GTA 5, Red Dead Redemption Developer Rockstar Will Announce New Games "Soon"
"Rockstar Games is of course hard at work on some exciting future projects that will be revealed soon."
Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption developer Rockstar Games is "hard at work" on new games, which will be announced "soon," parent company Take-Two Interactive announced today.
The tease came as part of the company's latest earnings report, and with E3 right around the corner, the timing is particularly interesting.
"Rockstar Games is of course hard at work on some exciting future projects that will be revealed soon," Take-Two said.
The publisher did not provide any further details on these games. However, Take-Two president Karl Slatoff mentioned during an earnings call that the company is working on new IP to further diversify its portfolio, though it is not known if one of Rockstar's new games is a new IP.
CFO Lanie Goldstein also mentioned that Take-Two is expecting a 75/25 revenue split between 2K Games and Rockstar Games for the current fiscal year (April 1, 2016-March 31, 2017). This would suggest Rockstar's next game may not come out during this fiscal year.
Additionally, CEO Strauss Zelnick said on the call that Take-Two has announced its complete slate for the current fiscal year, and no Rockstar titles are on it.
Recently, Zelnick teased that the company had big plans for E3 2016. In April this year, what was believed to be the map for Red Dead Redemption 2 leaked, suggesting the game was possibly a prequel to the 2010 original.
In terms of business performance, Take-Two had a tough fourth quarter and full year ended March 31. For the fourth quarter, revenue was $342.5 million, compared to $427.7 million during the same period last year. Take-Two mentioned that last year's fiscal fourth quarter benefited from the launch of Evolve and ongoing sales of the company's "more extensive holiday 2014 release slate," thus making for a tough comparison.
Profit for the quarter was $51.7 million, down from $54.3 million during the same period last year.
Key drivers of revenue for Take-Two's fourth quarter included Grand Theft Auto V, GTA Online, NBA 2K16, XCOM 2, and WWE 2K16. Revenue from digital sources jumped 12 percent to $226.6 million, with the GTA, NBA 2K, and WWE 2K franchises, as well as XCOM 2, helping drive the growth.
Another bright spot in the quarter was "recurrent consumer spending," which includes virtual currency and DLC. This sector grew 15 percent year-over-year and made up 55 percent of net revenue from digital sources, or 37 percent of total net revenue. Catalog sales during the quarter amounted to $211.3 million, led by the GTA and Borderlands franchises.
For the full year, revenue was $1.561 billion, down from $1.669 billion during the previous fiscal year. Again, Take-Two mentioned that the previous year's game lineup was "more extensive," thus making for a tough comparison. Take-Two pulled in a profit of $218.3 million for the year, down slightly from $219.2 million.
Take-Two called out GTA V, GTA Online, NBA 2K16, NBA 2K15, and XCOM 2 as being the "largest contributors" to revenue for the full year. Revenue from digitally content rose by 36 percent to hit an all-time record of $835.2 million. The GTA, NBA 2K, WWE 2K, and Borderlands franchises led the way here, with XCOM 2 also called out as a top performer.
Recurrent consumer spending revenue was also on the rise for the full year, jumping 33 percent compared to the previous year and making up 48 percent of revenue from digital sources; this comes out to 26 percent of total revenue.
"Fiscal 2016 marked the third consecutive year of stronger-than-expected Non-GAAP revenues and profits for Take-Two," Zelnick said. " Our results were driven by the continued extraordinary performance of Grand Theft Auto V, ongoing momentum in our NBA 2K and WWE 2K series, the successful launch of XCOM 2, and our highest-ever revenue from recurrent consumer spending."
You can also catch up on today's Take-Two announcements through the links below.
- GTA 5, Red Dead Redemption Developer Will Announce New Games "Soon"
- GTA 5 Has Now Shipped 65 Million Copies
- Here Is What Rockstar's Parent Company Thinks About PS4/Xbox One Hardware Upgrades
- Too Soon to Say if Battleborn Will Be a Borderlands-Like Hit, Take-Two Says
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