Take-Two Interactive Software Q1 2024 Earnings Report

Take-Two Interactive Software EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -$0.02
• Consensus EPS: -$0.07
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.05
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Take-Two Interactive Software Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $1.20 billion
• Expected Revenue: $1.20 billion
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$1.85 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Take-Two Interactive Software Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2024
• Date: 8/8/2023
• Time: N/A
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, August 8, 2023
• Conference Call Time: 4:30PM ET

Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ:TTWO) is an American video game publisher headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1993 by Ryan Brant, the company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker TTWO and is led by Chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick. Take-Two operates through distinct publishing labels that manage development, marketing and distribution of interactive entertainment for a global audience.

Take-Two’s publishing portfolio includes Rockstar Games and 2K, as well as the Private Division label, which supports independent and mid-size developers. Its major franchises span a variety of genres and platforms and include Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar), as well as 2K-owned series such as NBA 2K, BioShock, Borderlands and Civilization. The company distributes games across consoles, PC and mobile devices and supports titles post-launch with downloadable content, live-service updates and in-game offerings.

Take-Two serves markets worldwide, leveraging digital distribution, licensing and merchandising to extend franchise value and recurring consumer engagement. The company pursues a mix of internally developed projects, third‑party publishing partnerships and strategic investments to broaden its content and technical capabilities. Take-Two’s business model emphasizes high-quality, narrative-driven blockbuster titles alongside recurring-revenue sports and live-service products to sustain long-term player communities and commercial performance.

Take-Two Interactive Software Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• We achieved Q1 net bookings of $1.2 billion, at the high end of guidance, driven by stronger-than-expected performance of Grand Theft Auto V/Online and NBA 2K23.
• Recurrent consumer spending rose 38% year-over-year and accounted for 84% of net bookings, exceeding the 35% growth outlook and highlighting robust engagement.
• GAAP results were impacted by an $80 million impairment charge related to capitalized development costs for an unreleased title.
• The company reiterated full-year net bookings guidance of $5.45 billion to $5.55 billion, expecting contributions from major franchises and the mobile segment.
• Zynga's ad revenue grew approximately 11% year-over-year, and ongoing mobile profitability initiatives, including hyper casual titles and direct-to-consumer launches, are progressing well.

Presentation

[Operator]

Welcome to Take-Two Interactive First Quarter fFiscal Year 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Nicole Shevins, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Thank you. You may begin.

[Nicole Shevins, SVP of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining our conference call to discuss our results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024 ended June 30th, 2023. Today's call will be led by Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Karl Slatoff, our President, and Lainie Goldstein, our Chief Financial Officer. We will be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session following our prepared remarks. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made during this call that are not historical facts are considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of our management, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to us. We have no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Actual operating results may vary significantly from these forward-looking statements based on a variety of factors.

[Nicole Shevins, SVP of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at Take-Two Interactive Software]

These important factors are described in our filings with the SEC, including the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q, including the risks summarized in the section entitled Risk Factors. I'd also like to note that, unless otherwise stated, all numbers we will be discussing today are GAAP, and all comparisons are year-over-year. Additional details regarding our actual results and outlook are contained in our press release, including the items that our management uses internally to adjust our GAAP financial results in order to evaluate our operating performance. Our press release also contains a reconciliation of any non-GAAP financial measure to the most comparable GAAP measure. In addition, we have posted to our website a slide deck that visually presents our results and financial outlook.

[Nicole Shevins, SVP of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Our press release and filings with the SEC may be obtained from our website at taketwogames.com. Now I'll turn the call over to Strauss.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Thanks, Nicole. Good afternoon, thank you for joining us today. I'm pleased to report that fiscal 2024 is off to a strong start, highlighted by first quarter Net Bookings of $1.2 billion, which was at the high end of our expectations, and management results that were in line with our plans. Grand Theft Auto Online and Grand Theft Auto V and NBA 2K23 exceeded our projections, which illustrates the long-lasting benefits of producing the highest quality offerings and amassing one of the strongest and most diverse portfolios in entertainment. In keeping with our core values of creativity, innovation, and efficiency, this quarter, we introduced new intellectual properties, advanced the development of our eagerly anticipated pipeline, and maintained our vigilance with cost management initiatives across our organization. Turning to the results of our titles for the period.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Grand Theft Auto V continued to outperform, and to date, the title has sold in more than 185 million units. On June 13th, Rockstar Games launched San Andreas Mercenaries for Grand Theft Auto Online, which offers six new major story-based missions, as well as new Los Santos operations, hangar upgrades, smuggler source and sell missions, seven new vehicles, and more. The update also includes a range of fan-requested experience improvements, as well as the career progress feature, offering players a new way to track their progression across criminal careers and claim rewards. San Andreas Mercenaries continues to deliver high-value content post-launch, using a phased approach that is driving sustained engagement and recurrent consumer spending. This June, Grand Theft Auto Online recorded more players than any other June in its history outside of the height of the pandemic.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

