Take-Two Interactive reported its quarterly earnings results for October to December 2024 on Thursday, which once again did not include a specific release date for “Grand Theft Auto 6.”
However, the owner of Rockstar Games assures “GTA 6” is still on track for its previously announced fall 2025 window.
“We’ve announced a pretty narrow window. So I think our view is that right now, that’s fine,” Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick told Variety Thursday ahead of the video game company’s latest quarterly earnings results release. “And then when it’s appropriate, of course, Rockstar is going to have more to say.”
What has moved since the last time Take-Two reported earnings is the release date for “Borderlands 4,” which has switched from a slot in the company’s fiscal year 2026 (April 1, 2025-March 31, 2026) to within calendar 2025. On that front, Zelnick says “you will have a date soon, and then all will become clear,” in regards to how the title will slot in around “Mafia: The Old Country” releasing this summer and “GTA 6” coming in the fall.
Overall, Zelnick says the 2025 calendar is Take-Two’s “most extraordinarily exciting release schedule I think we’ve ever had.” “Because we have our annualized titles, plus all these sequels coming from 2K, plus our live services, plus ‘Match Factory!’ and other titles from Zynga, plus ‘Borderlands 4,’ ‘Mafia,’ the list continues,” Zelnick said. “So I’m not sure we’ve ever had a more exciting lineup. And of course, our expectations are that that’s going to be reflected in sequential growth and net bookings in Fiscal 26 and 27, as well as new records being set in both of those fiscal years.”
Wall Street forecast a loss of earnings per share (EPS) of 90 cents on $1.39 billion in revenue, according to analyst consensus data of GAAP numbers provided by LSEG. Take-Two reported $1.37 billion in net bookings. GAAP net revenue was $1.36 billion and net loss was 71 cents per share (or $125.2 million).
With these results, Take-Two bested its previous guidance for the quarter of loss of $1.15 to $1.01 per share and net less of $202 million to $177 million.
Earlier this week, Take-Two’s 2K Games removed Michael Condrey as head of studio 31st Union. The exec was heading up the studio’s closely guarded “Project Ethos” title, which Zelnick says is still on track following Condrey’s shift to an advisory role. Zelnick says restructuring or layoffs at 31st Union are “not at all anticipated” as a result of Condrey’s removal.
“Michael has done great work for us,” the Take-Two CEO said. “We’re really grateful to him for creating that project and shepherding that project, and he’s going to stay on as an advisor. We will have new leadership going forward, and there’s a transition team that’s comprised of 31st Union leaders and 2K leaders to bring ‘Ethos’ to what we hope will be the next level. We’re very committed to the title and we’re committed to the studio, and we’re optimistic.”
Take-Two’s results came in lower than anticipated on the mobile front for the quarter, which were offset by strong net bookings for “NBA 2K.” Zelnick says Take-Two, which just announced a mobile expansion of its “WWE 2K” franchise at Netflix, has a plan to remedy the bumpiness moving forward with its mobile output across labels, including Zynga.
“Our current consumer spending is up 30% year over year, but mobile is a little lighter than we would like. With regard to some of the legacy titles, we think we have a plan to address that,” Zelnick said. “Look the industry and mobile is growing, but it’s growing slowly, so the tailwinds are not what they were, but we still feel really good about the industry, and we feel really good about our portfolio and the upcoming releases.”
Take-Two released its latest earnings report just ahead of the Feb. 11 of its highly anticipated 2K-published “Sid Meier’s Civilization VII.” Zelnick says while it’s “incredibly early,” the company feels “really good” about how it will perform.
“‘Civ 6’ sold twice as many units as ‘Civ 5,’ so at the end of the day, what’s a measure of success? Metacritic Scores, I think they’re trending in at about 81 now, that looks really good,” Zelnick said. “And there are some issues with the early access release that we’re going to address, so I think those scores should go up. The wishlist is huge — I think it’s at 2 million bigger than we’ve ever had before. So we feel really, really good about it. But ultimately the success will be both the feedback from consumers, which is of primary importance, and the units that we sell.”
While unable to confirm today, Zelnick says that “Civilization 7,” which is available on Nintendo’s Switch, will also likely be coming to Nintendo’s upcoming Switch 2 console when it releases.
More to come…
From Variety US