speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

Thank you for standing by. My name is Tina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the first quarter fiscal year 26, take two interactive software earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Nicole Shiven, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. You may begin.

speaker
Nicole Shiven
Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining our conference call to discuss our results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 and to June 30, 2025. Today's call will be led by Straus Zelnick, 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 10K and quarterly report on Form 10Q, 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 GAP and all comparisons are -over-year. Additional details regarding our actual results and outlook are contained in our press release, including the items that our management uses internally to adjust our GAP financial results in order to evaluate our operating performance. Our press release also contains a reconciliation of any non-GAP financial measure to the most comparable GAP 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 taketogames.com. And now I'll turn the call over to Strauss.

speaker
Straus Zelnick
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Nicole. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us today. Fiscal 2026 is off to an excellent start, reflecting ongoing demand for our core franchises and the increasingly diversified, successful nature of our business. Net bookings for the first quarter exceeded $1.4 billion, which was meaningfully above the high end of our expectations, led by the outperformance of several mobile titles, as well as the continued success of NBA2K and the Grand Theft Auto series. We're optimistic about the year ahead and we're raising our net bookings outlook for Fiscal 2026 to 6.05 to $6.15 billion. We have great confidence in our long-term pipeline and expect to achieve record levels of net bookings in Fiscal 2027 that we believe will establish a higher baseline for our business and set us on a path of enhanced profitability. I'd like to express my gratitude to all of our teams across our worldwide organization for their deep passion and intense commitment to our collective vision. We strive daily to do our best work and to exemplify our core pillars of creativity, innovation, and efficiency, all in service of our goal to make the biggest and best hits in the entertainment business. Turning to highlights from the period, our mobile business vastly exceeded expectations. Peak successful forever franchise, Toonblast, grew 22% over last year and nearly 75% on a two-year basis, driven by the seasonal collection feature that provided a new avenue of engagement for the game's millions of active players. Match Factory, another hit title from Peak, achieved record net bookings as the title grew 33% over last year. Players experienced new features such as the Treasure Cave event, as well as new levels. Rolloc's newest hit, Color Block Jam, maintained its positive momentum and has become the highest grossing title in the studio's history. Throughout the quarter, Color Block Jam remained at the top of the app charts, demonstrating its strong market position and mass appeal. Rolloc supported the title with its first bold beat, Pilot's Drop, where players received progressively larger rewards with each consecutive win, amplifying engagement and monetization. 2K's mobile offerings also had a great quarter, including WWE Supercard, which remains the label's most successful mobile game with over 37 million lifetime downloads. NBA 2K Mobile has been steadily growing its audience with new content and challenges, while NBA 2K 25 Arcade Edition continues to top the Apple Arcade charts, and NBA 2K All-Star in China has been posting strong and profitable results since its launch in March. We continue to focus on our mobile direct to consumer business, and we're achieving better conversion, driven by new offers, events, and enhanced personalization. In the context of recent court rulings, we see ample runway for further growth in this area. The Grand Theft Auto series once again exceeded our expectations. Momentum remains exceptionally strong, and to date, Grand Theft Auto V has sold in over 215 million units worldwide. During the quarter, engagement for Grand Theft Auto Online benefited from the record-setting launch of Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 2 and the successful release of the Moneyfront Summer Content Pack, which culminated in higher than expected recurring consumer spending growth. We're pleased that new player accounts for GTA Online grew over 50% -over-year. NBA 2K 25 delivered another quarter of fantastic results. To date, the title has sold in over 11.5 million units, and engagement grew significantly -over-year, with daily active users, and my career daily active users, each up 30%, which helped drive 48% growth in recurring consumer spending. We're thrilled that 2K announced a new multi-year global partnership expansion with the NBA, NBAPA, and WNBAPA, and extended its longstanding relationship with the NBA G League and USA Basketball. We're excited to continue our highly successful partnerships and look forward to building upon the record-setting achievements that we've accomplished together. Engagement with our other sports titles has been healthy, including WWE 2K 25. The title launched on Nintendo Switch 2 in July, which expanded its audience and featured same game modes that are available to players on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S. Braxis Games continues to introduce monthly updates for Sid Meier's Civilization VII. In addition, the studio released the title for Nintendo Switch 2, our first offering for the platform, featuring new mouse controls that offer a more intuitive gameplay experience. We're very pleased to continue supporting Nintendo with additional titles launching throughout the year. In closing, we're thrilled with our company's positive momentum and have enormous anticipation for this quarter's launches of Mafia of the Old Country, NBA 2K 26, and Borderlands 4. We remain deeply committed to excellence and delivering the highest quality entertainment experiences for all of our audiences and to driving meaningful returns for our shareholders. I'll now turn the call over to Karl.

