Take-Two Interactive Software program reported that its internet bookings hit $1.47 billion within the fiscal second quarter ended September 30, up 2% from $1.44 billion a 12 months 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 search for internet bookings for the 12 months ending March 31, 2025. On a non-GAAP foundation, Take-Two mentioned earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA, a key measure of profitability) was a lack of $75.5 million within the quarter.
All eyes are on Take-Two, as Rockstar Video games on schedule to publish Grand Theft Auto VI within the fall of subsequent 12 months, about 13 years after the debut of Grand Theft Auto V, which has now bought 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,” mentioned Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, in an announcement. “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 mentioned, “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.”
In the course of the quarter, the corporate mentioned it bought the Non-public Division label, which focuses on third-party unique indie titles. But it surely didn’t identify the client.
The $1.47 billion in bookings have been on the high of the steerage vary.
In different particulars, internet bookings from recurrent shopper spending grew 6% and accounted for 81% of complete internet bookings within the quarter. The most important contributors to internet bookings have been NBA 2K25 and NBA 2K24, Grand Theft Auto On-line and Grand Theft Auto V, and Purple Lifeless Redemption 2 and Purple Lifeless On-line.
Within the extra informal/cellular video games, Take-Two mentioned the quarter benefited from gross sales for Toon Blast, the hyper-casual cellular portfolio, and Zynga’s titles together with Match Manufacturing unit!, Empires & Puzzles, Phrases With Buddies 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.
Web bookings is Take-Two’s operational metric and outlined as the online quantity of services bought digitally or sold-in bodily in the course of the interval, and contains licensing charges, merchandise, in-game promoting, technique guides and writer incentives.
On a GAAP accounting foundation, internet income elevated 4% to $1.35 billion, as in comparison with $1.30 billion in final 12 months’s fiscal second quarter. Recurrent shopper spending elevated 8% and accounted for 80% of complete GAAP internet income.
On a GAAP foundation, the online 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 12 months.
Outlook
For the third fiscal quarter ending December 31, the corporate expects internet 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 12 months ending March 31, 2025, Take-Two expects internet income to be $5.57 billion to $5.67 billion. The GAAP internet loss is anticipated to be $775 million to $839 million, whereas non-GAAP EBITDA is anticipated to be $282 million to $336 million.
The most important contributors to internet bookings are anticipated to be NBA 2K, the Grand Theft Auto collection, Toon Blast, our hyper-casual cellular portfolio, Match Manufacturing unit, Empires & Puzzles, the Purple Lifeless Redemption collection, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, and Phrases with Buddies.
The online bookings outlook is anticipated to be in a spread of $5.55 billion to $5.65 billion, which represents 5% progress over FY24.
Take-Two now anticipate RCS to develop roughly 4%, representing 78% of Web 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 enhance for cellular, pushed by Match Manufacturing unit and Toon Blast, partially offset by declines within the hyper-casual cellular portfolio and Empires and Puzzles. NBA 2K is anticipated 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 mission the online bookings from labels to be roughly 51% Zynga, 32% 2K, and 17% Rockstar Video games. The corporate forecasts geographic internet bookings break up to be about 60% United States and 40% Worldwide. Non-GAAP Adjusted Unrestricted Working Money Movement is anticipated 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 know-how and workplace buildouts.
The outlook assumes a continuation of the present financial backdrop.
Recreation info
Since July 1, Take-Two launched Zynga’s Recreation of Thrones Legends on cellular 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 apart from the autumn of calendar 2025.
2K will publish WWE 2K25 within the March 2025 quarter. Borderlands fall is coming within the 12 months ending March 31, 2026, as is 2K’s Mafia: The Outdated Nation. Zynga’s CSR Racing 3 will come out on cellular at a while sooner or later, as will Ghost Story Video games’ Judas.
The slight enhance in internet bookings was largely pushed by a modest enhance in internet bookings, in addition to mixture of enterprise. Within the interval, 82% of console recreation gross sales have been delivered digitally, up from 75% final 12 months. Catalog accounted for $366.1 million (48.7% of non-mobile internet bookings). Take-Two has 37 titles within the works by March 31, 2027.
