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Take-Two Interactive's 'GTA VI' Pricing Suggests Incremental Upside to Financials, B. Riley Says

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Take-Two Interactive's 'GTA VI' Pricing Suggests Incremental Upside to Financials, B. Riley Says

Take-Two Interactive Software's (TTWO) financials are poised to get a boost from the higher-than-expected pricing of the "Grand Theft Auto VI" video game, B. Riley Securities said in a note e-mailed Thursday.

In a Wednesday update, the video game publisher's Rockstar Games said pre-orders for the highly anticipated title would begin Thursday, with the base edition introduced at $79.99. The game will be available on Sony's (SONY) PlayStation and Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox platforms.

B. Riley said the game's price is $10 higher than originally modeled and the industry standard for a new triple A game on current-generation console systems.

"We view this update favorably given it insinuates confidence in the quality of the game (and) suggests incremental upside to financials -- keeping unit volume unchanged implies an incremental ($300 million-plus) to net bookings in our model," B. Riley analyst Drew Crum said in a note to clients.

The brokerage now projects Take-Two's non-GAAP earnings at $8 per share for 2027 and $9.75 for 2028, compared with its prior outlooks of $7.52 and $9.36, respectively. B. Riley's unit estimates for GTA VI are unchanged at 37 million and 28.9 million for 2027 and 2028, respectively, according to the note.

The latest update from Rockstar also offers another data point that confirms the game's Nov. 19 launch date remains intact, Crum said.

GTA VI was originally slated to come out in 2025, but was delayed first to May 26 this year and then to Nov. 19.

B. Riley sees Rockstar's update favorably for Turtle Beach (TBCH) and the video game industry. It is neutral in terms of impact to Corsair Gaming (CRSR) and Roblox (RBLX), and "potentially negative for other parts of our universe as the game consumes mindshare and limited entertainment time," Crum wrote.

Price: $233.81, Change: $-1.91, Percent Change: -0.81%

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