speaker
Carl Sladoff
President

Thanks, Rouse. I'd like to thank our teams for delivering a fantastic start to the year and for setting the stage for what promises to be an exciting chapter in our history. I'll now discuss our upcoming releases. Tomorrow, 2K and Hangar 13 will once again immerse players in the detailed, rich, and storied world of organized crime with Mafia of the Old Country. With more than 2.5 million wishlists across all platforms, community sentiments to this linear, narrative-driven action game is very strong. 2K unveiled a new story trailer during the annual Summer Game Fest show and provided the press with early playtime, which resulted in glowing impressions and previews. We are very excited to expand our beloved franchise and help the players feel the passion and pride that our team brought to this exciting release. On September 5th, 2K and Visual Concepts will release NBA 2K26, which promises to once again raise the bar for our top-selling basketball experience. The title will be available on Early Access on August 29th and will be the first game from our series to launch on Nintendo Switch 2, offering the complete Gen 9 experience for the platform. With all new pro-play features, players on Gen 9 will experience our immersive technology like never before, including revamped size-ups and fast-paced dynamic movements. Fans can build a transcendent My Player as they strive to reach the pinnacle of NBA stardom in a reimagined My Career journey and team up with friends to battle rival squads in a fresh and more optimized city. NBA 2K26 as My Team will put past and present legends to test in new single and multiplayer modes while also offering 30 unique storylines to win a championship. More details on NBA 2K26 will be shared in the coming weeks. On September 12th, 2K and Gearbox Software will launch Borderlands 4, the eagerly anticipated next entry in our iconic looter shooter franchise. Recently, global press and content creators played the game for the first time and response was extremely positive, with some calling it the best in the series. In June, our team hosted the first ever Borderlands Fan Fest where attendees played a demo of Borderlands 4 and generated over 600,000 hours of streams and videos. With the title launching on Nintendo Switch 2 in October, we are excited to harness the power of the new console and allow players to enjoy our mayhem-fueled looter shooter at home or on the go. Later this fiscal year, 2K and Visual Concepts will once again challenge players to step into the squared circle with WWE 2K26, the forthcoming installment in our popular wrestling franchise that continues to set new standards for excellence with each release. 2K will have more to share about this game in the coming months. This is one of the strongest lineups in 2K's history, positioning us to deliver -in-class gameplay for our players and outstanding financial results. Zynga will remain focused on continuing to enhance its existing portfolio and releasing new mobile titles. In closing, we are deeply excited about this year's release flight and our ability to deliver entertainment experiences that captivate and engage audiences throughout the world. As we continue to execute our proven strategy and capitalize on emerging markets and opportunities, we believe that we will achieve a period of meaningful, long-term growth and shareholder returns. I'll now turn the call over to Lainey.

