Updated Version 3 - As the release date of GTA VI approaches, Take-Two raises its annual revenue and profit forecasts

Added details from the earnings call

Deborah Mary Sophia

Reuters, November 9 - Take-Two Interactive (TTWO.O) raised its annual revenue and profit forecast on Monday, as the video game publisher expects strong demand driven by next week's highly anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA VI).

In after-hours trading, the company's stock price rose 4%. CEO Strauss Zelnick said that pre-orders for GTA VI have far exceeded initial expectations, despite Take-Two maintaining this year's order forecast.

"With only days left until the launch of GTA VI, we typically refrain from declaring success before it happens... At this point there really is no need to update the (pre-order) data," Zelnick said after the earnings call.

GTA VI is widely seen as Take-Two’s “cash cow” for the coming quarters. After multiple delays, it will officially launch on November 19, about 13 years after the previous installment’s release.

Take-Two began pre-orders for GTA VI in June, and data from Sensor Tower shows that as of November 3, global digital pre-orders for the game had reached about 7.71 million units.

The game's high pricing has also benefited the company: the standard edition is priced at $79.99, while the "Ultimate Edition" costs $99.99. According to Sensor Tower, by the end of August, nearly 90% of pre-orders were for the higher-priced version.

In the September quarter, Take-Two launched the latest entry in its basketball series, NBA 2K27, but due to intense market competition, demand was relatively weak. The company said that thanks to upcoming in-game content for the series, pre-orders and user engagement will improve for the remainder of the year.

Take-Two expects total revenue for fiscal 2027 to be between $7.98 billion and $8.18 billion, up from the prior forecast of $7.9 billion to $8.1 billion. The company raised the lower end of its earnings per share forecast by 2 cents and now expects EPS to be between 57 and 75 cents.

The company maintained its full-year bookings forecast at $8 billion to $8.2 billion.

For the second quarter ended September, total bookings fell 18% to $1.6 billion, below the expected $1.67 billion.

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