Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to Take-Two fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 earnings conference 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. You may begin.

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining our conference call to discuss our results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 ended March 31st, 2022. Today's call will be led by Strauss-Velnick, TQ'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 risks 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 a 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 the SEC may be obtained from our website at TakeTwoGames.com. And now I'll turn the call over to Strav.

Thanks, Nicole. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us today. Our strong fourth quarter results concluded another highly successful year for our company. We delivered net bookings of $3.4 billion, which reflect our creative team's unwavering commitment to quality and the ability to deliver captivating and engaging entertainment experiences that transcend geographies and generations. On behalf of our management team, I'd like to thank all of our colleagues around the world for helping us to achieve these results, especially as we continue to navigate through the new normal following the pandemic. During the year, we positioned our organization strategically for long-term growth. To that end, we bolstered our creative teams by adding nearly 1,000 new developers, including through the acquisition of several talented studios, which will help us expand our capabilities and support our growing pipeline of offerings. We broadened our portfolio further with the introduction of new intellectual properties and business models to drive player engagement. We agreed upon our pending combination with Zynga, which will grow our audience significantly and increase exponentially our netbookings from mobile to the fastest-growing segment in interactive entertainment, while also providing us with substantial cost synergies and revenue opportunities. As we build our scale, we believe that we can grow our margins meaningfully. Lastly, we advanced our ESG efforts, and I'm pleased that we recently published our first dedicated report, which includes information on our initiatives to date as well as our roadmap for the future. During the quarter, our newly released WWE 2K22 and Tiny Tina's Wonderland outperformed our expectations, as did Red Dead Redemption 2. NBA 2K22 continued to grow its audience, with the title selling in over 10 million units to date and exceeding sell-in from the prior year. During the fourth quarter, engagement remained very strong, with average active days of playing up 6% and average games per user up 13% year over year. In addition, NBA 2K22 Arcade Edition continues to hold the number one position on Apple Arcade's top game chart, and for the full year, downloads of NBA 2K Mobile increased nearly 25% as compared with fiscal 2021. We see a significant opportunity to add unique and innovative experiences throughout the game and focus on expanding our player base. On March 11th, 2K and Visual Concepts returned triumphantly to the squared circle with the eagerly anticipated release of WWE 2K22, which achieved the highest Metacritic scores on both Xbox and PlayStation platforms in franchise history. Setting new benchmarks for quality, the title offers more features and enhancements than any prior release in the series, including a redesigned gameplay engine, new controls, foundational improvements, upgraded visuals, and an array of options requested by our passionate player base. Notably, WWE 2K22's sell-in for the first four weeks exceeded the levels achieved for both WWE 2K19 and WWE 2K20, even with a revised release window that was not during the holiday season. Consumer engagement with the title has been outstanding, with over 140 million in-game matches played to date and over 5.6 million hours of WWE 2K22 content viewed on Twitch. I'd like to thank 2K and the WWE team of Visual Concepts for their commitment to reestablishing this incredible franchise. We greatly appreciate WWE's immense support in launching this year's game and look forward to continuing and building upon our successful partnership in the years to come. On March 25th, 2K and Gearbox Software released Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, an all-new fantasy-fueled offering that has taken our partnership with Gearbox to new creative heights and is viewed as the best new franchise launch from 2K in several years. The title has resonated with core fans and new audiences alike, with nearly 30% of players having never before played a Borderlands title. To date, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands has exceeded our expectations and is being supported with cross-play functionality, an array of post-launch content, and a season pass. I'd like to congratulate 2K and Gearbox on delivering another stellar game, and we look forward to the possibilities for this new franchise in the years to come. During the fourth quarter, Rockstar Games expanded the reach of their iconic entertainment experience, Grand Theft Auto V, with the release of new versions of the game upgraded specifically for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. This marked the third console generation for which the game has been made available since its initial launch in 2013, and to date, the title has sold in more than 165 million units. Also, for the first time ever, Grand Theft Auto Online was made available as a standalone title for the latest generation consoles. Featuring an array of graphical and technical enhancements, a new career builder, new vehicles, and more, these versions were well received by the game's vast community of players. In the period, Grand Theft Auto Online maintained its massive audience size from the prior year, while growing 8% and 74% as compared to the fourth quarters of fiscal 2020 and 2019, respectively. In addition, Rockstar Games launched GTA Plus, an all-new membership program that's exclusive to Grand Theft Auto Online players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S consoles, whereby participants can receive a range of valuable player-friendly benefits, including a monthly deposit of GTA dollars and other bonuses designed to help players experience everything Grand Theft Auto Online has to offer, including access to major content packs like Last Holiday's The Contract. Initial conversion has been above our expectations, which we believe bodes well for this to be an ongoing engagement driver over time. Red Dead Redemption 2 continued to expand its audience and to date has sold in more than 44 million units worldwide. Results for the series were notably above our expectations for the period, which is further proof of the ongoing popularity of Rockstar's blockbuster entertainment experiences. Turning to Private Division, the label's recently acquired studio, Roll7, successfully launched OlliOlli World in February, which received significant critical praise for its unique art style and impressive gameplay mechanics. We'll support the title with its first expansion, Void Riders, in the first half of this fiscal year. Championing the best independent talent in our industry, Private Division recently signed four new publishing agreements with leading independent developers, Dicouta Fabrique, Evening Star, Piccolo Studio, and Yellow Brick Games. We look forward to working with these talented teams. During the fourth quarter, our current consumer spending declined 6% over last year and accounted for 60% of net bookings. Over the past few months, the consumer has seen a wide array of long-awaited, high-quality new releases in the market, including several of our own exciting titles that have not deployed significant live service offerings. We believe that this dynamic has impacted our overall recurring consumer spending. NBA2K and Grand Theft Auto Online were the largest contributors to our current consumer spending during the fourth quarter, and many of our free-to-play offerings were notable drivers as well. Top 11 continued to perform very well following our acquisition and was our number one mobile title during the fourth quarter. Two Dots delivered notable year-over-year growth and posted its best-ever netbooking performance, driven by new in-game events and successful marketing activations. Dragon City and Monster Legends delivered a solid finish to the year, supported by enhanced live operations. WWE SuperCard has now been downloaded more than 26 million times and remains 2K's highest-grossing mobile game. And NBA 2K online in China outperformed our expectations. The title remains the number one online PC sports game in the region with nearly 57 million registered users. We're incredibly excited about our future path of growth, including our pending combination with Zynga. We believe that this will be a transformative moment for Take-Two as we continue to build upon our core tenants to become the most innovative, the most creative, and the most efficient entertainment company in the world. Combined, we'll create a powerhouse of industry-leading titles that span key platforms and genres across interactive entertainment, developed by some of the most creative and forward-thinking talent within the industry. Later this week, our respective shareholders will vote on the transaction, which, assuming such approvals are obtained, we anticipate will close on May 23, 2022. On a standalone basis for fiscal 2023, we expect to achieve a new record of $3.75 billion to $3.85 billion in net bookings as we plan to deliver many new exciting releases during the year. Looking ahead and excluding the impact of our combination with Zynga, we expect fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025 to set even higher records of net bookings for our company alongside a significant ramp up in profitability. Lainey will provide additional details on our outlook shortly while Carl will share an update on our exciting diverse multi-year pipeline including approximately 69 titles that we plan to release through fiscal 2025. In closing, we're highly optimistic about our future. As we continue to expand our enterprise and execute on our growth strategies, we believe that Take-Two remains incredibly well positioned to increase its scale and prominence within the industry, expand margins, and deliver long-term value for our shareholders. I'll now turn the call over to Carl.