Take-Two hits targets for September quarter with $1.47B in net bookings
Take-Two Interactive Software reported that its net bookings hit $1.47 billion in the fiscal second quarter ended September 30, up 2% from $1.44 billion a yr in the past.
The bookings progress was pushed by gross sales of the Grand Theft Auto and Borderlands franchises, and the corporate reiterated its out look for net bookings for the yr ending March 31, 2025. On a non-GAAP foundation, Take-Two stated earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA, a key measure of profitability) was a lack of $75.5 million in the quarter.
All eyes are on Take-Two, as Rockstar Video games on schedule to publish Grand Theft Auto VI in the autumn of subsequent yr, about 13 years after the debut of Grand Theft Auto V, which has now offered 205 million copies. Take-Two’s inventory is up 3% to $173 a share in after-hours buying and selling.
“I am pleased to report that we delivered strong second quarter results,” stated Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, in a press release. “Our net bookings of $1.47 billion were at the top of our guidance range, driven by the continued success of the Grand Theft Auto and Borderlands franchises, and our operating results
surpassed our plans, largely due to a shift in the timing of marketing expenses within the year.”
Zelnick added, “Our execution has been consistent, and our teams continue to make great progress advancing our development pipeline. Accordingly, we are reiterating our fiscal year 2025 net bookings guidance range of $5.55 to $5.65 billion, and we are confident that we will achieve sequential increases and record levels of Net Bookings in fiscal years 2026 and 2027.”
And he stated, “As we look ahead, we believe that Take-Two remains exceedingly well-positioned for the long-term. Our vision is clear, our talent is unparalleled, and we have one of the strongest portfolios of owned intellectual property in our industry. With many exciting new titles coming in Fiscal 2026 – including Grand Theft Auto VI in the fall, Borderlands 4 and Mafia: The Old Country – we expect to create long-term value for our shareholders.”
Throughout the quarter, the corporate stated it offered the Personal Division label, which focuses on third-party authentic indie titles. Nevertheless it didn’t identify the customer.
Take-Two Interactive chief govt Strauss Zelnick.
The $1.47 billion in bookings have been on the prime of the steerage vary.
In different particulars, net bookings from recurrent shopper spending grew 6% and accounted for 81% of complete net bookings in the quarter. The most important contributors to net bookings have been NBA 2K25 and NBA 2K24, Grand Theft Auto On-line and Grand Theft Auto V, and Crimson Useless Redemption 2 and Crimson Useless On-line.
Within the extra informal/cell video games, Take-Two stated the quarter benefited from gross sales for Toon Blast, the hyper-casual cell portfolio, and Zynga’s titles together with Match Manufacturing facility!, Empires & Puzzles, Phrases With Associates and Toy Blast.
Recurrent shopper spending is generated from ongoing shopper engagement and contains digital forex, add-on content material, in-game purchases and in-game promoting.
Net bookings is Take-Two’s operational metric and outlined because the net quantity of services offered digitally or sold-in bodily through the interval, and contains licensing charges, merchandise, in-game promoting, technique guides and writer incentives.
On a GAAP accounting foundation, net income elevated 4% to $1.35 billion, as in comparison with $1.30 billion in final yr’s fiscal second quarter. Recurrent shopper spending elevated 8% and accounted for 80% of complete GAAP net income.
On a GAAP foundation, the net loss was $365.5 million, or $2.08 per share, as in comparison with $543.6 million, or $3.20 per share, for the comparable interval final yr.
Outlook
Civ VII is coming in early 2025.
For the third fiscal quarter ending December 31, the corporate expects net bookings to be $1.35 billion to $1.4 billion, and non-GAAP EBITDA to be $78 million to $100 million.
For the GAAP fiscal yr ending March 31, 2025, Take-Two expects net income to be $5.57 billion to $5.67 billion. The GAAP net loss is predicted to be $775 million to $839 million, whereas non-GAAP EBITDA is predicted to be $282 million to $336 million.
The most important contributors to net bookings are anticipated to be NBA 2K, the Grand Theft Auto sequence, Toon Blast, our hyper-casual cell portfolio, Match Manufacturing facility, Empires & Puzzles, the Crimson Useless Redemption sequence, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, and Phrases with Associates.