speaker
Lainey Goldstein
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Karl, and good afternoon, everyone. We achieved outstanding first-quarter results driven by our strong franchise's talented teams and unwavering commitment to our strategic vision. Our performance was broad-based across our labels as we engaged players with exciting new game features and content updates, while also advancing development of our highly anticipated pipeline. I'd like to thank our incredible teams worldwide for their hard work and passion for our business. Turning to our results, we delivered first-quarter net bookings of $1.42 billion, which was significantly above our guidance range of $1.25 to $1.3 billion. This reflected -than-expected performance from several mobile titles, including Toon Blast, Smash Factory, NBA 2K All-Star, and Color Block Jam, as well as NBA 2K and the Grand Theft Auto series. Recurrent consumer spending grew 17% for the period, which was meaningfully above our guidance of 7% growth and accounted for 83% of net bookings. Several of our businesses outperformed, including NBA 2K, which was up nearly 50%, mobile, which grew low, teens, and Grand Theft Auto Online, which increased low single digits. During the quarter, we released Civilization 7 for MetaQuest VR and Nintendo Switch 2. Gap net revenue increased 12% to $1.5 billion, while cost of revenue declined 1% to $559 million, and operating expenses decreased 3% to $923 million. On a management basis, operating expenses rose 3% -over-year, which was slightly above our forecast of 2% growth, primarily due to higher personnel costs. While total marketing expenses were within our forecast range for the quarter, Zynga made incremental user acquisition investments to support its robust performance, which was offset by 2K shifting some marketing out of Q1 into later this fiscal year. Turning to our guidance, I'll begin with our full fiscal year expectations. We are raising our net bookings outlook range to $6.05 to $6.15 billion, which represents 8% growth over fiscal 2025 at midpoint. The increase predominantly reflects our strong first quarter performance and to a lesser degree, updates to our forecast, including FX. The largest contributors to net bookings are expected to be NBA 2K, the Grand Theft Auto series, Team Blast, Borderlands 4, Smash Factory, the Red Dead Redemption series, Color Block Jam, Empires and Puzzles, and Words with Friends. We now expect recurrent consumer spending to grow approximately 4%, which is revised upward from our prior forecast of flat, representing 76% of net bookings. We expect NBA 2K to grow mid-teens, mobile to grow low single digits, and Grand Theft Auto Online to decline. We expect the net bookings breakdown from our labels to be roughly 45% Zynga, 39% 2K, and 16% Rockstar Games. We continue to expect operating cashflow of approximately $130 million and capital expenditures of approximately $140 million. We now expect GapNet revenue to range from $6.1 to $6.2 billion and cost of revenue to range from $2.55 to $2.57 billion. The total operating expenses are now expected to range from $3.84 to $3.86 billion, compared to $7.45 billion last year. On a management basis, we expect operating expense growth of approximately 5% year over year. This is up slightly from our prior forecast due to higher personnel costs, as well as increased marketing spend to support our mobile portfolio and netbacks. I'd like to point out that our earnings for share calculations reflect our higher share count following our recent equity issuance. Now moving on to our guidance for the fiscal second quarter. We project net bookings to range from $1.7 to $1.75 billion compared to $1.47 billion in the second quarter last year. Our release date for the quarter includes Mafia the Old Country, NBA 2K26, and Borderlands 4. The largest contributors to net bookings are expected to be NBA 2K, Borderlands 4, the Grand Theft Auto series, Steam Blast, Smash Factory, Empires and Puzzles, Color Block Jam, the Red Dead Redemption series, Worst of Friends, and Mafia the Old Country. We project recurring consumer spending to increase by approximately 1%, which assumes a low single digit increase for NBA 2K, slight growth for mobile, and a decline for Grand Theft Auto Online. We expect gap net revenue to range from $1.65 to $1.7 billion. Operating expenses are planned to range from $1.02 to $1.03 billion. On a management basis, operating expenses are expected to grow by approximately 7% year over year, which is primarily driven by marketing to support our strong release late during the period. Looking ahead, our confidence in our outlook is exceptionally strong. Our company is set to deliver the most ambitious pipeline in our history, which we believe will unlock a new record level of scale as well as enhanced profitability. As we release exciting new hits and explore additional growth opportunities, both organic and inorganic, we expect to achieve meaningful returns for our shareholders. Thank you, I'll now turn the call back to Straus.

speaker
Straus Zelnick
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Lainey and Carl. On behalf of our entire management team, I'd like to thank our colleagues for delivering a stellar start to what is poised to be an outstanding year for Take-Two. To our shareholders, I want to express our appreciation for your continued support. We'll now take your questions. Operator?

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

This time, I would like to remind everyone to ask a question, press star one. We respectfully ask that you limit your questions to one and one follow-up, thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Eric Handler with MKM Partners, please go ahead.

speaker
Eric Handler
Analyst, MKM Partners

Good afternoon, thank you for the question. Straus, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about MBA 2K. You've sold about a half million more units than last year overall. RCS in the quarter up 48%, that's an acceleration of growth from not just last quarter, but two quarters ago as well. Is there something within the RCS that's particularly resonating this year that you can point out to?

speaker
Carl Sladoff
President

Hi, Eric, it's Carl. Look, we were obviously very thrilled with performance of MBA 2K. We've sold in over an 11 and a half million units. And engagement is just across the board up significantly year over year. And it's really not necessarily any of our single modes, it's really both of our primary RCS generating modes, which is my career and also, excuse me, my career and my team, sorry about that. So it's really over time, we're getting much, much better about managing and reading our in-game telemetry, knowing what the consumers like to spend money on, what they like to engage with. And 2K and the folks at BC have done an amazing job managing that process. So we continue to get better and better every year. And this is just a really great title. So there's nothing really specific that one can point to, other than the fact that folks have really reacted positively to the efforts that we've made in the development process. And we still think there's a lot of greenfield in front

speaker
Eric

of us. Great, thanks a lot.

