Take Two's revenues were down to 27 percent for the fiscal year that ended March 31. Net profits of over $48 million in the 2011 fiscal year turned into losses of over $108 million for 2012. But to hear the publisher tell it, such performance is, in a way, all part of the long-term plan.

During a conference call accompanying today's earnings report, Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick attributed the company's inability to reach its revenue and profit goals last year to "slippage"—what you or I might simply call "delaying games." He insisted multiple times that putting off marquee titles until they're really fully ready is the best way for the company to ensure long-term growth, even though such delays might sometimes lead to disappointing-looking numbers in the short term.

Zelnick said Take Two has been pursuing a strategy of releasing a smaller number of higher quality releases for five years now, and that he's been extremely happy with how that plan has been going so far. "There's no question the market is not accepting low quality releases," he said by way of justifying the legendarily long development times for many Take Two franchises (for instance: compare the number of Grand Theft Auto games in the past six years to the number of Call of Duty games in the same period). Executive VP and COO Karl Slatoff suggested Take Two was ahead of the game in this regard, and that "the number of titles that are out in the market is going to be reduced" as other publishers realize that consumers won't tolerate rushed, low quality games anymore.

Still, the decision not to crank out annual sequels can sometimes lead to pretty weak-looking performance. Consider that Take Two cited the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption franchises as major drivers of revenue for the last fiscal year, even though neither series saw a major new release during that time (though a Grand Theft Auto III re-release on mobile platforms did sell very well in 2011). These mega-hits can help bring in money long after their release, but it also shows that the new releases like L.A. Noire, Duke Nukem Forever, and The Darkness II failed to carry a year without many marquee names.

But all those games that were pushed off from the last fiscal year seem set to pay off in the current fiscal year. Max Payne 3 has already shipped 3 million copies on consoles ahead of a PC release now slated for June 1. Take Two expects major releases like Borderlands 2, X-Com: Enemy Unknown, Civilization V: Of Gods and Men, and Bioshock Infinite to help more than double revenues for the current fiscal year. These are all titles that have been in development for a while—many with release dates that were once slated for previous years—and Take Two is finally hoping to cash in on these in the coming months. Meanwhile, the company is pushing back 2K Marin's X-com first-person shooter to the 2014 fiscal year, hoping that the game's already-long development cycle will pay off then.

It's a strategy that seems to be working for Take Two so far, but it's one that puts a lot of pressure on every release. If even a few of these major titles fail to live up to critical and sales expectations, it could represent a major hit to the company's long term results. (Not to mention, it would be viewed as a big waste of time and resources that could have been better used). You have to respect the confidence Take Two seems to be showing by giving its titles the time they need, rather than squeezing them in before some arbitrary financial reporting deadline.