(Reuters) — Take-Two Interactive Software on Thursday tempered expectations for fiscal 2025 bookings, after setting the release of “Grand Theft Auto VI” for fall 2025.
Shares of the New York-based company fell about 2.5% Friday morning.
The forecast reflects the new launch schedule for the highly anticipated title, the company said, which is expected to be an overnight success with billions of dollars in sales each year according to several analysts.
The video game publisher now expects fiscal 2025 bookings of between $5.55 billion and $5.65 billion, down from its previous forecast of just over $7 billion.
Take-Two’s gloomy forecast follows disappointing forecasts from Electronic Arts and Roblox last week.
Take-Two laid off about 5% of its workforce last month and scrapped several projects in development as part of a cost-cutting plan, aligning with similar moves in the gaming industry as it is struggling with slowing consumer spending.
Nonetheless, the company and analysts expect bookings to accelerate from fiscal 2025, helped by the launch of GTA and a series of other releases, including titles from its recent acquisition of maker of “Borderlands,” Gearbox Entertainment.
“My guess is they’ll add $150 million this year and maybe $300 million to $400 million in FY27,” Wedbush securities analyst Michael Pachter said when asked how much revenue Gearbox could contribute to Take-Two.
“We believe our business is poised to reach new levels of success and we expect to deliver sequential net bookings growth in fiscal years 2025, 2026 and 2027,” said Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.
Take-Two has a pipeline of about 40 titles through fiscal 2027, while it has 16 titles in its 2025 fiscal year, company executives said in a post-tax conference call. results.
“They (Take-Two) should see strong growth in GTA Online once GTA VI launches,” added Wedbush’s Pachter.
Take-Two’s fourth-quarter bookings fell 3% to $1.35 billion, but beat analysts’ average estimate of $1.30 billion, according to LSEG data.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bangalore; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
News Source : finance.yahoo.com
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