Take-Two sees annual bookings below revised estimates as "GTA VI" delay weighs
The company expects bookings of between $5.9 billion and $6 billion, compared with expectations of $6.46 billion, according to an average of analysts' estimates compiled by Visible Alpha that were revised after "GTA VI" was delayed.
Shares of the New York-based company fell nearly 2 per cent in extended trading.
The next installment in the best-selling "Grand Theft Auto" franchise is expected to sell millions of copies and generate billions in the first few weeks. Take-Two's decision to delay the long-awaited game into fiscal 2027 could weigh on its overall bookings for this year, but could benefit it in the next.
"As we bring our exciting lineup to market, including Grand Theft Auto VI in fiscal 2027, we expect to achieve record levels of net bookings," said Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.
The delay of "GTA VI" has led to a wave of release dates for that launch window from publishers looking to capitalize on the absence of Take-Two's likely blockbuster title which would have dominated sales charts.
Take-Two has other titles lined up for the year such as "Borderlands 4", and "Mafia: The Old Country", but their potentially strong releases are unlikely to stave off a hit from the delay of "GTA VI."
The company expects bookings for the first quarter to be between $1.25 billion and $1.30 billion, compared with estimates of $1.28 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
American actor Gary Busey pleads guilty to sex offence at horror convention
Actor Gary Busey has pleaded guilty to a sexual offence stemming from an appearance at a 2022 horror convention in New Jersey, according to his representatives and court records. The 81-year-old Buddy Holly star's manager, Ron Sampson, said in an email Friday (Aug 1) that the actor admitted to touching a woman's buttocks "over clothing during an eight-to-10 second photo op'. Busey entered a guilty plea to a single count of criminal sexual contact during a virtual hearing in state court in Camden on Thursday. The actor had been accused of inappropriately touching at least three women at the Monster-Mania Convention at the Doubletree Hotel in Cherry Hill, a South Jersey town and suburb of Philadelphia. Organisers of the event acknowledged at the time that an unnamed celebrity guest was "removed from the convention and instructed not to return" and that affected attendees were encouraged to contact police. Busey had been scheduled as a featured guest for all three days of the event. He was initially charged with two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact, one count of attempted criminal sexual contact and one count of harassment. Busey's lawyer, Blair Zwillman, confirmed Friday that the other charges were dropped as part of a plea deal reached with prosecutors. The actor faces up to five years' probation and fines when he is sentenced Sep 18. 'In my view, Mr Busey was 'overcharged' probably based on his star status,' Zwillman said in an email. 'He could have just as easily been charged with the disorderly persons offence of harassment by 'offensive touching'.' Spokespersons for Camden County prosecutors didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday.
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Jeannie Seely, soulful country singer behind hits like Don't Touch Me, dies at 85
Jeannie Seely, the soulful country music singer behind such standards like Don't Touch Me, has died. She was 85. Her publicist, Don Murry Grubbs, said she died Friday (Aug 1) after succumbing to complications from an intestinal infection. Known as Miss Country Soul for her unique vocal style, Seely was a trailblazer for women in country music, celebrated for her spirited nonconformity and for a string of undeniable hits in the 60s and 70s. In May, Seely revealed that she was in recovery after undergoing multiple back surgeries, two emergency procedures and spending 11 days in the ICU. She also suffered a bout of pneumonia. 'Rehab is pretty tough, but each day is looking brighter and last night, I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. And it was neon, so I knew it was mine!' she said in a statement at the time. 'The unsinkable Seely is working her way back.' Seely was born in July 1940, in Titusville, Pennsylvania, about two hours north of Pittsburgh and raised in nearby Townville. Her love of country music was instant; her mother sang, and her father played the banjo. When she was a child, she sang on radio shows and performed on television. In her early 20s, she moved to Los Angeles to kick-start a career, taking a job Liberty and Imperial Records in Hollywood. She kept writing and recording. Nashville was next: She sang on Porter Wagoner's show; she got a deal with Monument Records. Her greatest hit would arrive soon afterward: Don't Touch Me, the crossover ballad written by Hank Cochran. The song earned Seely her first and only Grammy Award, for best country & western vocal performance in the female category. Cochran and Seely were married in 1969 and divorced in 1979. Seely broke boundaries in her career. At a time when country music expected a kind of subservience from its women performers, Seely was a bit of a rebel, known for wearing a miniskirt on the Grand Ole Opry stage when it was still taboo. And she had a number of country hits in the 60s and 70s, including three Top 10 hits on what is now known as Billboard's hot country songs chart: Don't Touch Me, 1967's I'll Love You More (Than You Need) and 1973's Can I Sleep In Your Arms?, adapted from the folk song Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister? In the years since, Seely continued to release albums, perform, and host, regularly appearing on country music programming. Her songs are considered classics and have been recorded by everyone from Merle Haggard, Ray Price and Connie Smith to Ernest Tubb, Grandpa Jones, and Little Jimmy Dickens. And Seely never stopped working in country music. Since 2018, she's hosted the weekly Sunday's with Seely on Willie Nelson's Willie's Roadhouse SiriusXM channel. That same year, she was inducted into the Music City Walk of Fame. She appeared nearly 5,400 times at the Grand Ole Opry, which she has been a member of since 1967. Grubbs said Saturday's Grand Ole Opry show would be dedicated to Seely. She released her latest song in July 2024, a cover of Dottie West's Suffertime, recorded at the world-renowned RCA Studio B. She performed it at the Opry the year before.
CNA
4 hours ago
- CNA
Meta to share AI infrastructure costs via $2 billion asset sale
Meta Platforms is pressing ahead with efforts to bring in outside partners to help fund the massive infrastructure needed to power artificial intelligence, disclosing plans in a filing on Thursday to offload $2 billion in data center assets as part of that strategy. The strategy reflects a broader shift among tech giants — long known for self-funding growth — as they grapple with the soaring cost of building and powering data centers to support generative AI. The social media giant said earlier this week that it was exploring ways to work with financial partners to co-develop data centers to help finance its massive capital outlay for next year. 'We're exploring ways to work with financial partners to co-develop data centers,' Meta Chief Finance Officer Susan Li said on a post-earnings conference call on Wednesday. While the company still expects to fund much of its capital spending internally, some projects could attract 'significant external financing' and offer more flexibility if infrastructure needs shift over time, Li said. The company did not have any finalized transactions to announce, she said. The disclosure in Meta's quarterly filing, however, signals that plans are firming up. In its quarterly filing on Thursday, Meta said it had approved a plan in June to dispose of certain data center assets and reclassified $2.04 billion worth of land and construction-in-progress as "held-for-sale". These assets were expected to be contributed to a third party within the next twelve months for co-developing data centers. Meta did not record a loss on the reclassification, which values the assets at the lower of their carrying amounts or fair value less costs to sell. As of June 30, total held-for-sale assets stood at $3.26 billion, according to the filing. Meta declined to comment for this story. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has laid out plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into constructing AI data center 'superclusters' for superintelligence. 'Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan,' he said. The Instagram and WhatsApp owner on Wednesday raised the bottom end of its annual capital expenditures forecast by $2 billion, to $66 billion to $72 billion.
