2018 Annual Report
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TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE, INC. 2018 ANNUAL REPORT 25 YEARS OF PHENOMENAL ENTERTAINMENT Generated significant cash flow and ended the fiscal year with $1.4 BILLION in cash and short-term investments Delivered total Net Bookings of Net Bookings from recurrent $1.991 BILLION consumer spending grew 5% year-over-year increase 48% to a new record and accounted for Series with at least one five-million unit selling release and 60 individual multi-million unit selling titles 48% 11 of total Net Bookings One of the most critically-acclaimed and commercially successful video games of all time with over units sold-in 95 MILLION to date Digitally-delivered Net Bookings grew Employees working in game development and 18 studios 25% 3,250 around the world and accounted for Sold-in over 9 million units to date and is our 68% highest-selling sports title ever of total Net Bookings TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE, INC. 2018 ANNUAL REPORT DEAR SHAREHOLDERS, Fiscal 2018 was another outstanding year for Take-Two, underscored by operating results that greatly surpassed the initial outlook that we provided at the start of the year. We delivered $1.8 billion in net revenue, Net Bookings grew 5% to nearly $2.0 billion, and we generated earnings growth and margin expansion. Our strong business performance converted into substantial net cash provided by operating activities, which grew 19% to $393 million and, as of March 31, 2018, we had over $1.4 billion in cash and short-term investments. It bears noting that we achieved these results despite an unusually light release schedule, reflecting the strength of our robust catalog led by Grand Theft Auto and the substantial contribution that we now receive from recurrent consumer spending. Today, our enterprise is a global leader in the interactive entertainment industry and a significantly higher-margin business than at any time in our history. OUR KEY ACHIEVEMENTS Q We delivered record digitally-delivered net revenue and Net Bookings. Digitally-delivered net revenue grew 23% to $1.13 billion and digitally-delivered Net Bookings grew 25% to $1.35 billion. Q We generated record net revenue and Net Bookings from recurrent consumer spending. Recurrent consumer spending accounted for 42% of total net revenue and 48% of total Net Bookings. Q Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online continued to exceed our expectations in fiscal 2018 – as they have in every year since their release nearly five years ago – with combined Net Bookings from the titles growing year-over-year. Grand Theft Auto V has sold-in over 95 million units, reflecting its status as the highest-rated title of the current console generation and the “must have” game for purchasers of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Moreover, Grand Theft Auto Online broke monthly audience records in June, July and December, added more new users than in fiscal 2017 and delivered its biggest year yet for virtual currency sales. Rockstar Games achieved these results through the ongoing release of a wide array of free additional content. Q We released NBA 2K18, which is now our highest-selling sports title ever with sell-in to date of over 9 million units – up 17% over last year’s release. In addition, our NBA 2K series continues to benefit from growing engagement and recurrent consumer spending. During fiscal 2018, average revenue per user, revenue per hour and unique multiplayer users all increased double-digits, and recurrent consumer spending on NBA 2K grew 34% to a new record. Q We successfully launched WWE 2K18, which has been enhanced by an array of downloadable add-on content, including a Season Pass. The WWE brand is as popular as ever, and we believe there is a substantial long-term opportunity to grow our WWE 2K series by leveraging further the development and marketing expertise of 2K and Visual Concepts. Q We formed Private Division, our new publishing label that focuses on bringing titles from top independent developers to market. Private Division will publish several titles based on new IP from renowned industry creative talent, including Panache Digital Games, The Outsiders, Obsidian Entertainment and V1 Interactive. Private Division is also the publisher of Kerbal Space Program, which Take-Two acquired in May 2017. Q During fiscal year 2018, we repurchased 1.51 million shares of Take-Two common stock for $154.8 million. Q On March 19, 2018, Take-Two was added to the S&P 500® index. 