Take-Two reports slight growth in first quarter, touts 'most ambitious development pipeline in our history'
Take-Two has reported its financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2025, which concluded on June 30. The period experienced slight upticks in bookings and revenue but also encountered increased losses.
First Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Results
- Net Revenue: $1.34 billion (4% year-over-year increase)
- Net Loss: $262 million (compared to a $206 million loss the previous year)
- Total Net Bookings: $1.22 billion (1% year-over-year increase)
Key Points:
During the recent quarter, Take-Two saw modest growth in bookings and revenue, yet larger losses were noted, primarily due to ongoing costs associated with the acquisition of Zynga. The company remains forward-looking, citing the planned release of Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2025 and a schedule that includes 24 new games within the next two fiscal years. This lineup includes 15 core immersive titles, which feature six sports games, one independent release, five mobile games, and three new iterations of older titles.
Take-Two has maintained its booking projections for the full year at $5.55 to $5.65 billion but predicts more significant GAAP losses. CEO Strauss Zelnick mentioned to GamesIndustry.biz that they expect "sequential growth in fiscal 26 and 27."
"The fiscal year has started positively," Zelnick remarked. "The first quarter met expectations and our guidance aligns with consensus. We've reiterated our guidance."
Digital growth continues, with 83% of the company's revenue coming from 'recurrent consumer spending,' including areas such as downloadable content (DLC) and microtransactions. Overall, 97% of bookings were digital (a 2% increase), and 82% of console game sales were digital, up from 80% the previous year.
The growth was driven by popular titles like NBA 2K24, Grand Theft Auto Online, Grand Theft Auto 5, Toon Blast, Empires & Puzzles, Match Factory, Red Dead Redemption 2, Red Dead Online, Words with Friends, and Merge Dragons. Zynga's Match Factory saw a 50% increase in bookings over the last quarter, and Toon Blast continued its growth from the previous fiscal year. However, there were declines in hyper-casual mobile games and Empires and Puzzles.
Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto Online experienced a year-on-year decline but still exceeded internal expectations. The GTA+ subscription service witnessed substantial growth, buoyed by the availability of classic Rockstar games like LA Noire.
Red Dead Redemption 2 hit a new milestone, surpassing 65 million shipments. As for NBA 2K24 under the 2K label, nearly 11 million units have been shipped, a slight drop from last year’s 13 million. Zelnick expressed confidence that sales for NBA 2K24 would remain consistent with NBA 2K23, despite the decline.
"There were several factors contributing to the year-over-year differences," Zelnick added. "Overall sales were indeed down for NBA 2K, but next-gen platform sales increased. These challenges are expected to dissipate before the next release."
The firm also noted enhanced profitability for WWE 2K25, made possible through in-game updates and announced that its new TopSpin 2K25 release has received critical acclaim, although specific sales figures were not disclosed.
Additionally, the release window for the upcoming strategy game Civilization VII has been narrowed down, with its launch anticipated before the end of the fiscal year in March 2025.
