Take-Two Confirms 'GTA VI' Still Scheduled for November Release, Surges Over 6% After Hours

Gaming giant Take-Two Interactive has officially confirmed that the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6) is still planned for November 19th. This highly anticipated title is regarded as one of the most epic and grand-scale productions in the history of video games.

Company CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed in an interview with Bloomberg that marketing activities related to the game will officially kick off this summer, with pricing and pre-order information to be announced at the same time. The company's stock price increased by more than 6% after hours.

In addition to the release date, the market is more focused on whether GTA VI can effectively meet the company's growth expectations for the next fiscal year. The game has been delayed twice in the past year.

The full-year guidance provided by the company did not fully meet the optimistic expectations of the market:

• Net bookings for the fourth quarter reached $1.58 billion, slightly exceeding analysts' expectations of $1.57 billion;

• The net bookings guidance for the 2027 fiscal year is $8.0-8.2 billion, significantly lower than the $9.11 billion analysts expected;

• The net bookings guidance for the first quarter is $1.32-1.37 billion, also below the expected $1.57 billion.

This means that although the release date of GTA VI has been confirmed, the company's full-year performance guidance has not yet reached the level that previously supported a high valuation. The stock price increase after hours is more a short-term repair brought about by the confirmation of the release node and the latest quarter's performance exceeding expectations.

In the latest quarter, Take-Two's revenue increased by 6% year-on-year to $1.68 billion, exceeding analysts' expectations of $1.55 billion. Recurrent consumer spending grew by 12%, accounting for as much as 81% of total revenue, primarily contributed by the continued contributions of the NBA 2K series, GTA Online, and GTA V.

Zelnick downplayed the impact of the increase in console prices in the interview, calling it "not good news," but he believes that there are no significant challenges at the industry level that will significantly affect the launch of GTA VI.