I’ve posted the updated and final agenda for our GamesBeat Summit 2025 event (25% off discount code: gbs25dean25) and thought it would be good to post a guide on what to expect on May 19-20 in LA. This post is organized by subject matter. On our first day, May 19, we’ll start out with a couple of hours of networking starting around 11:30 a.m. in the lobby of the Marriott Marina del Rey (4100 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey). Then we’ll get started at 1:30 p.m. with four small group sessions at a time, all downstairs from the lobby. These are hour-long sessions and they answer our attendees’ desire for more engagement with speakers. These small rooms have about 65-seats each (for three of the recorded sessions) and 35 seats for the roundtable room (Catalina). Audience Q&A will be encouraged in these sessions, though some will opt for written questions. Our roundtables are not recorded, with Chatham House rules, where you can say what was said but not who said it. We’ll close out day one with a reception at 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. (Kicked off by Dean Takahashi and Gina Joseph of GamesBeat and Peter Levin of Griffin Gaming Partners). Gina Joseph and I will come out on stage at around 9:30 am and then I’ll kick things off with a short opening speech around 9:35 a.m. Then, throughout the day, we’ll have more traditional 30-minute talks on two stages (California and Promenade rooms) as well as two roundtable rooms (Malibu/Santa Monica and Venice/Peninsula). I’ll give closing thanks at 5:30 p.m. on May 20. The big topics: AI in games and growth opportunities Tynan Sylvester created RimWorld while Owen Mahoney spent a decade each at EA and Nexon. As noted in one one of our social posts, we’ve got a number of sessions on AI and gaming. The hype around AI reminds me of some years ago of how we had lots of sessions on blockchain games or the metaverse, but AI is showing early results and we’ve heard that this is what people want to talk about. I don’t see these as repetitive sessions. Rather, they present attendees with choice, with exposure to many different bright minds on their own perspectives of the AI revolution. The sessions include high-level strategic views of AI in entertainment and games with Owen Mahoney formerly of Nexon, Bing Gordon of Kleiner Perkins, Mitch Lasky of Benchmark and Tynan Sylvester of Ludeon. (2:30 pm -3:30 pm in Palisades downstairs room on May 19). We’ll also have a talk on surprising uses of AI in game creation with Kayla Comalli, Neil Young, and Irena Pereira (3:30 pm-4:30 pm in Malibu/Santa Monica on May 19). AI in Gaming presented by Amazon Web Services (AWS) will include Ashwin Raghuraman, Hilary Mason, J. Aaron Farr, and moderator Chris Melissinos. They will talk about their own perspective on the AI tools that are emerging for production. (4:30 pm – 5:30 pm in Venice/Peninsula room on May 19). On May 20, Rich Vogel, CEO of T-Minus Zero Entertainment. Vogel, who won our Up and Comer Award in the past, will talk for the second year in a row on the AI tools that are reinventing game development. (3 pm – 4 pm on May 20 in Malibu/Santa Monica room — not recorded, with Chatham House rules). Also on May 20, we will have a roundtable entitled “From Player Safety to Child Wellbeing and the Role of AI” with moderator Chris Melissinos of AWS, Henderika (Heidi) Vogel Brockmann of Guardian Gamer and adviser Joel Silk. (1 pm – 2 pm on May 20, in Venice/Peninsula room). During our mainstage sessions on May 20, we’ll touch on AI in “Living Games: The AI and Live Services Revolution Reshaping Games,” presented by Google Cloud with Catherine Hawayek of Google Cloud Games and Dean Takahashi (2 pm – 2:30 pm in the California ballroom on May 20). And we will have another AI topic come up in “Driving Change in Gaming: Business Models, Player Needs, AI, and the Road Ahead,” with Matthew Bromberg of Unity and Sarah Parvini of the AP at 3:30 p.m. – 4 p.m. in the California ballroom on May 20). Other big topics Chris Hewish is chief strategy officer of Xsolla. We’ve also got sessions related to the growth opportunities for gaming, including the clash between developers and platforms over fees. On day two, our opening panel with Chris Hewish of Xsolla, Anthony Bartolacci of Sensor Tower and moderator Gina Joseph of GamesBeat will cover the topic of Epic Games’ recent court victory against Apple and the opportunity it creates for mobile gaming growth. (9:45 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. on May 20). Our Visionary Awards will take place at 10:15 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on May 20, with Andrea Rene as our host. The Visionary Award is for a game industry leader who showed vision throughout their career. And the second award, The Up and Comer Award, is for someone whose potential lies ahead of them. Our judges included They include Sarah Bond of Microsoft, Rich Vogel of T-Minus Zero Entertainment, Don Daglow of AIAS Foundation/Strong National Museum of Play, Perrin Kaplan of Zebra Partners, Elizabeth Olson of Strategic Marketing, Dinga Bakaba of Arkane, Tara Bruno of Tara Bruno PR, Charmaine Duff of Women-Led Games, Mark Chandler of TIGS, Meggan Scavio of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, Kat Jones of Motiv, Shelley Andagan of Qualcomm, onine game pioneer John Smedley and me. Diversity sessions Rachel Kaser is a GamesBeat writer. More than 54% of our speakers come from diverse backgrounds, and 35% women. And we continue to focus on diversity in the gaming industry for many of our topics. On day two, we get started with our tenth Women in Gaming Breakfast (meant for women, at 8:30 a.m. Pacific – 9:25 a.m.) Presented by Xsolla, that session (starting at 9 a.m.) will be moderated by GamesBeat’s Rachel Kaser and include speakers Carla Bedrosian of Xsolla, Angela Dalton of Signum Growth Dot Play and Nancy MacIntyre of World Winner. During lunch on May 20, at 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m, we’ll have our first accessibility in gaming panel, sponsored by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). Aubrey Quinn, senior vice president for the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), leads a conversation with Holly Wescott, Accessibility Lead at Amazon Games, Kaitlyn Jones, Director of Clinical Outreach at Warfighter Engaged and Gaming Accessibility Lead at Xbox and player, content creator and accessibility consultant Steve Saylor, about how the video game industry is advancing efforts to make games accessible for as many players as possible. Gordon Bellamy, professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and head of Gay Gaming Professionals, will lead a roundtable on how the “underestimated” can break into high levels of gaming. (a roundtable 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. on May 20 at the Malibu/Santa Monica room). And for the first time in about a decade, we’ll have a panel on ageism entitled, “Lost on the outsides: Ageism and belonging in the game industry.” The session will be moderated by Bellamy and includes Amir Satvat of Tencent, Jen MacLean of Dragon Snacks Games, Richard Brown of Blue Moon Production Company. (10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the California ballroom on May 20). Warren Spector is chief creative officer at OtherSide Entertainment. Gaming veteran Warren Spector recently wrote about his decision to talk about his bipolar condition and working in the game industry with it. TakeThis.org’s Kelli Dunlap will discuss mental health in the games industry with Spector in a roundtable. This session will take written questions only. (4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on May 19). Mental health and games will also come up for discussion in a roundtable with Susanna Pollack of Games for Change and Perrin Kaplan of Zebra Partners. They will talk about the subject in the context of work by the Global Mental Health Task Force and the World Health Organization. (roundtable at 1 pm to 2 pm at Malibu/Santa Monica room). The economics and growth potential of gaming Mitch Lasky of Benchmark One of our longer big-stage talks will be moderated by Eric Goldberg of Playable Worlds with longtime game venture capitalist Mitch Lasky. They will talk about how to navigate games in the new normal. They will address what the new normal is, how to get out of the box that the industry has put itself in and fix gaming investment. (10:15 a.m. to 11 a.m. on May 20 in the Promenade room). I will also moderate Tian Xiao of Tencent, one of the giants of the game industry, on its perspective on the global game industry. (11:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. on May 20 in the California ballroom). Mobile gaming has become the biggest sector in gaming, and so we’ll have a session on “Winning in mobile gaming: Strategy, growth and innovation with Playtika.” Craig Abrahams