The net bookings outlook is predicted to be in a variety of $5.55 billion to $5.65 billion, which represents 5% progress over FY24.
Take-Two now count on RCS to develop roughly 4%, representing 78% of Net Bookings. That is up barely from the prior forecast of three%, pushed by NBA 2K. The RCS forecast continues to imagine a excessive single digit improve for cell, pushed by Match Manufacturing facility and Toon Blast, partially offset by declines in the hyper-casual cell portfolio and Empires and Puzzles. NBA 2K is predicted to develop low single digits, which is up from the prior forecast of flat, whereas Grand Theft Auto On-line continues to be anticipated to say no.
Take-Two challenge the net bookings from labels to be roughly 51% Zynga, 32% 2K, and 17% Rockstar Video games. The corporate forecasts geographic net bookings break up to be about 60% United States and 40% Worldwide. Non-GAAP Adjusted Unrestricted Working Money Stream is predicted to be an outflow of $150 million, which is unchanged from the prior forecast, and the corporate stays on monitor to deploy roughly $140 million of capital expenditures, primarily for recreation expertise and workplace buildouts.
The outlook assumes a continuation of the present financial backdrop.
Sport info
Since July 1, Take-Two launched Zynga’s Sport of Thrones Legends on cell and NBA 2K25 on the consoles and PC. Within the close to future, releases embrace Sid Meier’s Civilization VII on the console and PC on February 11, 2025. GTA VI doesn’t have a selected launch date aside from the autumn of calendar 2025.
2K will publish WWE 2K25 in the March 2025 quarter. Borderlands fall is coming in the yr ending March 31, 2026, as is 2K’s Mafia: The Outdated Nation. Zynga’s CSR Racing 3 will come out on cell at a while in the longer term, as will Ghost Story Video games’ Judas.
The slight improve in net bookings was largely pushed by a modest improve in net bookings, in addition to mixture of enterprise. Within the interval, 82% of console recreation gross sales have been delivered digitally, up from 75% final yr. Catalog accounted for $366.1 million (48.7% of non-mobile net bookings). Take-Two has 37 titles in the works by way of March 31, 2027.
Rockstar Video games
Again to Vice Metropolis, or Miami, for GTA6
Gross sales of Grand Theft Auto V outperformed expectations and, thus far, the title has sold-in greater than 205 million items worldwide. Grand Theft Auto On-line additionally exceeded plans, pushed by sustained engagement with the Summer time content material pack Backside Greenback Bounties, and an array of updates.
Momentum additionally continued inside GTA+, as Rockstar grew its membership by 35% over final yr, and added the basic title, Bully, to the library of obtainable video games.
Crimson Useless Redemption 2 posted one other good quarter. The title has sold-in greater than 67 million items to-date and, six years after its launch, nonetheless ranks in the highest ten for unit gross sales globally, based on GSD. Rockstar Video games was happy to develop its viewers additional with the profitable launch of Crimson Useless Redemption and Undead Nightmare for PC on October 29.
2K
On September 6, 2K and Visible Ideas launched NBA 2K25, which scored among the many highest rankings on new technology consoles in latest franchise historical past.
The sport has 9,000 new ProPLAY animations that present elevated authenticity; an all-new dribble engine, representing the largest technological replace in the sequence’ 26-year historical past; and a extra interactive and fascinating expertise in The Metropolis.
To-date, the title has sold-in almost 4.5 million items and achieved phenomenal RCS efficiency, the corporate stated. In comparison with NBA 2K24 for the identical interval final yr, NBA 2K25 delivered significant double-digit progress in common income per person and 40% progress in common video games per person.
2K’s catalog additionally outperformed, led by the favored Borderlands franchise. Now that Gearbox has formally joined the 2K and Take-Two household, Take-Two stated it’s desperate to capitalize on the numerous potential progress alternatives for Borderlands, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and different Gearbox titles.
Zynga
Match Manufacturing facility
Zynga delivered one other quarter of strong outcomes. Match Manufacturing facility is scaling quickly and is on monitor to turn out to be Zynga’s second largest title by the top of this yr in phrases of projected annual net bookings. The title grew roughly 16% over final quarter, pushed by its partaking gameplay, together with the latest Star Race daring beat, and our strategic investments in person acquisition.
