Take-Two Lifts Revenue Outlook Even as Second-Quarter Bookings Slide 18%

Take-Two Interactive is asking investors to hold two ideas at once: a softer quarter just reported and a brighter full-year picture. The company made that tension explicit on November 9, and the raised guidance is best read as a vote of confidence rather than proof that an operational acceleration has already arrived.

Net bookings for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 came in at $1.60 billion, down 18% from a year earlier. That fell short of the $1.67 billion analysts had penciled in, according to Reuters. GAAP revenue moved in the same direction, slipping to $1.50 billion from $1.77 billion, so the weakness was not confined to bookings alone.

What the Raised Forecast Does — and Doesn't — Say

Alongside those numbers, Take-Two lifted its revenue guidance for fiscal 2027 to a range of $7.98 billion to $8.18 billion, up from $7.90 billion to $8.10 billion previously. The net bookings outlook, by contrast, was left untouched at $8.0 billion to $8.2 billion. The company did raise its diluted earnings-per-share forecast to $0.57 to $0.75.

The distinction matters. Management is painting a more favorable picture of revenue and profit without lifting its bookings expectation, which supports optimism about the year ahead but does not amount to evidence of a growth spurt already under way. The reported quarter describes the starting point; the guidance sets the bar for what follows. Collapsing the two into a single verdict — all strong or all weak — would obscure the actual picture.

Wall Street Adjusts Its Targets

Analysts weighed in quickly. UBS trimmed its price target on Tuesday to $295 from $300 while keeping a buy rating. BTIG also reaffirmed its buy rating and $262 target the same day, calling the quarterly results broadly in line with its expectations. The main variances, BTIG said, came from NBA and the mobile business, and the firm views the risk-reward balance favorably ahead of the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI.

That launch remains the pivotal date on the calendar. In its quarterly filing on November 9, Take-Two named November 19, 2026, as the release date for Grand Theft Auto VI from Rockstar Games; the mandatory disclosure covered the quarter ended September 30, 2026. CEO Strauss Zelnick said the same day, according to media reports, that marketing for the title is proceeding on schedule, and he expects the release to benefit the wider games industry and the installed console base.

Rockstar is also planning a one-day music festival in Miami on November 21 to mark the game's debut, working with PlayStation and the production team behind III Points, Axios reported.

Cash and the Road Ahead

Zelnick said Thursday that Take-Two expects to close the fiscal year with a net cash position. For investors, the challenge is to weigh that forward-looking confidence against a quarter that has already been measured — and to remember that the higher annual outlook must still show up in actual results before it counts as more than a promise with specific targets attached.