of Playtika and moderator Michael Metzger of Drake Star Partners will talk at 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on May 20 in the California ballroom. And following up on their big-stage sessions, two industry thinkers will discuss “The repair room: Industry problems, group solutions.” The games industry is overflowing with problems, but light on solutions. In this interactive roundtable hosted by Adam Boyes (Vivrato) and Amir Satvat, attendees will vote on the 10 biggest challenges facing games in 2025. (a roundtable at 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. on May 20 at Venice/Peninsula). Jesse Meschuk, the new COO of Savvy Games Group, will discuss a big new frontier of games in “Savvy Spotlight: Investing in the long-term mindset.” I will moderate the session with Meschuk with a focus on the long-term view of gaming and esports. (3:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. at California ballroom on May 20). And our lone debate of the conference is entitled, “Is there still growth ahead for gaming?” The years of double-digit games market growth are over. COVID accelerated things, but the writing’s been on the wall for a while. Even live-service games have shown themselves to be mostly zero-sum, while esports, the blockchain, and the metaverse have done very little to move the needle. So what’s next for the games market? This debate features game economist Catalin Alexandru, Michael Pachter of Wedbush and moderator Rhys Elliott of Alinea Analytics (1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. in Malibu/Santa Monica room). Politics and gaming Karla Reyes founder and studio director at Anima Interactive. Politics has divided us across the country, and so it’s no surprise that some political topics have risen to the fore at our event. “Gaming the government” is about the experiences that gaming industry professionals have had in the U.S. federal government. Mark Deloura of Level Up Games (formerly Obama’s White House lead on games) and Paul Fischer of Accenture (formerly of the U.S. State Department). (It will take place 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on May 19 in the Palisades room). One of our sessions is entitled, “Playing With Truth: Handing disinformation through games.” It’s about storytelling can be used to challenge false narratives. Karla Reyes (moderator) of Anima Interactive, Paul Fischer of Accenture and Susanna Pollack of Games for Change will speak in the session (11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Promenade room). Rich Hilleman of Cleanplay will talk about “Partnering for the planet: Adopting clean energy for growth” to address energy consumption in the game industry. (a roundtable at 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m on May 19 in the Catalina room). New business models Andre Swanston is the CEO of Phynd and previously founded Tru Optik. André Swanston of Phynd will do a solo talk on “The gaming revolution will be televised,” with a focus on the new business model of ad-supported free cloud gaming services. (11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on May 20 in the Promenade ballroom). Adam Boyes of Vivrato and moderator Andrea Rene of Shortie Media will talk about the need for more transparency in the game industry and paths to focus on growth. (11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the California ballroom on May 20). We’ll have a live services talk, “Get live or die trying.” Industry veteran Sheloman Byrd will take the audience through a live service exercise of decision making based on past cases, where each team will weigh decisions across multiple areas, including an assessment on where they would end up for market success at session’s end. Sheloman Byrd of Open Ocean Games (1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. on May 19 at Palisades room) Byrd’s colleague, Jennifer Jo of Open Ocean Games, is a seasoned expert with over 20 years of experience in gaming monetization. She will run a roundtable on unpacking the secrets of maximizing revenue while keeping players engaged. Drawing on her extensive work across companies like Tencent, Kabam, Meta, WB, and Nexon, Jo will offer actionable lessons learned from PC, mobile, console, AR, and VR games. This session is a must for anyone seeking to refine their approach to monetization in a player-first era. (roundtable at 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on May 19 at Catalina room). One of the most interesting new models for helping brands connect with players comes from Twin Galaxies in a session entitled, “The competitive layer you’re missing: How game brands are building loyalty without adding extra code.” In a world where attention is fleeting and communities are fractured, competition might just be the secret glue. This session explores how game publishers and brands are using no-code, community-driven competitions to generate positive player sentiment, drive repeat engagement, and foster long-term loyalty. Learn how a novel approach has turned casual players into invested communities and why competitive formats are emerging as a must-have in the modern live ops toolkit. A talk by Zack Rozga and Jace Hall of Twin Galaxies (1:30 pm – 2:30 pm on May 19 in the Venice/Peninsula room). And we have a session on game publishing dubbed, “The problem with publishing.” Moderated by GamesBeat’s Rachel Kaser, with Jon Snoddy of Operative Games and Ben Kvalo of Midwest Games (2:30 pm – 3:30 pm at Malibu/Santa Monica room). New technologies Modulate’s team in Cambridge, Massachusetss. One of our tech sessions is about “Moderation tools and techniques: the advanced class.” Today’s gaming audiences are demanding more: safety, clear communication, and smarter responses to issues. In this fireside chat, Meta’s Blake Harper will share real-world strategies for building resilient communities. Mark Nolan of Modulate and Blake Harper of Meta (3:30 pm – 4:30 pm on May 19 at Palisades room). And Matei Trebien of VoicePatrol will give on a talk on advances in voice moderation technology in a five-minute sponsored session at 9:25 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. in the California ballroom on May 20. Sometimes old technologies coming back. We have a session on the evolution of motion gaming: Past, present and future. Nex Playground has launched to target children and their love of motion gaming. It’s an example of going after a niche that players love and the hardware makers have left behind. How big a niche will it be? Tom Kang of NEX and moderator Dean Takahashi of GamesBeat will discuss the topic. (3 p.m. to 3:30 pm on May 20 at the California ballroom). Entrepreneurs and investment Moritz Baier-Lentz is a gaming partner at Lightspeed. Justin Woodward has long experience working with indies via The Mix. This session will look at how to curate indie games and talent. How can indies diversify their funding sources and engage with passionate, collaborative co-developers? I will moderate a talk in a fireside chat at 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. on May 20 in the Promenade room. One again, we’re delighted that Lightspeed is sponsoring our Game Changes 2026 list, which will find the top 25 game companies in the industry and present them in the fall. The Game Changers 2026 theme is “Building Through Chaos.” From mass layoffs and economic headwinds to the rise of AI and shifting global policies, the gaming industry is weathering continued volatility. Speakers include Moritz Baier-Lentz of Lightspeed, Dean Takahashi of GamesBeat, Kieran Donovan of K-ID, Stephen Bell of Gardens and Cheryl Fichter of Inworld AI. (1 pm – 1:30 pm on May 20 at California ballroom). We’ll also have a session on investing in new markets. What are the trends that matter to game investors now? How can we forge ahead with investments during a tough time for gaming? Where can we find new players? This panel of game M&A and investment experts will tackle these questions and more. The speakers include Hemal Thaker of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Danzig of Sharp Alpha, moderator Emily Wang of Griffin Gaming Partners and Tyler Matheson of Makers Fund. (1 pm – 1:30 pm on May 20 in the Promenade room). Louis Gresham of Hydratec Dan Bunting, Venture Partner at 1am Gaming and former Call of Duty Game Director will discuss “The lucrative niche: Building multibillion-dollar franchises from core initial community outward.” (3 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Promenade room). We’ll also cover the path from triple-A to solo game devs, with Adam Kugler, founder of CyanAvatar Studios and solo developer behind MoteMancer. He’ll run an intimate roundtable exploring the transition from leading large triple-A teams to the deeply personal journey of solo game development. (roundtable at 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Venice/Peninsula