Take-Two aims to increase its presence in mobile as it looks to expand on what it claims is Social Point’s “meaningful” contribution to its earnings.

The Grand Theft Auto publisher reported sales of $541 million for Q1 FY2020, up 39 per cent year-on-year. Recurrent consumer spending also grew 31 per cent to account for 58 per cent of all revenue. Digital sales rose 36 per cent to $428m, making up 79 per cent of revenue.

Total net bookings also increased 46 per cent to $422 million, with digitally-delivered net bookings rising 51 per cent to make up $382.5 million.

Net income meanwhile actually fell 35 per cent to $46.3 million.

Mobile boost?

During the company’s earnings call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said the first quarter results were enhanced, amongst its big hits like Grand Theft Auto Online and NBA 2K, by Social Point’s mobile games and WWE SuperCard.

Social Point’s mobile portfolio includes Dragon CityMonster Legend, World Chef and Tasty Town. In May it also launched crossword title Word Life.

WWE SuperCard meanwhile has been downloaded 19.5 million times and is 2K’s highest-grossing mobile title.

It’s difficult to see how precisely how significant a contribution mobile sales actually are for Take-Two, however. Mobile revenue is included in ‘PC and other’, which saw earnings increase 20 per cent to $106m in Q1. That places the revenue contribution from this group at around 20 per cent.

Net bookings for 'PC and other' meanwhile increased by 26 per cent to $110m, around 26 per cent of total bookings.

Take-Two president Karl Slatoff said during the earnings call that he expects Social Point and 2K to continue to “broaden our offerings for mobile devices”, with around 10 games said to be in development at the former.

“Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on delivering the highest quality entertainment and to provide new and innovative ways to enhance players’ experiences with our games,” said Slatoff.

“To that end, we are investing heavily in opportunities to grow our scale, increase our presence in mobile and capitalise on emerging distribution channels and business models, such as free-to-play, streaming and subscription.

“The successful execution of this strategy will continue to engage our customers and generate growth and profits for our company over the long-term."