Take-Two's fortunes on the rise ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2 debut

The folks at Take-Two Interactive have published their financials for the year ended March 31, 2018, and it appears the U.S. publisher had a good year fueled primarily by recurrent spending in games like Grand Theft Auto Online.

Notably, Take-Two reports $173.5 million (GAAP) in net income on $1.79 billion in net revenues for the year, which is just a bit more revenue and quite a bit more profit (roughly 158 percent more) than the company saw in the year prior, when it earned $67.3 million on $1.78 billion in revenues.

Recurrent consumer spending (think: sales of DLC, in-game currency, etc.) reportedly grew 63 percent to account for 42 percent of the year's total net revenue, which is quite a bit more than the 26 percent of total net revenue it accounted for last (fiscal) year.

The big revenue-generators this year were, unsurprisingly, led by Grand Theft Auto V / Grand Theft Auto Online, NBA 2K17 / NBA 2K18, WWE 2K18, and WWE SuperCard. 

GTA Online was cited as an especially over-performing earner in the fourth quarter of the year, which actually came in a bit lower year-over-year. For just the three months ending March 31st, Take-Two reported $90.9 million in net income on $540.3 million in revenues, a bit less than the $99.3 million it earned on $571.6 million in sales it saw in the same quarter a year prior. 

"During the fourth quarter, Take-Two delivered Net Bookings growth driven by increased recurrent consumer spending – including better-than-expected results from Grand Theft Auto Online,” stated company chief Strauss Zelnick in the earnings release. “Grand Theft Auto Online and NBA2K generated record results, exceeding our original expectations, and we benefited from strong ongoing sales of Grand Theft Auto V and other catalog titles."

In the year ahead, the company aims to hit $180-$211 million in profits on $2.5-$2.6 billion in revenue, driven largely by recurrent spending and the debut of Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption 2 in late October.