1 TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE, INC. 2018 ANNUAL REPORT SUCCESSFUL GROWTH STRATEGY Take-Two’s strategy is to develop the highest-quality, most compelling interactive entertainment franchises in the business, and deliver them on every platform around the world that is relevant to our audience. Complementing our core business with offerings that drive ongoing engagement with and recurrent consumer spending (including virtual currency, in-game purchases and add-on content) on our titles after their initial purchase is an important, high- margin growth opportunity and, therefore, a key strategic priority of our organization. We now support nearly all of our new releases with innovative offerings designed to achieve this objective. Recurrent consumer spending also helps to strengthen our results between front-line releases while providing additional entertainment to consumers. World-class creative teams: Creativity and innovation remain the core tenets of our organization, and are the lifeblood for our ongoing success. We have over 3,250 employees working in game development in 18 studios around the world – including some of the most talented visionaries in the business. The creative teams at Rockstar Games and 2K are renowned throughout the world for their consistent ability to deliver games that set new benchmarks for excellence. In addition, our Social Point studio further enhances our organization’s development capabilities with one of the few creative teams in the world possessing a track record of producing multiple hits in the free-to-play mobile sector. Whether expanding beloved franchises, launching new intellectual property or providing innovative ways for audiences to remain captivated and engaged, we have an unwavering commitment to producing the highest quality entertainment experiences. Diverse portfolio of industry-leading intellectual property: Take-Two is a financially strong, global interactive entertainment enterprise with numerous successful franchises encompassing a variety of genres. Our diverse portfolio of intellectual property includes 11 series with at least one five-million unit selling release, and 60 individual, multi-million unit selling titles. Since 2007, we have added 9 new brands to our lineup, including hits such as BioShock, Borderlands, Red Dead Redemption and WWE 2K. Capitalizing on growth of digital distribution: During fiscal 2018, we continued to capitalize on our industry’s ongoing transition towards digital distribution, and delivered both record digitally-delivered net revenue and Net Bookings, including our highest-ever from recurrent consumer spending. In addition to virtual currency for Grand Theft Auto Online and NBA 2K, recurrent consumer spending was enhanced by a variety of offerings, including free-to-play games led by WWE SuperCard, which grew over 20% year-over-year and has now been downloaded nearly 17 million times, Social Point’s mobile titles Dragon City and Monster Legends, and NBA 2K Online – which remains the #1 PC online sports game in China with over 37 million registered users. Net Bookings from add-on content grew more than 40%, led by offerings for Sid Meier’s Civilization, particularly the Rise and Fall expansion pack; XCOM 2, particularly War of the Chosen; WWE 2K; and Mafia III. Our results also benefited from ongoing growth in full-game downloads, with more than 35% of units for current-generation consoles and over 95% of units for PC delivered digitally. Moreover, nearly half of our catalog sales for old-generation consoles are being delivered through digital download. Digital distribution is disproportionately benefitting our catalog, as it gives consumers the opportunity to buy older titles that no longer receive physical shelf space. Over the long-term, we expect the trend towards digital distribution to continue, with the percentage of sales of console games through full-game download continuing to grow. Interactive entertainment is one of today’s most dynamic and popular art forms. We are actively investing in a variety of emerging platforms, business models and markets that we believe have the potential to further diversify our business, expand our audience and enhance our financial performance. Q Our January 2017 acquisition of Social Point expands our presence in the free-to-play mobile market, which is the largest and fastest-growing segment within our industry. We believe that Social Point is a perfect complement to our business because it produces high-quality entertainment that can attract and retain a loyal, highly-engaged player base and deliver sustainable results. Social Point focuses on “mid-core” games that feature greater gameplay depth than casual games, and their titles typically monetize and retain players 2 TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE, INC. 2018 ANNUAL REPORT at higher rates than its competitors in this segment. They have a number of exciting titles planned for launch in the coming years, and we continue to view Social Point as an important long-term growth opportunity for Take-Two. Q eSports is an exciting growth trend in our industry. To that end, we are very pleased with the progress of the NBA 2K League – our joint-venture with the NBA that marked the first official competitive gaming league based on a U.S. professional sports league – which kicked off its inaugural season in May 2018. Following the qualifying rounds during which more than 76,000 people participated, in April 2018, 102 of the best NBA 2K players in the world were drafted by 17 NBA teams to compete in a 15-week season that will conclude with the NBA 2K League Playoffs and Finals in August 2018.