GTA+, Rockstar Games' premium membership service for Grand Theft Auto Online on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, offered exclusive options for members to test, drive, and purchase an array of vehicles. We're continuing to see strong growth in GTA+ adoption with each passing quarter. We were pleased with the performance of Red Dead Redemption 2, which has sold in more than 55 million units to date. Rockstar Games continues to support Red Dead Online with new bonuses and rewards, including free apparel inspired by the Red Dead Fashion subreddit and seasonal content such as April's Condor Egg free mode event. NBA 2K23 exceeded our plans. The title has now sold in over 13 million units, representing 11% year-over-year growth, driven by higher demand, especially on Gen 9 consoles, as well as a more tailored promotional cadence.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

This incredible performance marks the title's second highest sell-through ever, with only NBA 2K20 achieving higher unit sales. Engagement with NBA 2K23 remains strong, with approximately 2.6 million daily active users, delivering recurrent consumer spending that exceeded our expectations. Our franchise extensions with the NBA continue to perform extremely well, and NBA 2K23 Arcade Edition remains one of the top games on Apple Arcade. WWE 2K23, which is the highest-rated game in our wrestling franchise's history and the second-highest-rated sports simulation title of the year, experienced strong engagement throughout the quarter, with players logging nearly 22 million hours of gameplay and facing off in 170 million matches. 2K and Visual Concepts continue to support the title with a series of five DLC packs that can be purchased individually or as part of a season pass.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

2K also continues to support PGA Tour 2K23 with additional pros, courses, and clubhouse passes. In May, 2K and Visual Concepts launched LEGO 2K Drive, the first game in a multi-title partnership between 2K and The LEGO Group. Following the launch-... Our teams released the first of four Drive Pass seasons for the title, which features 100 levels and new content inspired by The Fast and the Furious saga. Also in May, Private Division and Piccolo Studio launched After Us on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, which has been praised by critics for its striking visuals and game world. Zynga had a solid start to the year, performing in line with our plans, and we're pleased with the ongoing progress of our mobile business.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Ad revenue grew approximately 11% year-over-year, driven by the addition of Popcore and our ability to open new inventory supplies in our portfolio. Toon Blast has been introducing strong feature releases, such as the Toon Race event, which drove outperformance versus our forecast and helped the game recently surpass $2 billion in lifetime gross bookings. We made excellent progress on our profitability initiatives in mobile. We expanded our offerings on our direct-to-consumer platforms, we continue to believe that over the next few years, the majority of our mobile games will leverage our highly profitable proprietary distribution channel. We continue to enhance the performance and profitability of our hyper-casual business, with multiple new games scaling quickly and several titles generating bookings from in-app purchases in addition to ads.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

A few key highlights of Zynga's live services during the period include: Empires & Puzzles grew quarter-over-quarter, driven by the new Path of Giants Battle Pass, featuring daily and weekly challenges to unlock rewards. Rollic's Twisted Tangle reached the number one free game spot on the U.S. Google Play Store. social casino again delivered strong results, driven by Hit It Rich's best quarter in two years and Game of Thrones Casino's second-best quarter in its history. Casual games continued to improve participation and engagement, with Words with Friends launching the new Club Daily Puzzle and Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells adding bonus levels and special delivery prize events. With numerous games in development and soft launch across Zynga Studios, we're excited to start delivering several new offerings in the coming months.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Turning to our outlook, we're reiterating our prior guidance of $5.45 billion-$5.55 billion in Net Bookings for fiscal 2024. We remain highly optimistic about our future and our ability to deliver record results in the coming years. Lainie will provide more details on our outlook shortly. In closing, as we continue to execute our strategy, we believe that we can increase significantly our scale and prominence within the industry, grow margins, and pursue the vast opportunities to engage even larger audiences around the world. Led by the passion, creativity, and innovation of our world-class development teams, Take-Two is in a powerful position to set new benchmarks for our player communities, which we believe will drive long-term returns for our shareholders. I'll now turn the call over to Karl.

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Thanks, Strauss. I'd like to thank our teams for a strong start to the year. Turning to our announced launches for fiscal 2024. Yesterday, Rockstar Games announced that the beloved Western experiences, Red Dead Redemption and Undead Nightmare, will be coming to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 for the first time in a new single package, arriving August 17th. In a new conversion by Double Eleven Studios, the Switch and PS4 versions bring the two classic experiences together again for new players and original fans to enjoy across modern consoles, including backwards compatibility with the PlayStation 5.