room). Lastly, we’ll get the “360-degree view of raising money for game startups” in a panel with Garrett Young of Emptyvessel, Jeonghee “JJ” Jin of NC America and Teppei Tsutsui of GFR Fund. Emptyvessel was one of the companies that targeted a niche, created a good prototype and got off the ground with funding. We’ll talk about the process of raising money for game startups from multiple points of view — and how we got to a full vessel. (4 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. on May 20 at Promenade room). Game communities Scopely is acquiring Niantic’s game business for $3.5 billion. We’ll explore game communities in “Beyond the game: Scopely and Discord’s approach to building and maintaining thriving game communities.” Fostering thriving, vibrant player communities is not just a competitive advantage—it’s become crucial for game discovery and meaningful engagement. The speakers are Ryan Jacobson of Scopely, Stanislav Vishnevskiy of Discord and moderator Rachel Kaser of GamesBeat (1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. on May 20 in the California ballroom). Shelby Johnson-Sapp SVP of Corporate Strategy at Scopely, and Rachel Kaser of GamesBeat in a roundtable conversation on what it takes to build a resilient, adaptive games business in today’s dynamic market. (2 p.m. to 3 p.m. on May 20 in the Malibu/Santa Monica room). We’ll also have a session on understanding the next generation of gamers. Kevin Beatty of Samsung Gaming and Emerging Technologies and moderator Stella Chung (2 pm – 2:30 pm on May 20 at Promenade room). We’ll also have a session about games in Asia and the West, entitled, “The East-West Connection: Successfully bringing Asian games to western markets (and vice versa).” There’s still a lot of flow of games between Eastern and Western game markets, as players are embracing global content in both predictable and surprising ways. We’ll talk about the way to foster this connection and get new projects off the ground. The session includes Jeonghee “JJ” Jin and moderator Lisa Cosmas Hanson of Niko Partners (2:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. on May 20 in the Promenade Room). And lastly on the community front, we have a session, “Leveraging industry non-profits for growth.” Gaming nonprofits are a great tool to grow your audience and grow your revenue. How working with nonprofits can help you build more successful games and businesses.The speakers include Blair Durkee of GLAAD, Stephen Machuga of Stack Up and moderated by Jen MacLean of Dragon Snacks Games and IGDA Foundation (2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on May 19 at Venice/Peninsula). Hollywood and games Maureen Fan is CEO of Baobab Studios. Since we’re doing this in Los Angeles, we would be remiss if we didn’t cover the love affair between the movies, TV and gaming. We’ll talk about where it’s going next in a session with Hollywood and gaming veterans. We’ll have a more intimate roundtable entitled “Video games: A performers’ perspective. A look inside the world of video game performers providing insights into the realities of working as a video game actor; the state of the industry, the existential threat to performers livelihood due to Generative Artificial Intelligence and the future of the gaming industry for performers who are passionate about their art and work. Actors speaking include Sarah Elmaleh, Zeke Alton and Andi Norris (3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on May 19 at Catalina room). Adam W is a creator and comedian. We will also have a small group session entitled, “The influencer playbook behind Assassin’s Creed: Mirage. In the fast-paced world of gaming, where trends start and evolve swiftly, and audiences crave innovation, only the most creative and authentic campaigns can make a lasting impact with audiences. This conversation brings together the visionary minds behind Ubisoft’s award-winning influencer campaign for the launch of “Assassin’s Creed Mirage.” Glenn Ginsburg of QYOU Media, Anna Ivanko of Ubisoft, content creator and comedian Adam W and moderator Amanda Perelli of Business Insider (3:30 pm – 4:30 pm on May 20 at Venice/Peninsula room). We’ll put a spotlight on “How documentaries are shining a light on games.” This will be a roundtable documentary discussion with Theresa Loong, who is making Game On, a film about game designer Brenda Romero and how to exist as a creative person. Moderated by Shelby Moledina of Glowy Pixels Entertainment and maker of Resting Pitch Face, a short film about a woman running the gauntlet of raising money for a startup. (1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. on May 19 at Catalina room). And lastly, we’ll have a talk from a tech/film/gaming pioneer Territory on “The Motion Revolution: Redefining real world experiences.” Step into the forefront of innovation with The Motion Revolution to explore how interactivity is transforming the way we engage with next-generation technologies. Discover how we bring the unimaginable to life, crafting motion design at the intersection of science fiction, technology, and gaming. As technology takes center stage the world is evolving into multi-dimensional realities, offering us new experiences like never before. Discover how our design work extends into this new era, honed on blockbusters such as Iron Man, Avengers, Ready Player One and VR games including Batman: Arkham Shadow. Russ Gautier of Territory Studio (5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on May 20 at California ballroom) Our advisers include Peter Levin of Griffin Gaming Partners, Mark Chandler of TIGS, Jace Hall of Twin Galaxies, Jeff Karp formerly of EA Mobile, Ed Lu of Fandom, Mike Romo of DDM, Charmaine Duff of Women-Led Games, Don Daglow of AIAS Foundation/Strong National Museum of Play, Eric Goldberg of Playable Worlds, Tammy McDonald of Fusion Point Studios, Noah Falstein of The Inspiracy, Perrin Kaplan of Zebra Partners, Ivan Fernandez Lobo of Games Executive Summit Europe, Michael Metzger of Drake Star Partners, Elizabeth Olson of Strategic Marketing, David B. Hoppe of Gamma Law, Mike Vorhaus of Vorhaus Advisors, Zsuzsa James of private family office, Kat Jones of Motiv PR, Wanda Meloni of M2 Insights, Lisa Cosmas Hanson of Niko Partners, Sibel Sunar of Fortyseven Communications, Michael Chang of Mavent Partners and Adam Boyes of Vivrato. We hope you’re excited about this and appreciate your support. Our sponsors include Xsolla, Scopely, Tencent, Entertainment Software Association, Modulate, AWS, Google Cloud, Lightspeed, GEEIQ, Sawhorse Productions, VoicePatrol and more. We couldn’t draw as much attention to our event without our great community partners including Women-Led Games, Women X AI, IGDA Foundation, Black in Gaming Foundation, Games for Love, Games for Change, Moms in Gaming, AIAS, GEMA and WIGI. And thanks to our staff: Gina Joseph, CEO of GamesBeat; Cathy Simpson and David Glass of the events team; Ji Bowlus of partnerships; our writers me, Mike Minotti, Rachel Kaser and Giancarlo Valdes; our marketing head Marta Ordeig. We also had a lot of help from VentureBeat on this event, with contributors including Marc Gartenberg, Todd Bokin, Gloria Lukos, Karen Horn, Nicole Patricio, Mike Rosinski, Alyssa Hill, Brian Thurman and Alexey Ilinikh. GB Daily Stay in the know! Get the latest news in your inbox daily Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. 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This post is a guide on what to expect at GamesBeat Summit 2025 on May 19-20 in LA. It is organized by subject matter.Read More

