May 26 (Bloomberg) -- Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. reported a second-quarter loss after the video-game maker’s sales failed to match revenue from last year’s “Grand Theft Auto.” Results this quarter will trail analysts’ projections.

The loss of $10.1 million, or 13 cents a share, compared with net income of $98.2 million, or $1.29 a share, a year ago, the New York-based company said today in a statement. Sales fell 57 percent to $229.7 million in the quarter ended April 30. Excluding some costs, the 4-cent loss was smaller than the 13- cent average loss estimated in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

Sales exceeded analysts’ projections of $217.8 million as additional online content for ‘Grand Theft Auto” and a baseball game added to revenue. “Grand Theft Auto IV” was released at the end of last year’s second quarter. It set a first-day record of about $310 million in worldwide sales and led Take-Two to its first profit in three years.

“The lumpiness of their business is because the release schedule for ‘Grand Theft Auto’ is every few years instead of every year,” said Mike Hickey, an analyst with Janco Partners Inc. in Greenwood Village, Colorado. He recommends buying the stock and doesn’t own it personally.

Take-Two fell 17 cents to $8.83 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. Last year, the company rejected a $25.74-a-share buyout bid from Electronic Arts Inc.

Outlook

Take-Two projects a third-quarter loss of 55 cents to 65 cents a share, excluding certain costs, on sales of $145 million to $165 million. The company is releasing two games in the third quarter, compared with eight in the final three months of the fiscal year. Analysts project a third-quarter loss of 2 cents and revenue of $235.1 million.

For the fourth quarter, Take-Two forecasts a profit of $1.08 to $1.28 a share on sales of as much as $500 million. Analysts project profit of 75 cents on sales of $442.8 million.

“What you’re seeing is a shifting of our release schedule,” Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two’s chairman, said in an interview.

Take-Two also delayed the release of two games -- “Mafia II” and “Red Dead Redemption” -- until the first half of fiscal 2010.

Later this year, the company will make the online content for “Grand Theft Auto” available for purchase as a disc at retail outlets. The move is an effort to “reach a broader audience” than those who are inclined to buy through the Internet, Zelnick said.

Take-Two is also cutting costs and focusing more resources on developing new hits, so the company isn’t overly reliant on “Grand Theft Auto,” Zelnick said. “BioShock II,” set for release in the fourth quarter, is an example, he said.

“By reducing costs on the one hand and diversifying the base of big hits on the other hand, we have indeed reduced the company’s reliance on this big blockbuster hit,” Zelnick said. “At the same time, we still have wood to chop.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 26, 2009 17:02 EDT