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

On September 8th, 2K and Visual Concepts will celebrate the 25th anniversary of our industry-defining NBA 2K series, once again, redefine basketball simulations with the launch of NBA 2K24, featuring the iconic Kobe Bryant as the game's cover athlete for the second time in the history of the franchise. Players will be able to celebrate Bryant's legacy and replicate his skills in the brand-new Mamba Moments mode. Players in the U.S. and Canada can also purchase the WNBA edition of the game exclusively at GameStop, featuring WNBA All-Star, Sabrina Ionescu, as this year's cover star. NBA 2K24 will introduce cross-play, a community-requested feature for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Available in every multiplayer mode, players will be able to compete with or against others from around the world in dynamic co-op matches, thrilling online tournaments, or casual pickup games between new generation consoles.

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

The title will also introduce ProPLAY, a groundbreaking new technology that directly translates actual NBA footage into gameplay. 2K will have more to share on NBA 2K24 in the coming weeks. In addition, 2K and Visual Concepts remain hard at work on WWE 2K24, the next installment of our popular wrestling series, which set new creative and critical benchmarks with last year's highly successful release. In June, Private Division and Evening Star announced Penny's Big Breakaway, a new 3D action platformer from the team behind Sonic Mania. This kinetic yo-yo adventure is expected to launch in early 2024. Zynga Star Wars Hunters, which offers players the opportunity to join the greatest hunters from across the Star Wars galaxy, is expected to launch later this fiscal year.

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Players will engage in thrilling third-person combat in a range of competitive game modes across battlegrounds from the iconic worlds of Star Wars. In mobile, Socialpoint's latest game, Top Troops, a medieval fantasy-themed title in the PVP merge genre, is progressing well in soft launch and is expected to launch worldwide in this fiscal year. In addition, our hyper-casual studios will release a steady cadence of mobile titles throughout the year, focusing on games that have the potential for enhanced retention rates and a mix of in-app purchases and advertising to drive higher monetization and profitability. Our labels will also continue to provide new content and experiences that drive engagement and recurrent consumer spending across many of our offerings, including Grand Theft Auto Online, Red Dead Online, WWE 2K, LEGO 2K Drive, PGA TOUR 2K, Kerbal Space Program 2, and Zynga's mobile portfolio.

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Throughout fiscal year 2024, we look forward to launching an additional additional releases from what we believe to be the strongest and most exciting development pipeline in our company's history. I'll now turn the call over to. Lainie

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Thanks, Karl. Good afternoon, everyone. Today, I'll discuss the key highlights from our first quarter before reviewing our financial outlook for the full year and second quarter of fiscal 2024. Our combination with Zynga closed on May 23, 2022, which affects the comparability of our results relative to last year. Additional details regarding our actual results and outlook are contained in our press release. We had a strong start to the fiscal year, powered by our portfolio of iconic, industry-leading intellectual property. As we approach our next phase of growth, our teams continue to make excellent progress advancing our development pipeline and capitalizing on our revenue-driven opportunities and synergies. We also partnered together to maintain our focus on efficiency amidst a challenging macroeconomic backdrop and cautious consumer spending trends.

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

I'd like to thank our incredible teams worldwide for their determination and passion for our business. Now, moving on to our results, we achieved Net Bookings of $1.2 billion, which was at the high end of our guidance range. In the current backdrop, many consumers are purchasing established franchises and those that offer great value. Our catalog stands at the intersection of these two trends. Accordingly, our performance reflects better-than-expected results from Grand Theft Auto Online and Grand Theft Auto V and NBA 2K23. During the quarter, we launched Marvel's Midnight Suns for Gen 8 consoles, LEGO 2K Drive, and After Us. Recurrent consumer spending grew 38% for the period, which was above our outlook of 35% growth and accounted for 84% of Net Bookings. The outperformance was primarily driven by Grand Theft Auto Online and NBA 2K23.

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

GAAP net revenue increased 17% to $1.28 billion, and cost of revenue increased 39% to $606 million, driven by $187 million of amortization of acquired intangibles. We also recorded an impairment of $18 million related primarily to capitalized software and development costs for an unreleased title, which affected our management results compared to our guidance. Operating expenses increased by 25% to $883 million. On a management basis, operating expenses grew by 46%, which primarily reflected a full quarter of Zynga, higher personnel costs, and depreciation related to office build-outs and capitalized IT expenses. Turning to our guidance, I'll begin with our full fiscal year expectations.

