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Take-Two took a bit of a hit today when it released its final earnings report for the first quarter of its fiscal year. As the company recently completed its acquisition of Zynga, it has updated its forecasts to account for the new influx of mobile money, but it still won’t live up to expectations.
The company reported a net loss of $104 million and also reported a 41% increase in net bookings to $1 billion. Apparently, this wasn’t what analysts were hoping for, as those polled by FactSet had originally estimated a net booking of $1.11 billion. It also revised its annual earnings forecast to $5.8 to $5.9 billion, where analysts initially expected more than $6 billion (via Barron’s). After the report, Take-Two’s stock fell.
CEO Strauss Zelnick said of the adjusted forecast in a statement: “Our pipeline for the year continues to look very strong and we are excited to significantly expand our mobile presence with a best-in-class platform. Our new forecast takes into account some movement in our release list for the year, foreign
currency pressures and macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. As we look to the future, our long-term vision is clearer than ever, and we believe that our combination with Zynga will enable us to better capitalize on the evolving dynamics of the interactive entertainment industry.”
Game successes (and one delay)
Take-Two reported on the performance of some of its games in its investor presentation. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, it says, “exceeded expectations.” Grand Theft Auto V has sold nearly 170 million copies to date, while Red Dead Redemption 2 has sold over 45 million copies.
One of Take-Two’s releases will miss its launch window: 2K revealed that Marvel’s Midnight Suns is again delayed. The game was originally set to release in October, but now has an unspecified release date sometime this fiscal year. Firaxis has released a statement saying it will spend the extra time polishing up the gameplay.
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