David Fernandez Remesal took the job of CEO of Sandsoft in 2020 and moved to Saudi Arabia, where his mobile game company is based. He set up a studio in Riyadh and also hired mobile game developers in places like his native Spain, Finland and China. Fernandez Remesal focused on esports at first, but pivoted to mobile games as a more viable business approach. The summers are a lot hotter for sure, but Fernandez has sweated out the hard work of establishing a new studio in a place where game development skills are only just being fostered now for the new generations of game developers. While Brazil is a bigger and more established market, Fernandez Remesal, who worked on games like Candy Crush Saga and Bubble Witch Saga before leading Sandsoft. We talked about mobile game trends at our fireside chat at Gamescom Latam in a talk entitled, “The Mobile Frontier: Big Trends and Smarter Moves for 2025.” We covered a lot of ground in our fireside chat at Gamescom Latam in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We hit topics like Apple’s move to emphasize user privacy over targeted ads as it deprecated the Identifier for Advertises (IDFA). We also covered the antitrust ruling that could bust the floodgates open when it comes to developers being able to advertise their own web shops (where they can charge lower prices and don’t have to pay a 30% commission to Apple and Google) inside their mobile games on the Apple and Google app stores. We explored the consequences if game developers are also able to use their own payment systems — which take around 3% commissions rather than 30% — in mobile game transactions. Sandsoft is focused on taking advantage of these trends by focusing on midcore gamers, which is becoming a bigger part of the overall mobile games market. And Sandsoft is also busy working on AI tools that can help developers work more efficiently. And we looked at other opportunities for mobile to grow as the mobile-first generation grows up and becomes a bigger part of the population of gamers. We also assessed when it’s the right time for local talent to take on local stories and spread them to the global stage with authentic triple-A development. Here’s an edited transcript of our on-stage interview. Sandsoft CEO David Fernandez Remesal GamesBeat: I’m here with David Fernandez Remesal, the CEO of Sandsoft. I’ll have him introduce himself, his career in games, and the origins of Sandsoft. David Fernandez Remesal: I’m pleased to be in Brazil. It’s my first time. I’d like to thank everyone here. You’re doing an incredible show. I’m kind of what I could call mobile native when it comes to game development. I started my career working on mobile games almost 20 years ago. Those of you that were around, that means before smartphone games. I worked at a company called THQ that you may remember. They were one of the pioneers, as a triple-A games company, in doing mobile games as well. I started my career at THQ Juarez, their mobile game division. After that I had the privilege of working with two industry titans at a company called Digital Chocolate. That was Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts, and Ilkka Paananen, who happens to be the CEO and founder of Supercell as well. I spent part of my career working on an app store with Nokia. I also worked on the N-Gage handheld device. In that particular case I made the wrong choice. I went for the loser in the smartphone era. But eventually I learned quite a bit about how you need merchandise, games, and apps on an e-commerce platform. After doing something in the mobile advertising space, I also had the honor of joining King, where I worked for almost five years on a couple of franchises. One was Bubble Witch Saga, and then Candy Crush Saga. I was at the King London studio when I left to run Sandsoft five years ago. GamesBeat: Sandsoft is interesting to this market in part because you’re also in an emerging market, albeit a very different part of the world. The company is headquartered in Saudi Arabia. Can you talk about how that happened to come about? Fernandez Remesal: We’re slightly earlier in terms of the game industry in Saudi compared to what we see here in Brazil, particularly toward game development capabilities. But we have a nice consumer market. It’s not as big as Brazil. But let me get started with how Sandsoft was created. For those of you who are not familiar with Saudi Arabia, they have a plan called Saudi Vision 2030. The main proposal is to diversify the economy away from oil and gas. As part of that program, they’re trying to build what we call a knowledge economy. Gaming is a pivotal part of that transition. We’re part of a large Saudi corporation that was founded to support that plan. They decided to diversify their group. Gaming was one of the things they wanted to do. Sandsoft was born in 2019, originally as an esports company. The first thing we did as a company was the PUBG Mobile event in Saudi Arabia. But [we] realized esports was not a business. It was maybe more of a show, rather than proper commercial ongoing activities you can run in a sustainable way. They decided to venture into mobile game development and publishing, which is what we do today. We’re developing games in our own studios, and we’re a global games publisher. We’re supporting game development studios in the mobile space to commercialize their games. Iza’s Supermarket GamesBeat: What are you working on? What is your focus? How big is the team, and where are they? Fernandez Remesal: We now have roughly 100 people. We’re split into four different markets. We have people in Saudi Arabia, where we’re headquartered. We also host a game development studio there. We have satellite offices in Spain, where we also have a development studio. Then we have a couple of publishing operations in China and Finland. We also have a small studio in France. That’s where we have our operations. In terms of focus, as I mentioned to you, we’re focused on mobile platforms. We have a few games with aspirations to become cross-platform, but we’re mobile first. GamesBeat: You moved to Saudi Arabia. Can you talk about what that was like for you? Fernandez Remesal: Yes, I did. I’ve been there for four years now. The weather aside – the summer is really hot – it was a big cultural change for a European to come over to a country that was maybe more conservative, that was more closed than other countries I’ve lived in. But I felt that if you are respectful, if you try to understand the things that are changing, and if you adapt to the pace of change, it’s quite livable. The people are very passionate about games specifically. There’s a young, savvy population. They consider themselves gamers. When you tell them you work in games, they respect you. It’s different from other countries, where people think you play games all day. They don’t realize that this is an art form, that this is something that goes beyond just play. GamesBeat: A reminder that it’s a global industry. Gaming is not what it used to be. It used to be from Japan, the U.S., and Europe. Now it’s a very different world. Fernandez Remesal: Correct. It’s becoming very global. Like we see here. It’s not just about all the people attending to play games, but also all the game companies showcasing their games, which is really exciting. GamesBeat: How far along are your games? Fernandez Remesal: In terms of our game development studios, we’re just starting our first prototypes. Both studios started in 2023, but it took us some time to get the initial core teams that we could trust to develop their game ideas into commercially viable games. We have been in a kind of boot camp at both the studios for a year. Now they’re starting to prototype what we can see as more commercial games. As a publisher we have a few games already in the market. Maybe the first we released was in partnership with Jam City, DC Heroes and Villains. We’re also raising a few other games that–mobile free-to-play games, you don’t have a red button where you hit it and the game is live. It’s more about ongoing progress. You’re keeping them in development and improving the games. Then you try to find ways to scale. In this case through user acquisition. In that sense we’ve had games available in the market for more than three years. We have six games in our portfolio. Two of them are more mature. We expect to scale them in the first half of the year. GamesBeat: Let’s get into some of the trends in the mobile industry. What do you see? What matters to you? What is important to pay attention to in mobile? Fernandez Remesal: Let me start with something that is in many cases not looked into enough. We’re seeing a change in the audience itself. We need to acknowledge that Generation Z is coming in. They bring a completely new way of consuming content. They’re less attracted to deep, engaging experiences. If I could call them, in a way, the digital generation, they’re focused on short-term or short-form entertainment, where they can get their dopamine and adrenaline and then engage further. They’re a generation that doesn’t pay a lot of attention until they get really hooked on the things they’re doing. From that perspective, we see a shift in consumer behavior. We see different session lengths, different ways of engaging with games. The industry is growing by double digits in regions like South America and the Middle East and southeast Asia, while the more western markets aren’t growing as much. That’s linked to the average age in these regions. They have much younger populations in these emerging markets, where they consume games as a native entertainment form. There’s a new consumer coming in from Generation Z, bringing new consumption patterns in their session habits and rates of play. At the same time, there’s an opportunity to propose different kinds of content. Epic Games is still tangling with Google and Apple on antitrust. GamesBeat: One of the interesting trends that’s emerged in mobile is the importance of the relationship between developers and platforms. We saw Apple’s decision a few years ago to prioritize user privacy over targeted advertising. It made targeted advertising much harder. Game companies lost the ability to very precisely target people