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

As Strauss mentioned, our business is performing well, we are reiterating our Net Bookings outlook range of $5.45 billion-$5.55 billion. The largest contributors to Net Bookings are expected to be NBA 2K, Grand Theft Auto Online, and Grand Theft Auto V, our hyper-casual mobile portfolio, Empires & Puzzles, Toon Blast, Merge Dragons!, Words with Friends, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online, and Zynga Poker. We expect the Net Bookings breakdown from our labels to be roughly 51% Zynga, 30% 2K, 17% Rockstar Games, and 2% other. We forecast our geographic Net Bookings split to be about 65% United States and 35% international. We continue to forecast recurrent consumer spending growth of 5% compared to fiscal 2023, representing 78% of Net Bookings.

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Mobile trends are projected to remain stable, and Zynga's ad business continues to deliver growth. We expect to generate approximately $100 million in non-GAAP adjusted unrestricted operating cash flow and deploy approximately $180 million for capital expenditures, primarily to support our office build-outs and larger footprint. We continue to expect GAAP net revenue to range from $5.37 billion-$5.47 billion. Our total operating expenses are expected to range from $3.38 billion-$3.4 billion, as compared to $3.45 billion last year.

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

On a management basis, our operating expenses are expected to grow by approximately 15% year-over-year, due primarily to a full year of Zynga, an increase in personnel and marketing expenses, and higher depreciation of office build-outs and capitalized IT expenses, which are being partially offset by the realization of synergies from our combination with Zynga and savings from our cost reduction program. As we announced previously, our teams are taking extensive measures to review our cost structure and reduce discretionary costs whenever possible to offset the current consumer backdrop and inflationary environment while still investing for growth. Now, moving on to our guidance for the fiscal second quarter. We project Net Bookings to range from $1.4 billion-$1.45 billion, compared to $1.5 billion in the second quarter last year.

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Our release slate for the quarter includes Red Dead Redemption and Undead Nightmare for Switch and PlayStation 4 and NBA 2K24. The largest contributors to Net Bookings are expected to be NBA 2K, Grand Theft Auto Online, and Grand Theft Auto V, our hyper-casual mobile portfolio, Empires & Puzzles, Toon Blast, Words with Friends, Merge Dragons, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Red Dead Online, and Zynga Poker. We project recurrent consumer spending to decline by approximately 7%, which assumes modest declines in our mobile business, NBA 2K, driven by changes to its summer promotional cadence, and Grand Theft Auto Online, as well as a reduction in DLC revenue from several titles that were released in prior years. We expect GAAP net revenue to range from $1.26 billion-$1.31 billion.

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Operating expenses are expected to range from $811 million-$821 million. On a management basis, operating expenses are expected to grow by approximately 5% year-over-year, driven by last year's acquisition of Popcore and higher personnel costs, which are being partly offset by the Zynga synergies and our cost savings initiatives. In closing, we are confident that the actions our teams are taking this year are preparing us for a strong trajectory of growth. Through our collective efforts, we continue to believe that we are positioning our business for a significant inflection point in fiscal 2025, that will culminate in us delivering new record levels of operating performance next year and beyond. We thank all of our stakeholders for their continued support, and we look forward to delivering on this exciting next chapter. Thank you.

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

I'll now turn the call back to Strauss.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Thanks, Lainie and Karl. On behalf of our entire management team, I'd like to thank our colleagues for delivering a strong start to the fiscal year. To our shareholders, I want to express our appreciation for your continued support. We'll now take your questions. Operator?

[Operator]

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press Star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue, and for participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question is from Andrew Uerkwitz with Jefferies. Please proceed.

[Andrew Uerkwitz, Managing Director at Jefferies]

Yeah, I just have one question. Lainie called out consumer weakness, kind of continuing. Could you just give an update on where you think the consumer is at? Is there a particular segment that it's weaker than others? Just kind of an update on where you think the consumer is at today. Thank you.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Yeah, I mean, I love that people are debating whether we're going to be in a recession. From the point of view of a digital entertainment company, we've been in a recession for the better part of 18 months. The, the market for interactive entertainment was down meaningfully in 2022, down for the first time in the history of the mobile business, over 10%, pretty much across the board. Things are looking a lot better. The, the year-over-year comps have stabilized. We're seeing growth in the console market. It's early, we are seeing some growth. Mobile, sort of flat, slightly down. We hope that'll improve. I do feel like we're all seeing some green shoots across the, across the economy, it, it definitely is a mixed picture, depending on who you ask.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

In the context of the entertainment business, live entertainment is doing great. But in, in the context of entertainment that people consumed at home during the pandemic, it's been challenging for a while. Again, I think it's beginning to normalize, but it's early days yet. When asked, a couple of calls ago, what I thought would happen in the economy, I said that I thought it would bottom out in June, July, that by the end of calendar 2023, we'd begin to see some good news and that we'd be in a reasonably good position from an econo-economic point of view in early 2024, I continue to believe that that's what will happen.

