Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Lainie Goldstein : It’s a combination of our corporate departments and also some of our publishing functions. So it includes all of our labels. And it’s outside of the $100 million plus in synergies between Take-Two and Zynga that we’ve talked about already that has to do with the acquisition of Zynga.

Matthew Cost : Great. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Drew Crum with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.

Drew Crum: Okay, thanks. Hey, guys, good afternoon. Just sticking with Zynga, I think you mentioned in your preamble that mobile trends had improved, maybe a little bit more detail there? And can you comment on whether Zynga’s net bookings were up quarter-on-quarter. And if you’ve seen this improving trend line continue into the current quarter? And then I have a follow-up.

Karl Slatoff : Yes, I think the way to characterize it is we have seen some improving trends and the way to describe it is it’s really been some improvement off of the lows that we’ve seen in the past.

Drew Crum: Okay. And then Strauss, some of your competitors have suggested the market is shifting towards these mega franchises. Curious if you agree with that premise? And does this in any way if you do, impact how you invest across your development pipeline? And are you inclined to hold back with the launch of titles until market conditions become more favorable? Thanks.

Strauss Zelnick : Yes, we emphatically agree. The strategy of our company is to make hits across the board. We believe that we have the best collection of owned intellectual property across console, PC and mobile in the marketplace. And our approach has always been to bring out new iterations of beloved franchises. We have 11 franchises that have each sold over 5 million units in an individual release, well over 65 that have sold over 2 million units in an individual release. I don’t think anyone else can say that. And look, we have the highest grossing entertainment property ever created of any sort of within our four walls, thanks to the focus of Rockstar. So that is very much our approach. And the truth of the entertainment business is, whether you like it or not, the entertainment business is a top 20 business on a good day and top 10 business on a less good day. We need to be there and that has always been our strategy.

Drew Crum: Thanks, guys.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Omar Dessouky with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Omar Dessouky: Hi, everybody. So I’m looking at your grid, the grid of games that you plan to release from fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2025 and next to mobile, you have 38 games. And it looks like 10 of them were not Zynga Games. Are you still confident that you can get all those games to scale? And is $100 million in annual bookings still the level that you aspire to as it was for Zynga’s forever franchises prior to the acquisition? And then I have a follow-up, please.

Karl Slatoff: Sure. I’ll take that one. So I would say, the aspiration for any title that we released in the mobile context would be the $100 million of annual bookings. But I can tell you for sure that, that won’t be the case release, with that entire release. So our expectation going in, again, the — how we release mobile is you take it out, you see how it does, you invest a little bit more, you revamp it, you rebalance it, you invest a little bit more, and then you grow from there. What we know that there are going to be titles that we put out that will fall on the mobile side. But the idea is that we need to put the titles out in order to find the ones that can reach that $100 million level or plus. So that is certainly — that is the strategy, and that’s going to be our path going forward. So that’s still our expectation.