who favored certain kinds of games. They had to go back to more of a guessing game around how to zero in on which users they wanted to target. This had an impact over years. Do you think we’ve learned how to deal with this change in the market and still be able to find the users that you need? Fernandez Remesal: IDFA is not going to go away. Privacy is going to be with us. It’s going to be something that everyone has to pay attention to. That’s been critical in the mobile space, because of the merchandising problems we see in the app stores. We see a lot of problems in content discoverability. That means most of the growth we’ve seen in these games has been through performance marketing user acquisition. One thing that we’re seeing more and more is game developers trying to build communities everywhere. Trying to expose their games. Trying to create communities through influencers, through Discord and content creation. But eventually IDFA is here to stay. GamesBeat: Speaking of the developer-platform relationship, we’ve had an antitrust case going on for a long time, four and a half years now, between Epic Games and Apple. Yesterday we got a ruling from the judge that held Apple in contempt of court. This has a lot of significance for whether or not mobile game companies can go outside of Apple’s store and advertise lower prices on their web shops or other sites. They can sell the same things at lower prices than the app store because Apple takes a 30% cut. Apple appealed this and had been able to dodge the effects of it, even in Europe, where they had a 27% core technology fee they introduced. Now the judge has said, “No more of that. You can’t evade this ruling anymore. You have to allow game companies to tell their users that there are lower prices elsewhere.” This is a fundamental antitrust protection for consumers. The ruling should affect the whole industry. What’s your view? Fernandez Remesal: We were talking last week, early this week. Eventually, we’ll see some form of platform disruption, especially when you look at mobile platforms. Mobile has been mostly governed by two platform companies, Google and Apple. There have been other app stores in the Android ecosystem, but in the end there are few opportunities for you to get content, and particularly games, on your mobile device. That’s a situation set for disruption. Eventually, particularly in countries that are more protective toward consumers–they’re upset about these oligopolies. They’d like to offer consumers more opportunities to discover content and do so in a way that’s fair for both consumers and game developers. The Digital Markets Act, in the United Kingdom, was one of the first changes we saw trying to open the mobile gaming ecosystem a bit more, trying to ensure that developers have some choice and consumers have some choice. But as you mentioned, that was a segue way for Apple to introduce a new tax, a new fee for game developers if they wanted to go that route. What we saw a few hours ago–it looks really recent. But game developers now have the opportunity to have a direct relationship with consumers. They can build that relationship in a way where they can offer consumers more alternatives and choices. First of all, price points. You can offer different price points compared to what’s available in the app stores. For those of you who are game developers, in the app stores you cannot select any price point you want. They’re fixed. They have ranges you can pick from, but you can’t just select any price point at all. The second factor, as you mentioned, is discounts. Trying to ensure that if you’re proposing this direct to consumer offering, you can adjust your margins and provide more value to consumers. Eventually that ensures that you as a game developer can get a broader part of the value share you’re creating with the consumer, but at the same time give some back as well to the consumer in a way where they can pay less when they’re using a web shop. The thing that we’ll hopefully start to see soon is that it’s not just about you informing consumers that they can have other ways to consume your content and buy content outside of your app, going to the web to buy it. Eventually it will open up the actual app to more real payment methods in games, as you see in other apps in the app stores. GamesBeat: We’re not quite sure what the line will be. Will Apple allow people to use their own payment systems as an alternative to Apple Pay? Fernandez Remesal: Right. But from that perspective, games have been punished compared to other apps. Why are we not able to build that kind of relationship with consumers? Why can’t we propose a specific payment or subscription mechanic that other entertainment options can do in the app stores? Sandsoft’s Potions & Spells. GamesBeat: Assuming that payments are not going to change, the next best thing is web shops. Set up your own store on the web. In the past companies could not advertise that web shop’s existence inside the app, but now they can. They can say that you can get something for cheaper prices elsewhere. Xsolla has been opening a lot of these web shops and operating them for companies. They have more than 500 of them now. But nobody knew about them. They do say that consumers are using them. They’re going back at a 30-40% rate and creating a 10-16% lift in revenues for developers, or in some cases higher. Those sound like fairly promising results relatively early for alternative web shops. Fernandez Remesal: That’s correct. Particularly, if you’re a consumer that pays in mobile free-to-play games, you’re trying to get the best value for money. Eventually this kind of core, engaged audience that makes up the payers in your game, they already know they can go to the shop to get a better offering. For the greater mass of consumers that don’t pay, they’re not really aware they can go to the web shop to buy content and get better deals than going through the app stores, the in-app shops. There are two issues here. One is about consumers getting more value for money here. The second is about developers getting more value from the value chain and delivering more of it back to consumers as well. GamesBeat: The net result is that it’s more money going to the bottom line for developers to reinvest in their business. That’s been sorely needed, especially in the last two and a half years. We’ve seen a real painful downturn in the global game industry. Every penny counts these days. Fernandez Remesal: It’s a better distribution of value in this case, considering what everyone puts on the table. Maybe in the early days of the app stores there were more merchandising options for developers, ways to get value from the app stores. There was less content. Your content could reach more users. There was value in the promotional activity the app store would run for you. Now that’s heavily driven by UA. In that context, the app stores really just become a payment method. From that perspective, developers capturing more value and giving more value back to consumers is good, because that’s reinvested in the game industry. Game developers capture more value and that helps them create better content and engage better with consumers. GamesBeat: We’ve talked about some of these trends. How are you most closely aligning your company to some of these trends, to take advantage of them? Iza’s Supermarket is a game from Sandsoft. Fernandez Remesal: There are a couple of trends we didn’t discuss much. One is about how mobile games in particular are becoming more complex. Three years ago we were talking about hypercasual games, games mostly monetized through in-game advertising. Because of the challenges around privacy, games are becoming more deep now. They have microtransactions. Even casual games are becoming more complex. They have metagames on top. They have deeper economies. Casual games are becoming more mid-core. Mid-core games are going this way as well, to more core game mechanics. You see plenty of games with battle passes, with more core engagement loops that you didn’t see before. And then when you go to really core games, they’re becoming more like casual games. They’re trying to simplify at the core, trying to make themselves more accessible. There are some shifts on the way. Game developers are making games that are in a way more complex, but they’re trying to simplify the core game mechanics to be more accessible. As a company we’re trying to follow these trends. We’re working on a few casual games that we’re releasing with our exterior partners. We’re trying to observe how we can propose these deeper economies in games that feel very accessible, that are easy to play, that are easy to grasp and explain through a simple ad, but that can eventually retain and engage people for a long time. The second trend we didn’t discuss much was generative AI. That’s transforming not just game development, but many industries. It’s