Here’s a story that highlights all of the things Take-Two Interactive Software leaders said in a post-earnings call with analysts today.
In a conference call with analysts after reporting earnings, Take-Two executives said that preorders for Grand Theft Auto VI, which launches in 10 days, have been “unprecedented” and “extraordinary.”
Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two; Lainie Goldstein, CFO; and Karl Slatoff, president; said in the call that the GTA VI launch is on track and Rockstar has finished the game. As a result of the higher-than-anticipated preorders, Take-Two increased expectations for net bookings in the quarter ending December 31, 2026. But Zelnick was careful to say Take-Two does not wish to claim success before it occurs. (Here’s our own exclusive interview with Zelnick).
“The title is so widely anticipated, and consumers appear very very excited, and all the press so far has been universally positive, so it makes me nervous even saying those words,” Zelnick said. “But they are true, and we still aren’t ready to declare victory. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do that in the fullness of time, and you don’t wait too long.”
Goldstein added, “The launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 is only 10 days away, and the level of pre-orders generated is extraordinary.”
In after-hours trading, Take-Two’s stock is up 4% in the wake of the earnings release.
Marketing spending is up 21% from a year ago. That money could be spent on a lot of things, but that could signal that Take-Two is spending tens of millions of dollar on GTA VI marketing and advertising. Take-Two did not state a number.
Zelnick also said that GTA VI is prompting people to buy new game consoles ahead of the launch. Some say mostly refurbished units are on the market now, but those sales could enhance the future sales of GTA VI.
GTA V sales surpassed 235 million units to date, sold as September 30, 2026. That means that GTA V sold five million copies during the quarter, presumably as players catch up on the series ahead of the launch. Zelnick said those sales drove a double-digit increase in recurrent consumer spending, or sales of older titles.
At the same time, Take-Two’s NBA 2K27 did not sell as many copies as expected, resulting in Take-Two slightly missing its bookings targets for the quarter, partly because there was a crowded slate of games launched in September to avoid the GTA VI window.
Goldstein also said the expected net bookings breakdown from labels to be roughly 37% Rockstar Games, 34% Zynga, and 29% 2K in the current December quarter. Take-Two is on track to deliver operating cash flow in excess of $1 billion and to be in a net cash position by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2027.
How much could GTA VI sales boost Take-Two in the December quarter? Take-Two is projecting net bookings of $3.35 billion to $3.5 billion for the quarter ending December 31, or about 42 days of GTA VI sales. That’s up from sales of $1.9 billion a year earlier. That suggests that Take-Two expects about $1.45 billion to $1.6 billion in sales of GTA VI in the quarter. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty conservative to me.
Goldstein said Take-Two would pursue new hits, expand its geographic footprint, and pursue M&A that could help improve profits.
As for whether Take-Two is dependent on GTA as a franchise, Zelnick noted that the company has 15 franchises that have sold more than five million copies in its PC and console businesses.
Take-Two noted that in September, Rockstar Games unveiled nopixel V – the next evolution of Grand Theft Auto V’s roleplay community, with an entirely overhauled experience, new locations, and graphic enhancements focused on player immersion. Zelnick got a question about that and the anticipated user-generated content revenue. (Rockstar bought Cfx.re, which is behind modding firms FiveM and RedM, in 2023).
The Netflix special on GTA VI gameplay got more than 31 million viewers in its first four days.
“We’re really excited about the launch of nopixel V, which is really a professional version of the RPG business that we purchased with 5M,” Zelnick said. “And look, we’re thrilled that there are hundreds of thousands of consumers who like to engage with Grand Theft Auto V in this way, and we think there’s plenty more opportunity to be seen here. So it’s early days, and it remains to be seen how this develops. Any time our community wants to engage with our intellectual property, we want to be supportive if we can be, and I think this is a great example of that.”
Zelnick got a question about how Take-Two would stay competitive in an age with AI impacting game development.