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

Our next question comes from the line of

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

Doug Krutz with Katie Cohen, please go ahead.

speaker
Doug Krutz
Analyst, Katie Cohen

Hey, thanks, I couldn't help noticing that your advertising revenue was flat year over year and up sequentially, which I think is the first time we've seen that in a long time. Can you talk about whether we're seeing finally a bottoming in that market or is this maybe due to some game-specific things that have impacted the quarter? Thank you.

speaker
Straus Zelnick
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I think for us it's really that we adjusted our approach to advertising by moving from hypercasual to hybrid casual and that hybrid casual too. And at this point, I think we feel very good about sort of where we're at and we certainly hope to

speaker
Eric

grow from here. Great, thank you.

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

Your next question comes from

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

the line of Chris Shull with UBS Financial, please go ahead.

speaker
Chris Shull
Analyst, UBS Financial Services

Great, thank you. So mobile did come in much stronger than we expected for fiscal one queue with the low teens growth, but your guide does imply deceleration from here. Can you just kind of walk us through the drivers there and why you anticipate that the momentum you saw in fiscal one queue might not repeat?

speaker
Lainey Goldstein
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, Q1 was fantastic. We've seen so much momentum in a lot of our big titles and some of our titles that have really started to take off since the Q4 of last year and into this first quarter. But we do see some mature titles that have achieved outstanding results on a multi-year basis. And given the age of these titles, we really still expect moderation, even though we haven't really seen it over the course of the fiscal year. And we also have some hyper and hybrid casual titles that have performed really well. And when we forecast for those titles, we're looking at the life cycle on the south curve of prior hyper and hybrid casual titles. So we have to build that into our forecast. So that's what we're seeing right now, but hopefully it'll continue to go in the same momentum and we'll see some great surprises towards the end of the year.

speaker
Chris Shull
Analyst, UBS Financial Services

Great, thank you. And if I can just fit in one more, just as the free cashflow generation of the business scales here in the coming years and leverage is now coming down following the equity rates, can you just remind us how you're thinking about capital allocation going forward and where potential shareholder returns might fall into your list of priorities?

speaker
Straus Zelnick
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, great question. And just to put it in context, right now we've got $2 billion in cash and our net leverage is about 1.2 turns. So we feel like we're pretty conservatively geared, which is our goal. You're right that our expectations obviously would be over the next few years that we'll build up our cash balance to strengthen our balance sheet further, which is the position we'd like to be in. And our approach to capital allocation is unchanged. There are really three uses of our capital. First is support, organic growth. That's been our story around here. We are largely an organic growth story. Secondly, selectively and on an accretive basis only to support inorganic opportunities that are strategically sound. And we're really proud of the fact that pretty much everything we've done in that area has worked out. You see in this quarter that we're now reporting just how well our mobile approach is working out, just how wonderful in addition it is to this enterprise. And it's always our goal to make sure that inorganic growth is sound. It's atypical for industry, but typical for us. Our most recent deal, the acquisition of Gearbox, has also been stellar for the company. And third is returning capital to the shareholders, which we've done regularly over the years, typically in the form of buybacks, which are opportunistic. We do aim to purchase shares at deep value. So far, we've gotten that right 100% of the time, which is kind of amazing. So that remains unchanged, and we feel good about being able to actually execute against all three approaches in the coming years.

speaker
Eric

Great, thank you.

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Morrock with

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

Raymond James. Please go ahead.

speaker
Andrew Morrock
Analyst, Raymond James

Thanks for taking my question. I guess thinking about what went into the decision to price Borderlands 4 at $70, I guess more broadly, when a peer came out with full games at 80, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the rest of the industry would follow, but now we've seen that not necessarily be the case. So I guess from your seat, what is the pricing environment? How do you feel about the ability to take price? And when do you think the player is ready for that to be born? Thank you.

speaker
Straus Zelnick
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Well, I think our approach may be a little bit different. We believe that any consumer experiences the intersection of the thing itself and what you paid for the thing. So our goal is to vastly exceed expectations. We wanna put out the best entertainment on earth, and we wanna deliver more value than what we charge for. And we think we've generally speaking gotten that right. Variable pricing has been the nature of this industry forever. Most frontline releases will go out at a higher price or sometimes with special editions, and then over time, usually the price is discounted to optimize for the largest possible market. And I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. But the rubric that informs us is really that of

speaker
Eric

delivering more value than what we charge.

