After achieving the best figures in its history during the 2020-2021 financial year, Take-Two Interactive concedes a significant decline in its profits over the last 12 months. With an operating result of 454 million euros, we are still on the second largest profit in the history of Take-Two Interactive, while the turnover allows itself to establish a new record at 3.3 billion euros.
The biggest contributors to the exercise are NBA 2K22, NBA 2K21, Grand Theft Auto 5, Grand Theft Auto Online, Red Dead Redemption 2, Red Dead Online, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, Borderlands 3, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Two Dots and Top Eleven. A key point of Take-Two Interactive’s business model, players’ recurring investment (money spent on games, for example in NBA 2K and GTA Online) has further increased and represents 65% of total revenue.
Management says it’s pleased with the launches of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, which grossed $84 million in the month it was released, and the recovery of WWE 2K22 which exceeded expectations, as did Red Dead Redemption 2. Recall that the wrestling game hit rock bottom in 2020 before taking another year to rebuild. As a result, WWE 2K22 achieved the best launch of the franchise in the United States. Take-Two Interactive recognizes, however, a decline in recurring investment by players in the first months of the year, whether due to strong competition or the end of the confinement effect.
Grand Theft Auto 5 was not going to slow down with its release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series. The game has therefore continued its little quarterly jogging and added 5 million copies out of a total which has now reached 165 million copies distributed worldwide (375 million for the franchise). Grand Theft Auto 5 is the best-selling game in the United States for the past 10 years, both in volume and in dollars. Red Dead Redemption 2, the other mainstay of Rockstar Games, sold an additional 1 million copies between January and March, bringing its total to 44 million (67 million for the franchise).
(in millions, of course)
— Oscar Lemaire (@oscarlemaire) May 16, 2022
At the same time, Borderlands 3 has exceeded 15 million copies since its launch and contributes to the franchise’s impressive total sales: 75 million, more than Civilization (61 million) and BioShock (39 million). NBA 2K22 is worthy of its predecessors by surpassing the 10 million copies mark, while the franchise now totals 123 million games sold. With 3 million copies sold worldwide, PGA Tour 2K21 is already the third best-selling golf game in US history.
Takeoff further delayed for Kerbal Space Program 2
For the new fiscal year, Take-Two Interactive anticipates a record turnover of at least 3.5 billion euros while the net profit would slip on the contrary around 230 million euros. These objectives do not take into account the acquisition of Zynga, even if it should be finalized as of May 23, 2022.
Just to mention the titles already announced, the fiscal year schedule includes The Quarry (June 10, 2022), Marvel’s Midnight Suns, NBA 2K23, WWE 2K23, PGA Tour 2K23 and the Tales from the Borderland in development at Gearbox. On the delay side, GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition on iOS and Android is still awaiting a release date and Kerbal Space Program 2 is now expected in early 2023 on PC (and later in 2023 on consoles). The game’s creative director has posted a message for players, knowing that there is talk of a sequel which was initially aimed for a release in 2020.
In all, Take-Two Interactive plans to release 18 new games between April 2022 and March 2023. Among them, no less than 8 mobile games, knowing that new Zynga releases are still not taken into account. And as the question of the round ball was bound to fall during the presentation of the results, no, Take-Two has no intention of affording the FIFA license and picking up Electronic Arts on its well-guarded lawn. “We are clearly interested in expanding our opportunities in sports, and FIFA is a great brand with incredible influence, but we currently have no plans to discuss“, replied CEO Strauss Zelnick. Remember that the boss of FIFA, he says that a rival to EA Sports FC will be on the market from the year 2024.