Negative” user score (under 30% positive reviews). Users typically criticize these titles for inequality between PC and console versions.

Despite negative reviews, the NBA 2K remains one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. According to Take-Two’s annual report, its lifetime sales reached 149 million copies globally (largely thanks to its chart-topping position on consoles).

Of course, one of the most infamous cases in Take-Two’s history was GTA: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition, which received an average score of 0.5/10 from players on Metacritic at launch. Although the rating has “improved” to 1/10 since then, the collection of GTA remasters remains one of the lowest-rated titles on the platform of all time.

The main reason for such a low score was the quality of The Trilogy itself rather than “negative review campaigns or defamation campaigns.” Players criticized almost every element of the remasters, including performance, graphics, new models, and tons of bugs.

Going back to the 10-K filing, Take-Two also said the development of generative AI may present operational and reputational risks, including “social and ethical issues.” The company added that “the use or adoption of third-party AI technologies into our products and services may result in exposure to claims of copyright infringement or other intellectual property misappropriation.”