[Andrew Uerkwitz, Managing Director at Jefferies]

Got it. Just one quick follow-up on that with, around media, I guess. If Hollywood stays in a recession, is that a positive, negative, is it or does it not matter for video games?

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Look, we live within the entertainment ecosystem, so, you know, we, we would never wish for any other industry to have a problem. If, if the strike means that new content can't be delivered, then I suppose it could be some small positive benefit for our business. We, we aren't counting on that. We're certainly not hoping for it.

[Andrew Uerkwitz, Managing Director at Jefferies]

Got it. Thank you so much, guys. Appreciate it.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Eric Handler with Roth MKM. Please proceed.

[Eric Handler, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth MKM]

Good afternoon, and thank you for the question. Strauss, I wonder if you could just talk about, with mobile advertising, how much, how, how many of your games beyond the hyper-casual business have integrated advertising now?

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Some, we are moving in that direction selectively. Look, historically, for games where you could make in-app purchases, less than 10% of the audience actually spent. We were fielding a game for 100% of the audience and monetizing 10% or so, perhaps a bit more, often a bit less. It's our view that we ought to be monetizing 100% of the audience. If someone's going to spend, that's great, and if they're not going to spend, then we ought to be able to monetize through advertising. The question is: How do you do that and create a high-quality experience? I think the answer is we can do that. We, we can distinguish among those audiences. We're not there yet, but I think we're moving in that direction.

[Eric Handler, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth MKM]

Thanks. Just as a follow-up, I wondered if you could willing to give any specifics about how much of the mobile revenue at this point is on the DTC platform and how that's progressing?

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

We don't actually give out that percentage. Some of our competitors do, one of our biggest competitors, I think, has gone on the record to say it's about 25%. I think that's a good number. We're not remotely in that vicinity. There's plenty of room for growth. I would note that Zynga's advertising Net Bookings were up 11% year-over-year, it's really good news, we're really happy about the growth of our direct-to-consumer platform and what that can mean for consumers and also for us.

[Eric Handler, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth MKM]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Matthew Thornton with Truist Securities. Please proceed.

[Matthew Thornton, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Truist Securities]

Hey, good afternoon, Strauss, Karl, Lainie. Two quick ones for me. Last quarter, we talked about obviously, achieving north of $8 billion in bookings next year and north of $1 billion in operating cash flow. I'm just kind of curious if those are still the right bogeys for next year. Just secondly, I, I apologize if I missed this. Any changes to this year's slate? I saw we've got.

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

... the $18 million impairment charge here, but I guess relative to where we were three months ago, is there any change to this year's release slate? Thanks so much.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

The answer to question one is yes, and Lainie will answer question two.

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Sure. For question two, there has been some movements within the back part of the year within the slate, but we're still able to achieve the same guidance for the year. Reiterating our guidance, so just some small changes within the slate, but it has nothing to do with the impairment charge. The year is still the same.

[Matthew Thornton, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Truist Securities]

Perfect. Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Matthew Cost with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.

[Matthew Cost, Executive Director of Equity Research at Morgan Stanley]

Hi, everybody. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe I'll start just by asking about mobile M&A. I mean, that was historically a very big part of Zynga's business. It seems like the market may be starting to thaw out there in terms of deal activity after a deep freeze for the past year or two. Do you, do you see an opportunity to lean back into M&A at the Zynga business, number one? Number two is, Lainie, you mentioned in the prepared remarks some changes to the promotional cadence for NBA 2K. I was wondering if you could just give a little more detail about, you know, what those changes are and, you know, the size of the financial impact. Thank you.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

On, on the deal side, it's, it's hard to know. In terms of our strategy, we think we're in a position to grow organically. We have a lot of new releases coming from Zynga. We're really excited about them. As you know, hit ratios are very low in the mobile business, so we're not claiming success until it occurs. But we do feel really good about some new launches. And in terms of the promotional cadences?

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

NBA 2K24, we expect to be up from 2K23. 2K23 versus 2K22, there is some less promotional timing in this quarter versus what we did with 2K22 last year. That's why we expect the title to be a little bit down versus last year.

[Matthew Cost, Executive Director of Equity Research at Morgan Stanley]

Great. Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Doug Creutz with TD Cowen. Please proceed.

