Old Grumpy Gamers

17 May 2022: Take2 Earnings Report

Key takeaways from Take Two Interactive's earnings call: 30% of next year's earnings expected to be from Rockstar Interactive; GTA 5 sales up to 166M units with successful launch on next-gen consoles; possible expansion of subscription-based services. No mention of GTA 6 release date.
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Key Takeaways from Take Two Interactive Earnings Call

This video covers the highlights of the Take Two Interactive earnings call from May 16, 2022. Take Two Interactive reported end-of-year earnings of around $3.4 billion across all their properties, although they did not reveal what percentage of that was from Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 5, GTA Plus or Shark Card sales. However, 30 percent of next year’s earnings are expected to be from Rockstar Interactive.

Acquisition of Zynga Games

Take Two’s acquisition of mobile game provider Zynga Games is going ahead as planned and may be completed as early as next week. Red Dead Redemption 2 performed better than expected last quarter, so it is hoped this will result in more development resources going forward. Additionally, the Borderlands spin-off, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, did well, leading to a brighter outlook for the franchise.

GTA Sales, Subscription Services, and Content Updates

GTA’s launch on next-gen consoles exceeded expectations, with overall sales of GTA 5 reaching 166 million units since its release. Sales of GTA Plus were also higher than anticipated. As a result, Take Two will look into applying this subscription model across their other properties.

While some may be disappointed to hear that dev resources for GTA Online are being dialled back over the next quarter, this is actually due to the completion of the expanded and enhanced edition for next-gen consoles, which requires less code maintenance going forward. As for GTA 6, Strauss Zeldick, CEO of Take Two, responded to a question regarding the game by saying that Rockstar has not talked about any details on the next generation of Grand Theft Auto.

Insight into Recruitment Plans

Take Two has added a thousand new developers to their stable, mostly through acquisitions and mergers. While this has led some to believe it is a positive sign for GTA 6, the new developers will mostly continue to work on existing games, including GTA 5.

Possible Release Date for GTA 6

While there is no mention of GTA 6 on the projected revenue roadmap through to 2025, the CEO’s phrasing about the “next iteration” of the game suggests that its release may not be imminent. The earliest possible release could be in 2024, although the wait may be as long as Q1 2026. Rockstar Games may announce the game and release it earlier than expected, but this is categorised as being “extremely unlikely”.

Overall, the video touches on some of the key points from Take Two Interactive’s earnings call. While details regarding GTA 6 are scarce, it’s clear that the franchise continues to be a major player in the video game space, with GTA 5 and GTA Plus sales exceeding expectations.

hi in this video we’re going through a couple of key takeaways from the
take two interactive earnings call from monday may 16 2022
hi and welcome back my name’s dan and i’m an old grumpy gamer well it’s certainly been a big year
for rockstar take two and gta after listening to the investors call yesterday i’d like to go
through a couple of quick points and key takeaways firstly take two’s end-of-year earnings came in at
around 3.4 billion across all their properties they didn’t say what percentage was from gta 5
gta plus or shark card sales but they did say that 30 of next year’s earnings are expected to
be from rockstar interactive next it looks like take two’s acquisition of hated mobile provider
zinker games responsible for farmville a bunch of gambling games and a number of candy games is
going ahead as planned and may even be completed as early as next week and red dead redemption 2
performed better than expected last quarter so hopefully that means some more dev resource going
forward in addition the borderlands spin-off tiny tina wonderlands did very well so maybe
things are looking up there too onto gta though because i know that’s really why you’re here so
apparently the launch of gta onto next-gen consoles went way better than expected
as far as sales are concerned remembering that on an investors call they don’t really care about pr
or actual execution they only look at sales and revenue the last round of releases to next gen
took the overall sales of gta 5 up to 166 million units since its release in addition sales of gta
plus have been going very well apparently even better than expected as a result take two will
be looking into this model across their other properties between this and the battle pass
system in wonderland i strongly suspect we’ll see some more subscription-based services going
forward quoting from strauss zeldick ceo of take two yes we haven’t given any news about broadening
the subscription offering we’re thrilled about how it’s been rolled out so far we’re thrilled
with the conversion rate and it’s clear that consumers really like the opportunity to engage
with gta online and they value what we’re offering through a subscription and with regard to ongoing
content updates rockstar has said there’s more content coming and we’re excited about that and
personally i find that really disappointing every youtuber every speedrunner every influencer i’ve
seen ask the community not to purchase gta plus but lots of people have done it anyway
no and the highest sales volume means we’ve proven to rockstar that this will work the next thing to
note was an expected dialing back of dev resource for gta online over the next quarter paired with
the addition of a thousand new devs to take too stable some are reading this as a positive sign
for gta 6 but as a software engineer i might have a little insight the vast majority of those 1 000
new developers have been added to take two stables through acquisitions and mergers that means
they’ll work with existing software development houses on existing games or property as the
industry calls them so the vast vast majority of those devs will keep plugging on whatever they’re
doing and won’t go near any rockstar games the second part about reducing dev resource to gta
online is expected with the rollout of the so-called expanded and enhanced edition on
next-gen consoles rockstar would have needed a lot of additional code written for the new platforms
now that’s out they just need to maintain the code base which is significantly easier so the
reduction in the number of devs working on gta 5 online is not a sign of gta 6 ramp up it’s just
business as usual finally in the q a section zilnick was asked a roundabout question on
gta 6 and responded with and i quote so rockstar hasn’t talked about any details at all on the next
generation of grand theft auto so there’s more information to come but i have no doubt that when
the moment comes and there is another iteration we will be releasing it to a very robust market
the wording in that response is very deliberate you’ll note he never said anything about gta 6
just the next iteration of the game couple this with no mention of gta 6 on the projected revenue
roadmap which has projections through to 2025 and i think that means that we’ll be waiting till at
least q1 2026 for a release but it could be rock rockstar might announce the game and release it in
2024. they’ve done stuff like that before so it’s possible i’m going with extremely unlikely though
and that’s it for today’s update guys there’s tons of other stuff the call went through but
nothing particularly pertinent to this channel so i’ll leave it there and that’s it thanks
for watching check out the video at the top four other updates or the one down the bottom for some
more old grumpy game of goodness stay safe wash your hands and we’ll see you in the next video
you

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