Toon Blast is sustaining its improbable path of progress, with Net Bookings growing greater than 50% over final yr, as our groups deploy extremely partaking new options, together with new single participant and workforce primarily based occasions and social challenges.
The blended monetization efforts in hyper-casual are advancing effectively. Specifically, Screw Jam stays a prime fifty recreation in the U.S. Apple App Retailer. Nordeus launched the extremely anticipated 2025 version of the favored soccer supervisor recreation, High Eleven. Backed by a month-long advertising and marketing marketing campaign, the discharge generated constructive sentiment across the group, which helped solidify the biggest in-app buy spending per lively person in the sport’s 14-year historical past.
Throughout the quarter, Zynga launched Sport of Thrones: Legends, and Take-Two is happy concerning the label’s future cell launches, together with CSR 3 – Road Automotive Racing.
Personal Division
Personal Division was Take-Two’s third-party indie label.
Take-Two stated it made the strategic determination to promote the Personal Division label (geared toward third-party indie recreation publishing) to focus assets on rising its core and cell companies for the long-term. As a part of this transaction, the customer bought the rights to considerably all of Personal Division’s stay and unreleased titles.
Take-Two will proceed to help No Relaxation for the Depraved, which launched in early entry on PC in April.
The corporate stated it’s grateful for the contributions that the Personal Division workforce has made to its firm and is assured that Personal Division will proceed to realize success in its new dwelling.
As for the variety of workers, Take-Two closed the September 30 quarter with 13,077 individuals, together with 10,273 in-house improvement studio workers. These numbers have been up, respectively,by 110 jobs and 125 jobs. About 22% of workers have been in low-cost places (India, China, Turkey, Serbia, Chile, and Hungary).
Strauss Zelnick interview
I requested if the U.S. presidential election would affect Take-Two’s future or maybe gaming’s future.
Zelnick stated, “We’re an leisure firm. We’re centered on leisure, not politics. I’m actually enthusiastic about our future.
Requested concerning the determination to promote Personal Division and if it was a troublesome time for authentic mental property, Zelnick stated, “I think it’s always a tough time for new IP. We beat the risk in Private Division, and that risk was based on a thesis that there were a lot of great independent creators out there we could work with and perhaps build some massive franchises within that division.”
He added, “The team did a great job, led by Michael Worosz. Virtually everything that they invested in did well, and Outer Worlds did really, really, really well. But nothing, nothing broke out to the level of one of the core intellectual properties at 2K or Rockstar, and our real mission and vision is to make the biggest hits in the entertainment system. That’s what we do. We do that in mobile. We do that in content.”
That led to the choice to divest.
Zelnick stated Rockstar hasn’t introduced a brand new GTA On-line for GTA 6, and he stated the labels make such bulletins. However he famous that the corporate doesn’t essentially should sundown prior iterations in on-line because it launches model new titles. For instance, in China, NBA 2K On-line coexists with NBA 2K On-line 2.
Concerning the Nintendo speak about about backward compatibility for Swap video games, Zelnick stated, “I’m always optimistic when people are investing in the business and seeking to innovate.” A spokesman added that the corporate is at all times completely happy with platforms that provide backward compatibility, given the energy of Take-Two’s catalog. In an analyst name, Zelnick stated, “Never count Nintendo out.”
As for layoffs throughout gaming, Zelnick stated, “I think that most companies have gotten to whatever restructuring they needed to do. And as you know, the industry is going once again, and I think it will remain the fastest growing part of the entertainment business for some time to come.”
Since Take-Two capitalizes its prices, Rockstar’s spending on GTA 6 reveals up on the steadiness sheet for now, and the corporate expects to incur advertising and marketing charges across the launch, stated Hannah Sage, EVP of finance and chief accounting officer, in an interview with GamesBeat. She stated the corporate largely hit its monetary targets.
Concerning Borderlands film, Zelnick stated in an analyst name that it was disappointing and the outcomes weren’t materials to Take-Two’s financials and so it didn’t break them out. The field workplace was $31 million, with prices above $110 million. He stated it drove some incremental recreation gross sales.
VB Each day
Keep in the know! Get the most recent information in your inbox every day
Thanks for subscribing. Take a look at extra VB newsletters right here.
An error occured.