[Doug Creutz, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Hey, thanks. You alluded this a little bit earlier. You, you and others have talked about how difficult it is to launch a new mobile title these days. We did see, however, a few months ago, a competitor of yours launched, Scopely launched MONOPOLY GO!, which has shot to number one on the App Store charts rapidly, has had a lot of success. As you have observed that, is there anything that you would any lessons you would draw from their success that you think you could apply to your own games that you have coming out soon?

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Look, I, I think it's an established intellectual property that's been known and beloved for a very long time, and if you combine that with a high-quality expression, I think you can do very well. You know, we obviously don't know what they're spending, to be in the position that they're in. I do know that we're very focused on profitability, so we're being careful to make sure that our user acquisition spending reflects a high lifetime value for, for our customer.

[Doug Creutz, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Okay, thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.

[Eric Sheridan, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs]

Thanks so much. Maybe just one bigger picture question. You know, as you continue to sort of integrate Zynga and move further away from the acquisition, curious your updated thoughts on how you're thinking about the elements of AAA titles having sort of cross promotion, cross-play across elements of console and mobile, and how that might inform some of your development cycles in the next couple of years, or some of the pipeline dynamics that fed back into some of the bookings, longer-term framework from last quarter? Thanks so much.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

We continue to believe there's an opportunity there. We do have titles coming that will offer an opportunity to engage on console and also in mobile. We don't think it's something that you have to offer. Each title will stand alone. A question you didn't ask, but we've also discussed, is the possibility of creating new mobile titles based on core Take-Two intellectual property, and that's something that we're also potentially excited by. In all instances, the consumer experience, the quality of the title is what governs, not the business model. We have to create something great that consumers want. If we do, they'll show up, and if we don't, they won't.

[Eric Sheridan, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Mario Lu with Barclays. Please proceed.

[Mario Lu, Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Great, thanks for taking the questions. The first one is on NBA 2K24. You guys mentioned the upcoming cross-play feature was a largely asked one by the community. That being said, I'm curious if there's any data points you could share in terms of how impactful this feature will be in terms of user engagement or recurring consumer spending. Then is there any reason why it was not included on PC in the last game?

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

This is Karl, Mario. Look, we're very excited about cross-play. It's something that our customers have been asking for and something that's natural for NBA. Obviously, we don't do anything, and we don't put any new modes into a game unless we think it's gonna have a significant impact on the experience for the consumer, and that's something the consumer is gonna love and is gonna end up leading to increased engagement. Obviously, as we say, when you get increased engagement, you get increased monetization, and then everyone's happy in that regard. All of these decisions are economic decisions, but it starts off first with the experience itself. At this point, you know, we're very confident that 2K has cracked the note on cross-play experiences, and we're looking forward to that.

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

As it relates to PC and old gen, it's really just, again, allocation of resources, these decisions.

[Mario Lu, Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Got it. That makes sense. Just on a separate note, in terms of the topic of charging a higher price for users, to get access to a game, like early access, during the launch, I noticed it wasn't included in NBA 2K's pre-order pricing. Is this an opportunity in the future or just something, you know, you guys opted out of? Thanks.

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Yeah, we haven't, you know, most of the time. It's funny you say a higher price, because when we have we have some early access games in the market right now, we typically would offer them at a lower price because it would imply that, that there's more to come in the game, and it's not necessarily the final version. We have seen the early access models out there in terms of holding back access and making people pay more for earlier access. That's not something that we've done to date. I would never say never, but honestly, that's a marketing decision. Our priority is really making sure that the game comes out, comes out in a timely fashion, with the best experience possible.

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

If that's something that makes sense, down the line, we could experiment with it, but to date, that has not been something that we've looked at.

[Mario Lu, Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Got it. Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question is from David Karnovsky with JPMorgan. Please proceed.

[David Karnovsky, Senior Research Analyst at JPMorgan]

Hi, thank you. Just on the bookings by label, I wanted to follow up on the guidance for Zynga. I think that's down slightly on the maintained bookings figures, so I wanted to see if you could walk through the adjustment there. Sticking with mobile, you talked about hyper-casual, a focus on, you know, releasing games that retain better, have a, you know, higher mix of IAP spend. Just wanted to see if you could unpack the thinking behind the strategy there, what the traction's been, and maybe how that impacts the ad revenue potentially from Rollic and Popcore. Thanks.

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

For the bookings for Zynga, so for mobile, there's some game shifts within the year. So there was some reforecasting of some of the existing games, and that's what has changed within mobile.

