FILE PHOTO: NBA 2K22 and Grand Theft Auto 5 by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc are seen for sale in a store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., February 7, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
(Reuters) -Take-Two Interactive Software shares rose 3.5% on Friday as the Zynga owner's strong forecast signaled a rebound in the mobile gaming industry following a years-long post-pandemic slump.
Once seen as the video-gaming industry's next big growth driver, the mobile market sputtered over the past few years as people spent more time outdoors after lockdowns and high inflation deterred non-essential spending by consumers.
That left investors waiting for payoffs from mobile gaming deals such as Take-Two's 2022 buyout of Zynga for $12.7 billion.
But Take-Two's raised annual forecast and better-than-expected results for the April-June period offered the clearest sign yet that the U.S. mobile-gaming market was bouncing back.
"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 fourth quarter of last year and into this first quarter," finance chief Lainie Goldstein said.
Take-Two, whose fiscal year runs from April to March, makes puzzle-based mobile titles such as "Match Factory," "Color Block Jam" and "Toon Blast." Those games helped it post a nearly 17% jump in bookings - a revenue indicator - in its fiscal first quarter.
"Raises after first-quarter beats are generally rare in this industry, particularly with major releases still to come, but the ongoing strength in mobile leaves ample room for a simple passthrough of the upside," TD Cowen analysts said.
The mobile-gaming market is also benefiting from the growing integration of live-service features into titles to keep players spending. That helped in-app purchase revenue rise to $81.7 billion last year from $78.6 billion in 2023, Sensor Tower data showed.
Apart from the mobile business, Take-Two has large premium titles in its pipeline including "Mafia: The Old Country," set to release on Friday, as well as "Borderlands 4" and "Grand Theft Auto VI," all of which are expected to sell millions of copies.
"Between Take-Two's current performance, their upcoming releases like Mafia and Borderlands, and, of course, GTA VI, the firm should be optimistic," said Joost van Dreunen, games professor at NYU Stern School of Business.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