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Mike Higge with the Benchmark

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

Company. Please go ahead.

speaker
Mike Higge
Analyst, Benchmark Company

Yeah, thanks, Charles, Lainey, Carl, Nicole, great quarter guys, and nice to see the raise in year 25 or fiscal 26 numbers. Just in that sort of area, the raising of guidance here, just give them a macro backdrop, Charles, just through a July jobs report, which is obviously weak. And when we saw the revision down pretty meaningfully, obviously, of May and June job numbers, you concern that this at all signals a broader economic slowdown. And how you think that could impact your business, obviously entertainment has been somewhat defensive historically, but also vulnerable. Thank you guys.

speaker
Straus Zelnick
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Mike. I'm not sure anyone really wants to listen to my macro economic guidance, but I'll share it anyhow. After negative GDP growth, at the end of last year, we've seen a return to positive GDP growth in the first quarter of one to 2%. And I think we're gonna see positive GDP growth. There's headwinds in tariffs, there are tailwinds in stimulus, and I think they're probably gonna balance out in favor of modest growth. I think you're probably gonna see a 3% increase in consumer spending, which is about what we've been accustomed to, I agree with you that unemployment probably goes up a bit, it's 4.2 and probably goes up to 4.5. That's my own view, and I think you'll see 50 more bips of that rate cuts between now and year end. You can ignore all of that or do with it as you please. What that implies is much more, much more soft landing than anything else. You know, it's on balance acceptable, it's not booming, it's not certainly not busting. And I do think that there's some risk, which you I think alluded to in your question, that consumers are gonna be a little more careful with their spending. And what happens when they're more careful? Well, it's not true that entertainment is countercyclical, it's not even true that entertainment is recession resistant, it is true that people still consume entertainment even in tough times, they're just gonna be much more selective. So where are they gonna go? They're gonna go to quality. And that's a trend that's already been occurring in our business because our business is maturing and as entertainment businesses mature, there's a flight to quality. Thankfully, we think ahead around here, and 18 years ago when we came here, we made sure the strategy of the company was not to put out the biggest number of the releases, but rather to put out the best releases and only to put out the best releases. And then of course over time, when we established an ability to come out with the highest quality titles reflected in our leading Metacritic scores and in our revenues, we were able to build up our pipeline further and to diversify it further. And now we actually have an incredibly robust pipeline going forward and one that we believe is identified by the hallmark of great quality. If we're right about that, then even in more challenging macro times, our micro behavior should be industry leading.

speaker
Eric

Nice. Thank you guys. Good luck.

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Martin Yang with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

speaker
Martin Yang
Analyst, Oppenheimer

Thanks for taking my question. I want to ask about your view on the size of your addressable players versus the absolute quality you can deliver. So when it comes to new game releases, would you at most times sacrifice potential addressable player base to prioritize on the quality of the game in the sense that sometimes you will want to maybe sacrifice your target, a narrower console or PC player base in order to deliver the quality? So just general sense on how to think about new games and the player base they will support?

speaker
Straus Zelnick
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Look, in general, we aim to be wherever the consumer is and most of our releases end up on all platforms that have any kind of consumer attention. And we've announced, for example, four titles for Switch 2 and have supported Nintendo with new platform releases. We've supported Sony and Microsoft who are on Steam and numerous other digital platforms within the PC format. So I don't really think there's a trade-off between our focus on quality and how ubiquitous we are in terms of release platforms. And I don't see it that way. It is possible that our labels might stage a release so that they can focus on, for example, core console platforms. But generally speaking, in the fullness of time, our titles find their way to all the viable platforms.

speaker
Martin Yang
Analyst, Oppenheimer

A quick follow-up. So you talked about meeting players where they are. I think in the past you have expressed or you view platforms like Roblox as a very low priority platform where you would put your content on. Is there any change to that view? Do you feel that there are players that you are currently not accessing by not putting content on Roblox? Or do you think that you are pretty well covered in terms of all the players and where they are?

speaker
Straus Zelnick
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Well, I mean, I didn't realize you were referring to Roblox as a platform. But for the sake of argument, let me accept it as one for the purpose of your question. Roblox is aimed at kids largely. And not all of our games are rated E. So we are a highly compliant company. We market to appropriate audiences. We work with the ESRB here and with IRR outside of the US and other local ratings agencies to make sure that our titles are properly labeled and properly marketed. So even if a platform like Roblox, as you put it, were viable for some of our releases, not all of them would be appropriate for Roblox. But Roblox is not a platform in the way you say Steam is a platform. Roblox is a certain type of environment. And not all of our games would work on Roblox, whether that's work technically, work artistically, or work commercially. But in terms of platforms that don't have their own creative offering, so for example, Steam. Steam doesn't apply as to who it serves. It has all different kinds of releases. So we are going to be on Steam or other similar digital platforms most of the time, just as an example.