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

In terms of the hyper-casual business, what we've seen is that there are some games, particularly with the acquisition of Popcore, that are a bit stickier than the typical hyper-casual business, and they have the opportunity to engage consumers for longer periods of time, and also potentially lead to not just necessarily monetizing through advertising, but also monetizing through in-app purchases. We're starting to see that. We're starting to experiment with that, and we think that there's a market there for us. I think we've been calling it the hybrid-casual market, where you have the ability to not only monetize with advertising, but also in-app purchases, just because the experiences are a bit deeper and they last a little bit longer. We think that's very exciting.

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

I don't know that it's going to necessarily impact the advertising opportunity overall, but it certainly creates new opportunities with in, in-app purchases for us.

[David Karnovsky, Senior Research Analyst at JPMorgan]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Omar Dessouky with Bank of America. Please proceed.

[Omar Dessouky, Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America]

Hi, thank you for taking my question. You didn't change your full year guidance, and I wanted to know, I think, David Karnovsky asked the question, and you talked about Zynga a little bit. I wanted to know, whether your implied, like-for-like guidance on mobile, has changed at all, since the last time you guided? Then within that, do you expect advertising to grow on an organic basis that is excluding Popcore? I have one more question.

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

We just mentioned that Zynga has changed a little bit because there was movement in the release schedule and some updates to the forecast. We did have some changes in the rest of the year. There were some changes in the release schedule. There were some ups and downs within the year, but overall, we've kept the entire year the same. We were at the higher end in the first quarter, but we reiterated the full year. In terms of expecting advertising to grow, yes, we do expect it to grow in the full year.

[Omar Dessouky, Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America]

Organically.

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Organically, yes.

[Omar Dessouky, Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America]

Okay, great. Then the other part of the question I wanted to ask was, in terms of the direct-to-consumer channel, I think Strauss said that the majority of mobile games in a few years, will leverage that channel. You have a lot of games. I, you know, we've counted well over 100. Not all of them are your, your big winners. I think there's a long tail of games. I guess I wanted to ask, you know, is it that the, the biggest games, the biggest games are gonna be, on your DTC platform, or is it just the sheer number of games? I, I'm trying to get a sense of how much revenue could potentially flow, flow through that channel, if you understand what I mean.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Yes, I do understand what you mean. It really varies game by game. If, if the game is not suited to direct-to-consumer, and it may not be because of its style, its, the interaction, the consumers have with the title, then there may not be an opportunity, even though it's a big title. Then there are other titles where it's terrific opportunity. Again, we haven't, we haven't established a number that we're shooting for, but I did quote the number that a competitor has outlined, and I think that number is kind of the high end of the possibility.

[Omar Dessouky, Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Mike Hickey with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed.

[Mike Hickey, Senior Analyst of Equity Research at The Benchmark Company]

Hey, Strauss, Karl, Nicole. Nice quarter, guys. Thanks for taking our questions. Curious, Strauss, sort of big picture, pardon the pun, curious what you're thinking on.

[Mike Hickey, Senior Analyst of Equity Research at The Benchmark Company]

... film opportunity. I, I know you're not a trend band, bandwagon guy, so, maybe this isn't that. You know, hard not to notice the results here from The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Last of Us. This is an area where historically it's been a challenge for game IP to have success in new mediums. Looks like the formula is kinda, you know, involve the creative piece to the original game and have great storylines. When you look at your portfolio of IP, you know, you've got a ton of opportunities, it would seem like. You certainly have the creative talent, you definitely have a great, great storyline. So, two questions on that, Strauss.

[Mike Hickey, Senior Analyst of Equity Research at The Benchmark Company]

Curious if your creative teams are motivated to expand their IP into, into new entertainment mediums like film, or streaming episodic content. Curious if you think IP expansion into new mediums like film, can sort of complement your growth strategy over the long term. Thanks, guys.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

Thanks, Mike. We think it's probably a relatively small opportunity economically. We're not gonna use our balance sheet to invest in film and television projects. Those are typically, very challenged asset classes, with which I'm quite familiar. To point out two successes, notable as they may be, belies the fact that there are many, many failures, where money was lost. So far, we've taken a very selective approach to licensing, and we do have a Borderlands movie coming from Lionsgate, and we have BioShock movie coming as well. We're excited about both. Selectively, we could see licensing in the future when there's a creative imperative and an economic opportunity. I think you're right. The reason there's been success lately was because you had great IP, and then there was a great project that was made from it.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

The reason you've had failure in the past is that the expression of the IP just wasn't very good, despite people's best efforts. It's a really hard business, and we're, we're not gonna bet this company's future or the value of our intellectual property based on someone else's execution in another area of the entertainment business. We'll continue to be very selective indeed. Even if we did take a broad-based approach, in the absence of investing ourselves, the economic opportunity in the context of the much greater economic opportunity for our core business is limited.