a new tool for everyone to use and leverage. Any game company, or any company at all, in the long term needs to have a proper AI strategy. In our case we’re leveraging AI mostly for content creation, mostly for ads at this moment. We’re enriching our NPCs through AI. But I presume that we’ll be adding efficiencies in most of the things we do, like game programming. We’re doing code reviews with AI now. We’re doing some small level designs with AI. That’s one of the tools that’s going to provide superpowers to game developers. David Fernandez Remesal moved to Saudi Arabia to run Sandsoft. Teams that, a few years ago, were considering building an engine of their own, they don’t do that any more. They use Unity or Godot or Unreal. Now there are pipelines for game development that will be transformed by the use of AI. Things that need 10 people to do them nowadays, one developer might be able to do them more efficiently a year from now. GamesBeat: Would you consider bringing mobile ads into the company because of AI advances? Mobile ad optimization now can be done quite well by AI. Fewer people can get much more work done in terms of creating variations on ads to test them in the market and see which particular ad does well. That optimization process was often handled by outsiders. Could that change? Fernandez Remesal: On the go-to-market you’re precisely right. For mobile games, what we call creative optimization is part of the way that you can optimize your growth strategy. But it’s broader than that. When you think about how, particularly in this case, artists work, they work on content production. You create some illustrations of characters and environments, and this is transformed by AI. With one artist you can get 100 different concepts with just a couple of prompts. Before, in the manual world, you’d need to spend probably half a day to just create one. This is about being more open for creativity, to get more options for exploring characters, environments, and art styles. It’s not just on the advertising side, too. It’s on game creation, too, to explore new concepts in a broader way. GamesBeat: In Saudi Arabia you have some parallels to Brazil in some ways, in terms of what you do with the team that you have. The team is relatively new to games. You’re growing a local staff. We saw some very interesting trends in the past year around Black Myth: Wukong. It was a Chinese-made game made for Chinese consumers, the Chinese market. It did spectacularly well on the global stage as well, 25 million copies sold right off the bat. It validated the notion that a country’s local content could be appealing on a global scale. A lot more games are being greenlit in China now with hopes that they’ll reach a global market. Sandosoft’s PocketNecro For you, in Saudi Arabia, do you have a choice to make around whether to make local content or global content? Fernandez Remesal: As a game developer, we’re creating content for global markets. We’re not doing content to be consumed locally. But that doesn’t mean–as in any part of the world, you have local stories, local myths, local themes that you can expose and eventually create connections with consumers and players everywhere in the world. When I think about our talent pool, I won’t deny that we’re quite an international company. We have 100 people on the team who come from 30 different nationalities. We’re still a nascent state in terms of local Saudi talent. We don’t have enough capability to create these local stories in a way where they feel authentic, where they’re told by the right people. But that will come eventually. I think there’s a good analogy when you think about movies and television. There are plenty of stories from this part of the world that have been told. We talked about Aladdin, about Prince of Egypt. There are plenty of stories that resonate with global audiences. But we need to have the real people, the local talent that can tell these stories in a way that eventually attracts a global audience and can become a mass market opportunity, rather than a niche thing for the local market. GamesBeat: A lot of this is maybe a stepping-stone process. You have to level up your team. You have to make sure that they can grow to be veterans of the industry. Then at that point the opportunities change. You can use them to be the central creators of the content. Fernandez Remesal: Correct. When you’re creating games, when you’re creating many kinds of content, it comes from your own passion. There’s some sense of the market involved, understanding whether there’s a commercial opportunity, but it comes from people’s passion. The passion is there, but the skills and capabilities are not there yet to think about a global game opportunity. We’ve seen that in other games. Assassin’s Creed is a good example of that, where they’ve taken worlds and themes that resonate in the region, but not to the extent that it feels like a proper story from that part of the world. But you’re precisely right. We need to wait a few years to have this capability in place so we have a credible story to tell in a commercial way and can meet the quality expectations that global audiences have. GamesBeat: From what you’ve seen, what is your assessment of where talent is? Whether in your region or other regions of the world as well. Where is the best mobile gaming talent now? Sandsoft’s Wizario Fernandez Remesal: The answer for me is quite easy. You just need to look at the games that make the top of the charts. China has definitely become the world leader in game development talent for mobile games. It’s not just about Tencent or Netease or MiHoYo. Plenty of game developers are creating games that are consumed globally. That’s the larger talent pool for mobile games. It’s true as well that the pool is expanding quite broadly. Creating mobile games is more accessible than going for triple-A console games. There are plenty of pockets of excellence in Europe, in the U.S., in Latin America. I’m really impressed by people here in Brazil, in Argentina, in Uruguay, in Chile. That’s becoming more accessible. Talent is developing in many parts of the world. In my region, in Saudi Arabia, it’s very new. I think that’s resonating with people here in Brazil. Maybe we’re Brazil five years ago. There were some pockets of talent that were trying to get their first companies into the market. We’re on the route where we’re importing talent to support game development, but also building local talent, so we can develop the whole industry. Another topic that’s not so much a trend as a reality now, it’s about going cross-platform. There are plenty of mobile first games that are thinking about moving to different platforms. When you think about how you can go to market, how you can prototype, mobile is usually the cheaper platform to do that. We see more and more teams getting their IP into PC and console coming from mobile. We’re observing that more and more. Another trend we see is transmedia. Maybe that was a buzzword at one point, people thinking about migrating IP from games into other art forms, but we definitely see it quite a bit now, particularly the series we’ve seen from Netflix and Amazon and so forth. Rovio is doing movies. Transmedia is becoming a trend for companies with deep pockets and deep budgets. GamesBeat: The biggest thing to watch right now, I would agree, is AI and where it’s going to change things. I believe that mobile gaming is one of the areas where it’s going to have the biggest impact. AI can’t create triple-A games yet, but there are a lot of things related to the business of mobile games that can be automated. We’ll see where that takes hold and gets traction. Fernandez Remesal: Something that we’re seeing quite a bit here in Brazil is the renaissance of web gaming. WebGL has really improved lately. We see amazing experiences on the mobile web. Mobile web will be an opportunity for game developers. It links to what we mentioned before with web shops and how you can monetize. GamesBeat: We have the Nintendo Switch 2 launching very shortly. The interesting thing about now versus years ago is that Nintendo is no longer the first device that kids get their hands on as a gamer. It’s smartphones and tablets now, mobile games. That’s how they learn to play games, which represents a sea change for companies like Nintendo. They have to follow this trend. The youngest gamers are only going to know the brands that they see on mobile. Fernandez Remesal: That’s precisely right. Mobile is the first gaming device for many, many people, particularly kids. That’s where they discover content. It’s not just games. It’s how they find all forms of entertainment – streaming media, music, and games as well. Disclosure: Gamescom Latam paid my way to Brazil. GB Daily Stay in the know! Get the latest news in your inbox daily Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.

