“Record Recurrent Consumer Spending” for Grand Theft Auto Online and NBA 2K18 Announced by Take-Two

Today, Take-Two Interactive Software announced its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2018, related to the period between October 1st and December 31st, 2017.

You can check out the relevant revenue and income figures below.

• GAAP net revenue was $480.8 million
• GAAP net income was $0.21 per diluted share
• Net cash provided by operating activities was $203.0 million
• Net Bookings were $653.9 million

Chief Executive Officer Strauss Zelnick accompanied the press release with a comment. Zelnick claims “record recurrent consumer spending” for both Grand Theft Auto Online and NBA 2K18, on top of robust ongoing sales for Grand Theft Auto V.

Despite the delay of Red Dead Redemption 2 to October 26th, the publisher still expects records for fiscal year 2019 (Which will kick off on April 1st), alongside the mysterious “highly anticipated new title from one of 2K’s biggest franchises” that has been mentioned a few times already, and is likely to be Borderlands 3. 

During the holiday season, we benefited from high consumer demand for our offerings, enabling our Company to deliver another quarter of both strong Net Bookings and net cash provided by operating activities. Our stellar results were highlighted by record recurrent consumer spending on both Grand Theft Auto Online and NBA 2K18, robust ongoing sales of Grand Theft Auto V, and the successful launch of WWE 2K18. We took advantage of favorable market conditions to deploy $110 million of cash to repurchase more than 1 million shares of our stock. As a result of our outstanding third quarter performance and increased fourth quarter forecast, we are raising our fiscal 2018 outlook for Net Bookings.

“In addition to achieving superb results, we announced the formation of Private Division, our new label that is dedicated to bringing titles from top independent developers to market. Private Division already has deals to publish several upcoming titles based on new IP from renowned talent, and represents an exciting new growth opportunity that complements Take-Two’s core business.

“Rockstar Games has announced that Red Dead Redemption 2 will launch on October 26, 2018. We continue to expect to deliver both record Net Bookings and record net cash provided by operating activities in fiscal 2019, in excess of $2.5 billion and $700 million, respectively, led by the launches of Red Dead Redemption 2 and a highly anticipated new title from one of 2K’s biggest franchises. We have a robust development pipeline and are better positioned than ever for long-term growth and margin expansion.”

The announcement also included a list of the publisher’s achievements in the past quarter, including both of its subsidiaries Rockstar and 2K games.

Rockstar Games:

• Released new versions of the blockbuster detective thriller, L.A. Noire, for Nintendo Switch™, PlayStation®4 and Xbox One. These new versions include the original L.A. Noire game plus all of its additional downloadable content, with specific enhancements tailored to the unique capabilities of each platform. Following these came the release of LA Noire: The VR Case Files, featuring seven select cases from the original game rebuilt specifically for a virtual reality experience on the HTC VIVE™ system.
• Released new free content updates for Grand Theft Auto Online, including:
  • More themed content drops for Smuggler’s Run featuring:
    • The Mammoth Mogul aircraft and Stockpile, a new, jet-fueled take on capture-the-flag.
    • Transform Races, a new form of Stunt Race where players switch vehicle classes instantly mid-race across land, air and sea.
  • Special Halloween content including the Vigilante weaponized vehicle, the Seabreeze aircraft and Condemned Adversary Mode.
  • The Doomsday Heist, a story-driven online adventure involving the planning, preparation and execution of a series of epic co-operative heist missions and featuring a ton of new vehicles and gear, inside the biggest Grand Theft Auto Online update yet.
  • Festive Surprise 2017, which featured holiday-themed items in stores across Los Santos, the Firework Launcher, as well as the return of favorite items from past holiday seasons and more.
• Released the Criminal Enterprise Starter Pack that gives players access to a huge range of the most exciting and popular additions to Grand Theft Auto Online, including properties, vehicles, weapons and more valued at over GTA$10,000,000 plus GTA$1,000,000 Bonus Cash.
• Announced that Red Dead Redemption 2, which had been planned for release during Spring 2018, will now launch on October 26, 2018 to allow additional time to polish further the final product.

2K:

• Released the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Khemer and Indonesia Civilization and Scenario Packbringing new challenges and scenarios to Firaxis Games’ popular strategy series, and announced that its Rise and Fall expansion pack for the title will launch on February 8, 2018.
• Launched WWE 2K18 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. Developed collaboratively by Yuke’s and Visual Concepts, WWE 2K18 features Seth Rollins as its cover Superstar, along with the largest playable roster in franchise history, new online-centric Road to Glory mode, notable gameplay improvements, and a powerful new graphics engine. WWE 2K18has been supported with a series of downloadable content, including a Season Pass.
• Released WWE SuperCard – Season 4, the latest addition to the Company’s action-packed collectible card-battling game, as a free downloadable update for iOS and Android™ devices. Featuring 250 new cards, three new card tiers, and much more, the WWE SuperCard series – which has now been downloaded more than 16.5 million times to date – delivers the best in competitive and engaging WWE action for mobile devices.
• Launched NHL® SuperCard 2K18, the foremost NHL collectible card-battling game. Featuring cover athlete Kyle Turris, center for the Nashville Predators, NHL SuperCard is available for download free of charge for iOS and Android devices and offers more than 450 cards, thrilling game modes, weekly events and more to bring players on the ice and into the action.

If you want to compare these results with those of the previous quarter, you can check out our dedicated article from November.