Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Take-Two Q1 Fiscal Year 2022 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Nicole Shevins. Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining our conference call to discuss our results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 and to June 30th of 2021. Today's call will be led by Strauss Delnick, Take-Two's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Carl Sladoff, our President, and Lainey Goldstein, our Chief Financial Officer. We will be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session following our prepared remarks. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made during this call that are not historical facts are considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of our management, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to us. We have no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Actual operating results may vary significantly from these forward-looking statements based on a variety of factors. These important factors are described in our filings with the SEC, including the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q, including the risk summarized in the section entitled Risk Factors. I'd also like to note that unless otherwise stated, all numbers we will be discussing today are GAAP and all comparisons are year-over-year. Additional details regarding our actual results in Outlook are contained in our press release, including the items that our management uses internally to adjust our GAAP financial results in order to evaluate our operating performance. Our press release also contains the reconciliation of any non-GAAP financial measure to the most comparable GAAP measure. In addition, we have posted to our website a slide deck that visually presents our results and financial outlook. Our press release and filings with SEC may be obtained from our website at TakeTwoGames.com. And now I'll turn the call over to Strauss.

Thanks, Nicole. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. I'm pleased to report that fiscal year 2022 is off to a great start. highlighted by first quarter net bookings of $711 million, which exceeded our expectations. As the world has moved toward a safer new normal, we experienced strong engagement trends across most of our core franchises. During the period, we took multiple steps to enhance our organization over the long term. We invested further in talent and core infrastructure, which are important areas to support our expansive multi-year pipeline. Mobile remains a key growth opportunity, and we believe that our acquisition of Nordius will enhance meaningfully our talents and expertise in this area. With a larger mobile footprint, we've integrated SocialPoint, PlayDots, and Nordius into T2 mobile games. This structure will enable us to realize cost synergies, leverage expertise, and share best practices across our mobile teams. I'm also proud that we deepened our focus on corporate responsibility and we've recently made several key hires to lead our efforts regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion. Turning to our first quarter results, our better than expected performance was primarily driven by Grand Theft Auto Online and Grand Theft Auto 5, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online, and Borderlands 3. For nearly eight years, Grand Theft Auto 5 and Grand Theft Auto Online have redefined the creative and cultural influence of interactive entertainment. setting new standards for multiple generations of consumers and gaming platforms. Sales of Grand Theft Auto V were significantly above our expectations once again, and the title has now sold in more than 150 million units. Rockstar Games continued to keep its massive player base engaged with new content updates for Grand Theft Auto Online, including eight new stunt races, seven new arenas for deadline mode, and regular in-game bonuses and incentives. This helped drive the title to its second highest first quarter on record for player audience and its third consecutive quarter of player growth. In comparison to the first quarter of fiscal 2020, Grand Theft Auto Online achieved a 72% increase in its audience size, a 77% increase in new players, and significant growth in recurring consumer spending. In addition, Rockstar Games continued to captivate and engage audiences with Red Dead Redemption 2, which exceeded our expectations and has now sold in more than 38 million units. Red Dead Online also enjoyed a strong quarter thanks to new content offerings, including eight new horse races and a creative array of bonuses and incentives. The game experienced strong performance as compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2020, including 18% growth in its audience size, 26% growth in new players, and outstanding growth in recurrent consumer spending. This performance was driven by both strong ongoing game sales and the continued influx of new players from the standalone version of Red Dead Online. Turning to our sports offerings, NBA 2K21 has sold in over 11 million units and remains the number one sports title in the U.S., NBA2K's community continues to be highly engaged, with more than 2.7 million users playing daily. As compared to last year, the game experienced 13% growth in first-time spenders and nearly 30% growth in returning players. We see a significant opportunity to grow the franchise further over the next few years as we provide unique and innovative experiences throughout the game. PGA Tour 2K21 continues to exceed our expectations and expand its audience. In June, 2K and HB Studios launched a community-driven program that allows the top golf course designers from around the world to create and submit ideas for inclusion in the game's online playlist. This program is enhancing the game's vast replayability while also driving player engagement and growing its global community. Borderlands 3 had a strong quarter. During the period, 2K and Gearbox Software released the Director's Cut add-on, providing new missions, characters, daily and weekly challenges, and unique rewards. The game was also supported with an array of new free content offerings that gave players more ways to perfect and expand their arsenals. 2K and Firaxis Games launched Sid Meier's Civilization VI Anthology on Windows PC, providing the ultimate package for players that have yet to experience the award-winning, critically acclaimed strategy title. The anthology includes the base game, all previously released DLC, the Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm expansions, as well as the popular New Frontier Pass. Civilization VI is sold in more than 11 million units, outperforming its predecessor at the same point in its life cycle. Later this year, 2K and Firaxis Games will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Civilization franchise, and I'd like to congratulate our teams on this incredible milestone. Kerbal Space Program, which has sold in over 5 million units, celebrated its 10-year anniversary in June. To mark the milestone, Private Division released a short documentary video detailing the achievements of the title, as well as its impact on the aerospace industry. One of our key strategic priorities is to provide new and innovative ways for audiences to stay engaged with our titles and the communities built around them after their initial launch. During the first quarter, recurrent consumer spending declined 25 percent, which was better than our expectations of a 30 percent decline, and accounted for 69 percent of net bookings. Overall, all evidence suggests that media consumption patterns are beginning to stabilize to a new normal. And while down from the highs of the previous year, recurrent consumer spending in our products has leveled off and remained significantly higher than the first quarter of fiscal 2020. The largest contributors to recurrent consumer spending in the period were NBA 2K and Grand Theft Auto Online. We also experienced strong performance across many of our free-to-play offerings. Monster Legends and Dragon City exceeded our expectations with sequential top-line growth compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. This performance was driven by strong live ops, successful feature releases, and significant marketing investments. 2DOT celebrated its seventh anniversary in June. The title performed well with positive momentum continuing from the second half of fiscal 2021. WWE Supercard has now been downloaded over 24 million times and remains 2K's highest grossing mobile title. The franchise has had strong performance with the last 12 months marking its sixth consecutive year of growth. Following our acquisition of Nordius, we're encouraged by the performance of and the potential for top 11, including its use of seasonal live ops and new features. NBA 2K Online in China outperformed our expectations. The title remains the number one online PC sports game in the region with nearly 54 million registered users. Turning to our outlook, we're reiterating our prior guidance of $3.2 to $3.3 billion in net bookings for fiscal 2022. As we continue to develop our pipeline, there's been movement in some of our planned releases, including two of our immersive core titles shifting to later in fiscal 2022 than our prior guidance had contemplated. Our approach has always been to allow our labels to determine when projects are ready to bring to market to ensure the best quality and overall experience for players. As Carl will discuss in greater detail, we're excited about our pipeline and the impact our new releases will have on our business and financial profile in the years to come. We believe that we'll achieve sequential growth in fiscal 2023 and establish new record levels of operating results over the next few years. Looking ahead, we remain highly optimistic about the future of the interactive entertainment sector and our competitive positioning. As we leverage our many advantages, our leading talent, focus on creativity, incredible portfolio of owned IP, and strong balance sheet, we believe that Take-Two is well-positioned to drive long-term growth and shareholder value. I'll now turn the call over to Carl.