Take-Two Interactive Software let the cat out of the bag as it postponed the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI (now coming on May 26, 2026), and now we can see the impact of that on its outlook. The company reported its net bookings for the fourth-fiscal quarter ended March 31 hit $1.58 billion, up 17% from the same quarter a year ago. The results were in the top end of the company’s own guidance. Good results for NBA 2K25, Grand Theft Auto Online and Grand Theft Auto V, Civilization VII, Toon Blast, Match Factory, Empires & Puzzles, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online and WWE 2K25. The company said that giving Rockstar Games more time to finish Grand Theft Auto VI will improve quality, and it noted that its most recent trailer on GTA VI got 475 million views in 24 hours, up from the announcement trailer of 93 million views. GAAP net revenue was $1.582 billion, up 13% from last year’s fiscal fourth quarter. The GAAP net loss was $3.373 billion, or $21.08 per share, as compared to $2.9 billion, or $17.02 per share, for the comparable period last year. Analysts were expecting GAAP revenues of $1.55 billion and a loss per share of 5 cents. The GAAP results included impairment charges of $3.55 billion related to goodwill and $176.3 million for acquisition-related intangible assets. Net bookings are the company’s operational metric, and it’s defined as the net amount of products and services sold digitally or sold-in physically during the period. It includes licensing fees, merchandise, in-game advertising, strategy guides and publisher incentives. GAAP revenues don’t count revenue that is booked in the quarter but realized at later times. The largest contributors to net bookings were NBA 2K25 and NBA 2K24, Grand Theft Auto Online and Grand Theft Auto V, Civilization VII, Toon Blast, our hyper-casual mobile portfolio, Match Factory!, Empires & Puzzles, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online and WWE 2K25. As of March 31, 2025, Take-Two’s number of employees was 12,928, including 10,096 in-house development studio staff. That was up about 31 people since the previous quarter, and the rest of the company’s headcount was up about 49 people. About 22% of the staff were in low-cost locations (India, China, Turkey, Serbia, Chile, and Hungary). Take-Two Interactive chief executive Strauss Zelnick. “We achieved outstanding results in our 2025 Fiscal Year, with each of our labels contributing meaningfully to our performance,” said Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, in a statement. “Our Fiscal 2026 outlook reflects continuing positive momentum, with Net Bookings guidance of $5.9 to $6.0 billion. As we bring our exciting lineup to market, including Grand Theft Auto VI in Fiscal 2027, we expect to achieve record levels of Net Bookings that will establish a new baseline for our business and set us on a path of enhanced profitability.” In an interview with GamesBeat, Zelnick tole me some context around the announcement of the delay of Grand Theft Auto VI. “We’re constantly seeking perfection here at Take-Two. Broadly and specifically, Rockstar Games sometimes requires more time. In this case, to deliver this groundbreaking project at the level that its fans demand.” I asked why it was such a precise date, in terms of the new date for launching the game on May 26, 2026. Zelnick said that, generally speaking, when Take-Two announces a specific date, they stick to those dates, historically speaking. While to me it looked like a long delay, Zelnick said that he would quibble that it was a long delay, as it was less than six months later. Since we didn’t know the original date Rockstar had in mind, we didn’t know it was a short delay. I asked if Zelnick felt like the industry was stabilizing, but he said Take-Two wasn’t reporting on how the industry was doing, only the company itself, and that it was a great fiscal year. I mentioned that in the previous quarter we had discussed the uncertainty around tariffs. He replied, “Well, you know that tariffs have been a moving target. So far, we don’t expect tariffs will have a meaningful impact, if any, on software pricing, and therefore sales [would not likely be affected].” He added, “Undoubtedly, tariffs could have an impact on console costs, on pricing, and anything that stands in the way of the growth of an installed base is bad news for us compared to the lack of encumbrances. So we’re hopeful that our situation will be resolved in such a way as to benefit consumers broadly.” I asked about the higher pricing of Switch 2 titles like Mario Kart World, which will sell on the Switch 2 for $80. While not commenting on Nintendo’s pricing, he said competitors have announced variable pricing, but the company has always had variable pricing itself. “Our job as a company, and I think the job of the industry is to deliver way more value given what we charge. And of course, interactive entertainment [delivers] so many hours of gameplay associated with titles that people love,” he said. He noted that the goal is to offer the best value in the business in terms of price per hours played. He confirmed that Borderlands 4 is launching on PC and consoles (Xbox and PlayStation) while the Switch 2 version is coming out later but does not have a ship date yet. He said that, beyond Grand Theft Auto VI, there was no significant movement in the company’s slate for upcoming titles. Take-Two expects growth in the fiscal year 2027, which is year GTA VI will launch now, to be positive at about 5% in the midrange but the company is not spelling out a number for expected bookings in that year. Take-Two said each of its labels contributed meaningfully to performance in the quarter. The company said, “2K posted a fantastic quarter, with the successful launches of Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, WWE 2K25, and PGA TOUR 2K25. NBA 2K delivered one of its strongest periods on-record, including recurrent consumer spending growth of 42%. Rockstar Games excelled once again, with the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series surpassing our forecasts; and Zynga continued to gain momentum, led by Match Factory, Toon Blast, and Rollic’s newest hit – Color Block Jam.” Recurrent consumer spending growth was up 14% over last year and accounting for 77% of net bookings. NBA 2K grew over 40%, while Grand Theft Auto Online and mobile both increased mid-single digits. All of these businesses greatly exceeded forecasts. For the fiscal year, Take-Two reported net bookings of $5.65 billion, which was also the top of guidance range of $5.55 billion to $5.65 billion. Recurrent consumer spending exceeded the firm’s outlook, growing 7%, and accounted for 80% of net bookings. NBA 2K grew high-teens; mobile increased mid-single-digits; and Grand Theft Auto Online declined modestly. Operating expenses increased 28% to $7.5 billion, due to the impairment charges recorded during our fourth quarter. On a management basis, operating expenses rose 11% year-over-year, slightly above guidance, due to higher development costs for titles not technologically feasible. The company spent approximately $169 million on capital expenditures, which was above forecast of $140 million, primarily due to higher game technology expenses. Division label results 2K: NBA 2K25 posted near-record performance and exceeded our forecast. To date, the title has sold-in nearly 10 million units — a 7% increase compared to NBA 2K24 during the same timeframe. Engagement grew significantly, with Daily Active Users, MyCareer Daily Players, and Average Games Per User increasing 30%, 40%, and 80%, respectively. The company was please with the performance of brand extensions for the franchise. NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition remains a top-5 performing title on Apple Arcade; NBA 2K Online in China continues to hold its place as the No. 1 PC sports game in the country; and NBA 2K All-Stars mobile title, which the firm developed in partnership with Tencent and launched on March 25, is maintaining the No. 1 spot on the iOS Sports Game Chart for both downloads and revenue in China. 2K’s release of WWE 2K25 was met with critical acclaim, including a score of 84 on Metacritic for Xbox Series X – an all-time high for the series on that platform. Visual Concepts introduced new features, including The Island, a highly immersive WWE-themed world where players can explore, compete in live events, and earn rewards. Consumer appetite for the franchise is growing, with recurrent consumer spending up 20% during the quarter. This includes strong performance from WWE SuperCard, which achieved near-record levels of net bookings in March. WWE 2K25 has been integrated regularly into WWE’s televised programming and was also a cosponsor of last month’s spectacular WrestleMania 41. In addition, 2K is bringing WWE 2K to Switch 2 this summer as well as bringing WWE 2K to mobile devices this Fall in partnership with Netflix. 