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

Thank you. Again, to ask a question,

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Clay Griffith with Moffitt Nathanson. Please go ahead.

speaker
Clay Griffith
Analyst, Moffitt Nathanson

Yes, thanks. Good afternoon. Strauss, you mentioned it in the open, but just maybe if we could get your thoughts on the court rulings specifically related to alternative app stores on Android. How do you see that progressing from here? Does it make sense to build your own app store with that environment? And then as a follow-on, what do you think it will do to sort of the user acquisition channels that have existed prior to this development?

speaker
Straus Zelnick
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

It's less about user acquisition and more about user monetization, just to be clear. I think that we're going to continue to cooperate with all of the app stores that are really important partners. At the same time, the momentum of court rulings is in service of making sure the market is open and fair to all, as it ought to be. I've been saying for years that I believe that distribution systems in our business would move from closed to open, and the cost of distribution would decline. And we are seeing those two things happen, whether that's driven by financial necessity, whether that's driven by opportunity, whether that's driven by regulation, or whether that's driven by litigation. It's kind of unimportant to us that the movement is all in the same direction, and that direction is what's good for the consumer. What's good for the consumer is open distribution.

speaker
Clay Griffith
Analyst, Moffitt Nathanson

And is that something that you see an opportunity to do yourselves, or does it make sense to partner with others?

speaker
Straus Zelnick
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

So all of the above, for example, you can buy currency on our own web stores now for most of, not all of, but most of our mobile games. I see that continuing. We have a launcher inside the Rockstar Social Club, for example. So we don't intend to integrate forward into retail distribution, and we certainly don't intend to eat retail's lunch because they are valued distribution partners for us. We want to be wherever the consumer is. They want to go to Best Buy, they want to go to Steam, they want to go to Microsoft or Amazon. We want to be there as long as we are treated fairly. The emphasis is on being treated fairly. And there is a distribution cost that is fair, and there is a distribution cost that is less fair. And the world seems to be moving in the direction of more fair, and the courts are helping.

speaker
Clay Griffith
Analyst, Moffitt Nathanson

Sure. And then I've got a quick follow-up on NBHK if I can. Just exceptional growth there. I'm curious, I know that you had 2K24 in PlayStation Plus last year around this time. I don't know if there is any special differentiation in terms of the tiers that were available in June. But Carl, maybe you could speak to just if there was any impact from PlayStation Plus year over year that would have contributed to growth numbers like this.

speaker
Carl Sladoff
President

So we do put our titles occasionally into some of the subscription services. They are great partners for us, and in many cases, we wouldn't do it unless it was a good economic deal, and the platforms wouldn't do it either. So we do take advantage of that, and it's been compelling from us from an economic standpoint. As it relates to NBHK, we have done it in the past, and we don't really talk about whether we're going to do anything in the future. But when you do put something into a channel like that, it generates obviously engagement, it generates income for us, and it's something that we consider and we do if the time is right, if the math makes sense.

speaker
Clay Griffith
Analyst, Moffitt Nathanson

And just to be clear, year over year, was there a meaningful delta in the way that it came to that service?

speaker
Eric

A meaningful delta over what? Just how it was presented last year. Yeah, I'm not sure I'm understanding the question. I apologize. Could you restate

speaker
Clay Griffith
Analyst, Moffitt Nathanson

it one more time? Yeah, just trying to understand if there was any change in the economics, the contribution from that relationship with Sony year over year that would have contributed to the exceptional growth that's in the future. Oh, I understand. Okay, I'm

speaker
Carl Sladoff
President

sorry. You were asking a very straightforward question, and I thought it was more complicated. The answer is no.

speaker
Eric

Got it. Thanks.

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

Great. And with no further questions in queue, I will now turn the call back over to Strauss Zelnick

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

for closing remarks.

speaker
Straus Zelnick
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you so much, everyone, for joining us today. Obviously, we're thrilled with our first quarter results, and we have great confidence for the outlook for the rest of the year. All of this is tribute to the superb work that is done by our teams all over the world, our development teams who are the most creative and talented in business, our marketing and distribution teams, our innovative in the extreme, don't take no for an answer, and of course our business teams who work hard every day to make sure that we're highly compliant, highly organized, and highly effective. Thanks to everyone, and we wish you all a great summer.

speaker
Tina
Conference Operator

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect. Please wait. The

speaker
Eric

conference will begin shortly.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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