‘GTA V’ Stays Strong With 8 Million ‘GTA Online’ Players, ‘Battleborn’ Delayed
For a two-year-old game, Grand Theft Auto V continues to demonstrate tremendous legs. Take-Two Interactive announced its financial results for the quarter ending September 30 on Thursday and included details on how many PlayStation, Xbox, and PC owners are still playing GTA Online. There was also a delay announcement for Gearbox Software’s Borderlands follow-up, Battleborn.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed that GTA V continues to enjoy “robust demand” while microtransaction sales of GTA Shark Cards for GTA Online showed “strong growth.” The total number of copies of GTA V shipped was not updated, though it is presumably more than the 54 million reported shipped through the end of June 2015.
“We do have eight million or more active users weekly for Grand Theft Auto Online. So it’s continuing to outperform our expectations and we’re very gratified by those results,” Zelnick said when asked about the effects of content updates like the recent Halloween update (via Seeking Alpha).
Zelnick was asked several follow-up questions to try and expand on the eight million active users in GTA Online, including how it was split between last-gen and current-gen platforms, but he declined to say more other than GTA V continues to perform well and exceed expectations.
Meanwhile, Take-Two Interactive announced a delay for Gearbox’s multiplayer hero shooter, Battleborn. The title was originally slated to be released on February 9, 2016, but has been pushed back to May 3, 2016.
“We believe that extending development by a few months will allow the team enough time to fully realize the creative vision for Battleborn and enable them to deliver the best entertainment experience possible,” Take-Two explained in its official statement.
The game is currently going through a technical Alpha test on PC and consoles and faces potential heavy competition from Blizzard’s upcoming hero shooter, Overwatch, which is now coming to the PS4 and Xbox One in addition to the PC. Additionally, February is becoming an increasingly crowded month for game releases, so moving Battleborn to May gives it more development time and more room to breathe.
For the quarter ending September 30, Take-Two reported $364.9 million net revenue, a 169 percent increase in net revenue over the same period last year. Revenue was driven by the launch of NBA 2K16, with four million copies shipped along with microtransactions from it, and GTA Online. Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, NBA 2K 15, and the WWE 2K franchise were also called out as significant contributors to overall revenue and digital earnings growth.
Digitally delivered content reached a milestone for Take-Two, as it now accounts for 51 percent of net revenue with the company.
“Take-Two once again delivered better-than-expected Non-GAAP revenue and earnings growth,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two. “Our second quarter results were anchored by the series record-breaking launch of NBA 2K16, along with ongoing demand forGrand Theft Auto V and strong growth in recurrent consumer spending.”
Zelnick continued, “Our holiday season is off to a great start, including the successful release of WWE 2K16, and we expect the installed base of new-gen consoles to expand further and broaden our global audience. We are raising our fiscal 2016 financial outlook to reflect our outperformance in the second quarter and positive forecast for the balance of the year. With our robust development pipeline and increasing contribution from recurrent consumer spending, Take-Two is better positioned than ever to generate revenue growth and margin expansion in future years, and returns for our shareholders over the long-term.”
Are you still playing Grand Theft Auto Online? What keeps you coming back? Sound off in the comments below.
[Image via Rockstar Games]