[Mike Hickey, Senior Analyst of Equity Research at The Benchmark Company]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Brian Fitzgerald with Wells Fargo. Please proceed.

[Brian Fitzgerald, Managing Director at Wells Fargo Securities]

Thanks. Two quick ones. Strauss, not to get wrapped around the axle with semantics, but you said, hey, we had a phased approach when you were talking about GTA Online. Anything to call out there as a difference or an evolution of how you're marketing and delivering incremental content, or no, it's just more of the normal MO? Second question is on NBA 2K23, added to PlayStation Plus, game of the month. That definitely contributes to strong engagement, but we're curious whether or not you also see a meaningful uptick in RCS there among those PlayStation Plus players. Point being, you know, if they are waiting to engage with it once it's in a subscription service, is there a lower propensity to spend on the game?

[Brian Fitzgerald, Managing Director at Wells Fargo Securities]

No, actually, we see, we see an uptick in RCS there as well.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

On the, on the first question, by phased approach, I was referring to delivering somewhat smaller chunks of really high-quality content, as opposed to waiting for a longer period of time to deliver something that's much larger. Both approaches can work, and of late, the phased approach has been working really well. However, there's not one right approach. It, it varies with what the team has in mind creatively at any given time.

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

In terms of the things like subscription services or game of the month, where the consumer isn't necessarily buying the individual game, obviously, we don't do these things unless we think there's a significant economic opportunity for us to do so. If, if you see it going into one of those services, you can assume that that math has been done. Yes, we do see an uptick in recurrent consumer spending generally, because we bring in a lot of new players. Those players are valuable players, and as long as they're engaged with the game itself, the engagement is strong, the conversion to RCS is very strong. It varies cohort to cohort and varies game to game.

[Karl Slatoff, President at Take-Two Interactive Software]

If we do drive significant engagement from folks who are coming into the game, we, we are seeing, very favorable results as it relates to monetization.

[Brian Fitzgerald, Managing Director at Wells Fargo Securities]

Awesome. Thanks, Karl. Thanks, Strauss.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Benjamin Soff with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.

[Benjamin Soff, VP of Equity Research at Deutsche Bank]

Hey, guys. Thanks for the question. Just wanted to dig back into the revenue breakdown by studio. It looks like the percentage for Rockstar and other went up, and I'm just wondering if that's a function of share shift, from the things you talked about with mobile, or if your expectations for those segments have actually improved, and if so, could you talk a little bit more about that? Thanks.

[Lainie Goldstein, CFO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

The update for Rockstar Games is based on the momentum in their current business. There's some GTA V unit sales, some, you know, the Red Dead updates and some virtual currency with the Grand Theft Auto Online updating. It's just overall reforecasting of the business.

[Benjamin Soff, VP of Equity Research at Deutsche Bank]

Okay, got it. Just could you talk broadly about the competitive environment in the industry and whether you think it'll be sort of at this level, more competitive, less competitive, you know, six or 12 months from now? Thanks.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

I think it'll be about the same. It's always hard to know. It's a very competitive business at any given time. Ultimately, we're really competing with ourselves because if there's a lot in the market that consumers want, generally speaking, they'll go consume it. If there's nothing that they want, it's not like they consume the next best, they just stay away. We have to deliver the highest quality properties, and if we do that, they'll show up in good times and in bad. I mean, you're seeing that even in a mixed economy, the best titles still pull big audiences.

[Operator]

We have reached the end of our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for closing comments.

[Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO at Take-Two Interactive Software]

I just want to take a minute to thank our teams again for delivering a superb quarter, and we're really thrilled with the way this year is unfolding. Our titles continue to be of phenomenal quality. We're really excited about our upcoming releases and, obviously, very excited about the future beyond this fiscal year. We also want to thank all of you for attending the call, for your great questions, and naturally, we're grateful to our shareholders for their continued support. Thanks so much and have a great evening.

[Operator]

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference.

Participants

Executives

• Karl Slatoff, President
• Lainie Goldstein, CFO
• Nicole Shevins, SVP of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
• Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO

Analysts

• Andrew Uerkwitz, Managing Director at Jefferies
• Benjamin Soff, VP of Equity Research at Deutsche Bank
• Brian Fitzgerald, Managing Director at Wells Fargo Securities
• David Karnovsky, Senior Research Analyst at JPMorgan
• Doug Creutz, Managing Director at TD Cowen
• Eric Handler, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth MKM
• Eric Sheridan, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs
• Mario Lu, Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays
• Matthew Cost, Executive Director of Equity Research at Morgan Stanley
• Matthew Thornton, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Truist Securities
• Mike Hickey, Senior Analyst of Equity Research at The Benchmark Company
• Omar Dessouky, Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America