(BFM Bourse) – The video game group indicated that the game would be released in the fall of next year and also lowered its net bookings target for the current financial year. The stock is falling a little on Wall Street.
Grand Theft Auto (GTA) fans will have to be patient. Investors too. The video game group Take-Two, which distributes the title developed by Rockstar, announced Thursday evening that the next opus, GTA VI, would be released in “fall 2025”.
Which somewhat clarifies the previous indications which mentioned the calendar year 2025 without further details.
This release at the end of the year will have a concrete repercussion: no revenue linked to the marketing of the game will drive Take-Two’s activity in the current financial year, the group closing its accounts in March.
Moreover, the company has, consequently, revised downwards its “net bookings” forecasts – i.e. the turnover restated for certain revenues – for its 2024-2025 financial year, indicating to the market that it was counting on an amount between $5.57 billion and $5.67 billion, compared to “a little over $7 billion” previously, according to Deutsche Bank.
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On Wall Street, Take-Two shares found themselves a little under pressure following these announcements, with the title falling 2% in pre-opening trading.
The GTA VI game is obviously eagerly awaited by the market given the success of previous episodes of this series putting the player in the shoes of one or more criminals, with a pronounced taste for subversion. GTA V has sold 200 million copies to date, according to a presentation by Take-Two. But the game was released in 2013 and is therefore more than ten years old.
A sign of market expectations, the trailer for GTA VI, last December, had already put the stock somewhat under pressure, with investors sanctioning the lack of precision on the game’s release.
Take-Two also revealed its results for the fourth quarter of its 2023-2024 financial year with net bookings of $1.35 billion, down 3% year-on-year and negative gross operating income of 19. 6 million dollars.
Deutsche Bank notes that net bookings exceeded its expectations by 4.3%. The bank highlights that this outperformance was due to robust revenues from the basketball game NBA2K24, mobile games and previous GTA games.
Julien Marion – ©2024 BFM Bourse