Aug 7 (Reuters) – Take-Two Interactive maintained its annual bookings forecast on Friday, but reiterated the November 19 launch date for its highly anticipated title “Grand Theft Auto VI”, bringing the blockbuster release one step closer to fans.
Shares of the company were up marginally in volatile premarket trading. Take-Two projected current-quarter bookings below Wall Street estimates, signaling continued weakness from the lack of strong new titles ahead of the “GTA VI” release.
The videogame publisher began taking pre-orders for “GTA VI” on June 25, but did not provide any material detail on demand trends. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick only said that pre-orders have had an “exceptional start” in the post-earnings call.
The game is expected to be a gold mine for the company this year, raking in billions of dollars within days of its launch, thanks to the franchise’s popularity. “GTA V”, the predecessor, is one of the best-selling games ever, and has sold nearly 230 million units since its 2013 launch.
Investors have been closely watching for any announcement around an online multiplayer mode for “GTA VI”, hoping that Take-Two would replicate the success of “GTA V Online”, which has been a consistent source of revenue for the company.
The online version helped the company keep players engaged long after the release of “GTA V”. The live-service components of a title typically allow companies to generate more income through players’ purchases of in-game currency.
“Some of the weakness (in shares) may be the lack of incremental detail about ‘GTA VI’,” said MoffettNathanson analyst Clay Griffin.
“What’s really important for Take-Two is some notion of the plan for how ‘GTA Online’ will evolve. It’s pretty well understood that ‘GTA VI’ will do just fine, if not better than expectations. But it’s more about the longevity of opportunity.”
Take-Two said it expects fiscal 2027 bookings of $8 billion to $8.20 billion. Analysts on average were expecting a 31.9% jump to $8.86 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The company forecast second-quarter bookings between $1.62 billion and $1.67 billion, below analysts’ average estimate of $1.85 billion.
For the first fiscal quarter ended June 30, net bookings stood at $1.39 billion, a touch above market estimates of $1.38 billion.
(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