Zelnick replied, “Look, technology benefits us. It’s always been true. We’ve always created our entertainment inside computers with technology. All advances have benefited us, and I don’t expect that that will change. In fact, I hope it’ll accelerate. I think at the same time, what we’re known for here is the desire to make the best entertainment on earth, and the fact that more often than not we succeed. And the creativity that drives that success is human creativity, harnessing technology, and I think that’s what you’ll see in the future. Undoubtedly, some of the most recent technological advances that you’ve seen have made it easier to create assets. Well, that is consistent with the story of our business. When I started interactive entertainment longer ago than I would like to say, you know, it was it was really difficult to create an asset.”
He said making assets is a lot easier today thanks to AI. But what is not easier is making a hit. It was hard then, and it’s hard now, and it will be hard in the future, Zelnick said.
“And hit creation remains the purview of human beings,” Zelnick said.
Over time, Zelnick said the industry could grow not only from hits, but also new opportunities to reach consumers through distribution technologies, streaming games, and geographic expansion.
“There’s a massive population of people who play video games in India and Africa and Asia outside of the countries we currently monetize, which include China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam, but not so many others. We don’t sell much in Russia right now for obvious reasons. Not much in Latin America. So our business still remains largely a U.S., U.K., Western Europe business with a couple of pockets in Asia, and yet interactive entertainment is the world’s pastime, and is only becoming more so in the future,” Zelnick said.
He added, “If we can find out how to reach people who don’t necessarily have the latest and most expensive technology, and if we can reach people outside of the most developed geographies, we could see our business grow materially. Equally, we think that we haven’t yet scratched the surface on what’s potentially available creatively. The current expression of interactive entertainment through PC, console, and mobile is super exciting, but we haven’t reached the creative asymptote that other entertainment industries have, and I don’t think we will for years. That’s what we call around here the unknown unknown, and Lord knows we’re trying to find it. And then there’s a whole bunch of other stuff we’re working on that I’m not going to share with you.”
Regarding direct-to-consumer sales in mobile games, Zelnick was careful not to say that the company would transition away from current “third-party partners,” meaning Apple and Google.
He said, “It’s not a transition. It’s an evolution, and we still have third party partners. We value them greatly. We don’t expect to transition away from them. We have not described the percentage of our business that comes direct to consumer mobile. It is significant and it is growing, and it obviously has a very meaningful margin and has bottom line impact. It also allows us to interact directly with our consumers to market to them directly, and that’s positive as well.”
One analyst asked about a $1.5 billion figure for development costs of GTA VI in a Bloomberg story, but Zelnick said, “We haven’t spoken about budgets at all. Obviously, we’ve invested heavily in Grand Theft Auto VI, and I hope in the fullness of time that will prove to be sound investment. I would like to point out that someone saying something is not more than something does not mean it’s close to something, half of something, a quarter of something, or a 10th of something. So I wouldn’t I wouldn’t arrive at a conclusion based on what that what the correct answer to that question that was offered before.”
Zelnick said the goal is to stay engaged with consumers in between huge releases, and now the business has been “transformed,” as the vast majority of our net bookings comes from recurrent consumer spending, comes from ongoing live engagement with hit titles, and big, huge releases are additional tent poles to support that.
He said this model will continue to evolve because of the quality of franchises.
“If you’re making something that’s good, people want more of it, and if you’re making something that’s the best in the world, then there’s nearly an unlimited appetite as long as everything else you make remains the best in the world,” he said.
Zelnick confirmed that Rockstar has completed the development of GTA VI, and that’s not a surprise since the release is in 10 days. He also said the marketing campaign is in full swing and is fully baked. He said the majority of the marketing will be in the December quarter but there will also be some in the March quarter as well.
“At the risk of being very repetitive, the mission of this company is to create the best entertainment on earth and bring it to consumers around the world. If we do that right, the monetization takes care of itself, and I think that you’re going to see that from us in this fiscal year and in future fiscal years. I think we’re we’re likely to be off to a really great start for the rest of this year very shortly,” he said.
And he thanked Take-Two’s near-13,000-person workforce for the hard work to get the game out the door.