Rockstar Video games
Gross sales of Grand Theft Auto V outperformed expectations and, up to now, the title has sold-in greater than 205 million models worldwide. Grand Theft Auto On-line additionally exceeded plans, pushed by sustained engagement with the Summer season 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 12 months, and added the traditional title, Bully, to the library of obtainable video games.
Purple Lifeless Redemption 2 posted one other good quarter. The title has sold-in greater than 67 million models to-date and, six years after its launch, nonetheless ranks within the high ten for unit gross sales globally, based on GSD. Rockstar Video games was happy to increase its viewers additional with the profitable launch of Purple Lifeless 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 scores on new technology consoles in current 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 within the collection’ 26-year historical past; and a extra interactive and interesting expertise in The Metropolis.
To-date, the title has sold-in almost 4.5 million models and achieved phenomenal RCS efficiency, the corporate mentioned. In comparison with NBA 2K24 for a similar interval final 12 months, NBA 2K25 delivered significant double-digit progress in common income per consumer and 40% progress in common video games per consumer.
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 mentioned it’s desirous to capitalize on the numerous potential progress alternatives for Borderlands, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and different Gearbox titles.
Zynga
Zynga delivered one other quarter of strong outcomes. Match Manufacturing unit is scaling quickly and is on monitor to change into Zynga’s second largest title by the top of this 12 months by way of projected annual internet bookings. The title grew roughly 16% over final quarter, pushed by its participating gameplay, together with the current Star Race daring beat, and our strategic investments in consumer acquisition.
Toon Blast is sustaining its unbelievable path of progress, with Web Bookings growing greater than 50% over final 12 months, as our groups deploy extremely participating new options, together with new single participant and group based mostly occasions and social challenges.
The blended monetization efforts in hyper-casual are advancing nicely. Specifically, Screw Jam stays a high fifty recreation within 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 most important in-app buy spending per energetic consumer within the recreation’s 14-year historical past.
In the course of the quarter, Zynga launched Recreation of Thrones: Legends, and Take-Two is happy concerning the label’s future cellular launches, together with CSR 3 – Road Automobile Racing.
Non-public Division
Take-Two mentioned it made the strategic resolution to promote the Non-public Division label (aimed toward third-party indie recreation publishing) to focus sources on rising its core and cellular companies for the long-term. As a part of this transaction, the client bought the rights to considerably all of Non-public Division’s dwell 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 mentioned it’s grateful for the contributions that the Non-public Division group has made to its firm and is assured that Non-public Division will proceed to realize success in its new house.
As for the variety of staff, 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 areas (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 mentioned, “We’re an leisure firm. We’re targeted on leisure, not politics. I’m actually enthusiastic about our future.
Requested concerning the resolution to promote Non-public Division and if it was a tricky time for unique mental property, Zelnick mentioned, “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 mentioned Rockstar hasn’t introduced a brand new GTA On-line for GTA 6, and he mentioned the labels make such bulletins. However he famous that the corporate doesn’t essentially must sundown prior iterations in on-line because it launches model new titles. For example, in China, NBA 2K On-line coexists with NBA 2K On-line 2.
Concerning the Nintendo speak about about backward compatibility for Change video games, Zelnick mentioned, “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 pleased with platforms that provide backward compatibility, given the power of Take-Two’s catalog. In an analyst name, Zelnick mentioned, “Never count Nintendo out.”
As for layoffs throughout gaming, Zelnick mentioned, “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 exhibits up on the stability sheet for now, and the corporate expects to incur advertising and marketing charges across the launch, mentioned Hannah Sage, EVP of finance and chief accounting officer, in an interview with GamesBeat. She mentioned the corporate largely hit its monetary targets.
Concerning Borderlands film, Zelnick mentioned 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 mentioned it drove some incremental recreation gross sales.
