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

Martin Yang: Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. I have two. Can you first give us more details on Zynga’s direct-to-consumer effort? Do you see a certain region or user cohort responded more strongly to the channel?

Strauss Zelnick: No, we’re not seeing any regional differences, particularly. I’m not sure we’ve been looking for them though, because it’s really early still.

Martin Yang: Got it. Thank you. My second question is on the impact of more discounting in December. And how would you characterize the environment in the March quarter, is discounting still affecting negatively on the guidance for March?

Strauss Zelnick: I don’t think that discounting in particular is driving our expectations for the quarter. What’s driving our expectations for the quarter is just our perception of market demand.

Martin Yang: Okay. Thanks, Strauss.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Matti Littunen with Bernstein.

Matti Littunen: Just wondering if you changed your typical marketing approach for these new titles that launched in the holiday season and — if not, do you plan to do that in the current quarter in response to what you’re seeing in the market trends you discussed? Thank you.

Strauss Zelnick: No, we didn’t change our approach to marketing. Our marketing approach varies title by title and reflects our view at any given time for what the opportunity is and in the context of the cost of the marketing programs. But if your question is, did we create a sort of self-inflicted wound by somehow spending less, for example, on marketing and getting worse results? The answer is no. But equally, it’s not like we’ve created a self-inflicted wound by spending more on marketing and not getting results. We tailored the marketing to the opportunity. Unfortunately, the opportunity set was a little smaller than we thought.

Matti Littunen: Very clear. Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Mike Hickey with Benchmark. Please proceed with your question

Mike Hickey: Hey, Charles, Karl, Lainie thanks for taking my questions. Two from each, just curious, specifically, I know you haven’t called out titles, but for the quarter on the weakness in recurrent spend the Grand Theft Auto Online and NBA 2K Live Service, did they meet your expectations for the quarter? And have you changed your forward view of growth from those games? Obviously, they’re a big portion of your ex-oil live service business. And the second question, on your cost reduction plan, $50 million, do you feel like that’s sort of a starting point or you sort of grow that as you think about it more over time? Or do you feel like that’s enough. Thanks, guys.

Lainie Goldstein: So for the quarter, our NBA business was in line with our expectations. Our other titles were a bit lower than what we had expected. As I mentioned, our PC and our console business for RCS was overall lower than what we had expected. And for the $50 million, this is like an ongoing cost reduction initiative. So we expect this number will grow over time. So efficiency is one of our core tenants as a company. So we’re always looking for efficiency throughout the organization. And these are permanent and structural changes to the organization’s overall corporate overhead structure, so these are expenses that we expect to reduce our overall structure over time.

Mike Hickey: Thanks, Lainie.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Jason Bazinet with Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Jason Bazinet: I just had a slightly longer-term question. Can you guys talk a little bit about whether or not you’re a believer in sort of cloud gaming moving to the fore over the next five years? And, if so, what implications, if any, does it have on how you think about the business, your business? Thanks.