2K and HB Studios successfully launched PGA TOUR 2K25, which earned a Metacritic score of 80 on PS 5 and is generating significant recurrent consumer spending growth compared to 2K24. During the period, 2K released Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, the new chapter in our esteemed strategy franchise. As stewards of the Civilization series, Firaxis Games strives to bring innovation with each new release. Take-Two said it is confident that the development team’s ongoing efforts to update key areas of the game will deliver outstanding results over the franchise’s typically long sales cycle. The teams are pursuing opportunities to expand the audience, including the recent launch of Civilization VII VR for Meta Quest 3 and 3S, as well as the title’s upcoming release on Switch 2, which will offer new mouse controls for a highly intuitive gameplay experience. Rockstar Games The Grand Theft Auto series once again exceeded expectations, and to-date, GTA V has sold-in over 215 million units. Recurrent consumer spending outperformed our forecasts, growing 5% year-over-year, led by an array of new modes, rewards, and vehicles for GTA Online, as well as ongoing demand for GTA+ memberships. Rockstar Games continues to expand the possibilities for engagement with the series through ongoing development of its FiveM creator platform. Red Dead Redemption 2 also outperformed, with Net Bookings growing 23% over last year. Rockstar Games continues to support Red Dead Online with a series of rewards that engage their community further. Zynga Zynga Poker is launching multi-table tournaments. Zynga overperformed during the period, and we are pleased that their momentum is continuing into Fiscal 2026. Peak delivered fantastic results. Match Factory exceeded our expectations, driven by first-class live-ops execution and the introduction of Mission Center, a limited-time event that drove significant player engagement. Net Bookings grew meaningfully over last quarter, and the title is generating profits. Net Bookings for Toon Blast grew 7% over last year, primarily due to the introduction of the Cannon Fest event. The company is also thrilled that the title achieved its largest quarter of Net Bookings since Zynga acquired Peak in 2020. Rollic’s newest hit, Color Block Jam, is scaling rapidly and is currently a top-10 downloaded game and among the top-grossing titles in the U.S. Apple App Store. In just four months of operation, the title has become profitable and is making an impressive contribution to our mobile Net Bookings. Take-Two said it is encouraged to see stabilization in Empires & Puzzles. Small Giant improved the title’s in-game economy to support faster player progression and developed fun new features based on player feedback, like Instant Power Summon, Hero Coach, and Visiting Outfitter. Zynga has numerous titles in development and soft launch that it said it is eager to bring to market worldwide. The direct-to-consumer business delivered record performance, as our teams continue to launch new offers, events, and enhanced personalization, which are driving better conversion. While Zynga have been implementing DTC in our titles for some time, the company believes there is an even greater opportunity to expand this highly accretive channel given recent beneficial court rulings. As the company approaches the three-year anniversary of its acquisition of Zynga, Take-Two said it is extremely pleased that the label has become an integral part of the company. Zynga’s core franchises are strong, and the company is energized by the team’s unique ability to launch hits in a highly competitive mobile market, demonstrating further the effectiveness of their multi-studio approach and continued excellence in Live Ops. Outlook for FY26 Portrait and lifestyle shoot at Zynga’s headquarters, San Francisco, CA, April 24-25, 2019. Pictured: a large group meeting with employees and their dogs. Take-Two said it estimates net bookings for the FY26 year ending March 31, 2026 is $5.9 billion to $6 billion, which represents 5% growth over Fiscal 2025 at the midpoint. This outlook assumes a continuation of our current positive trends, including healthy mobile performance and ongoing strength in NBA 2K, as well as the release of several eagerly anticipated titles, including Mafia: The Old Country and Borderlands 4. GTA VI expectations Back to Vice City, or Miami, for GTA6. Triple-A is getting expensive. Rockstar expects to release Grand Theft Auto VI on May 26, 2026, which is in fiscal year 2027. Take-Two said it believes affording Rockstar additional time for such a groundbreaking project is a worthy investment. Grand Theft Auto VI began development in earnest in 2020 following the massive success of Red Dead Redemption 2, and the title is now the most anticipated entertainment property of all time. Consumer anticipation is unprecedented, with Trailer 2’s cross-platform debut last week shattering records to become the biggest video launch of all time, with over 475 million views in 24 hours. This follows Trailer 1’s record-breaking debut of 93 million views in 24 hours on YouTube alone. Spotify streams of the track featured in the trailer, Hot Together, by the Pointer Sisters, surged by 182,000%, once again proving Rockstar’s ability to influence popular culture. The ambition and complexity of Grand Theft Auto VI is greater than any previous Rockstar title, and the team is poised to release another astonishing entertainment experience that will exceed players’ expectations. Largest contributors to net bookings are expected to be NBA 2K, the Grand Theft Auto series, Toon Blast, Borderlands 4, Match Factory, Empires & Puzzles, Words With Friends, the Red Dead Redemption series, and Zynga Poker. The company expects recurrent consumer spending to be flat compared to Fiscal 2025, and to represent 76% of Net Bookings. Our recurrent consumer spending forecast assumes high single-digit growth for NBA 2K and declines for mobile and Grand Theft Auto Online. Release slate for the next year Take-Two Interactive During Fiscal 2026, Take-Two plans to release 13 titles, including four within the immersive core category; five mobile titles, including WWE 2K for Netflix in the fall; and four new iterations of prior releases, including the recent release of Civilization VII VR for Meta Quest 3 and 3S, as well as Civilization VII for Switch 2. In addition, our labels will continue to provide new content and experiences that drive engagement and recurrent consumer spending across many of our key offerings. The company expects the net bookings breakdown from our labels to be roughly 45% Zynga, 39% 2K, and 16% Rockstar Games. Plan to deploy approximately $140 million of capital expenditures for game technology and office buildouts. On August 8, 2K and Hangar 13 will introduce Mafia: The Old Country. This linear, narrative-driven game is a premium experience in the vein of early Mafia titles, set against the stunning, authentic backdrop of 1900s Sicily. Pre-orders are off to a strong start following the debut of the first official gameplay trailer at PAX East last week, and we’re excited for its upcoming launch. 2K and Gearbox will launch Borderlands 4 on September 12th. Last month, during the PlayStation State of Play, our teams shared an extended look at the action-packed gameplay coming in the title. Players were treated to a first look at two of four new Vault Hunters as they tore a path through a secret black site in Terminus Range, showcasing the destructive power of an updated gear system. The Borderlands community reacted very positively, with the game trending on X, and becoming one of the most wish-listed games on Steam. 2K and Gearbox will also release Borderlands 4 for the Switch 2 in the future. The company will release the next iterations of the industry-leading annual sports franchises, NBA 2K and WWE 2K. Long-term outlook With a player-first approach and a deep commitment to quality, the company said it strives to create the best entertainment experiences for global communities and to redefine the art form. As the company brings its exciting lineup to market, including Grand Theft Auto VI in Fiscal 2027, the company expects to achieve record levels of net bookings that will establish a new baseline for the business and set it on a path of enhanced profitability. Pipeline FY26-FY28 The company is extremely optimistic about its upcoming pipeline, which includes approximately 38 titles between Fiscal 2026-2028. Looking ahead, the company currently expects to deliver 25 titles throughout Fiscal 2027 and 2028 including: 17 immersive core releases, including Grand Theft Auto VI and five sports simulation games; four mobile games; and four new iterations of previously released titles. GB Daily Stay in the know! Get the latest news in your inbox daily Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.