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Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) CEO Strauss Zelnick blames earnings miss on 'macroeconomic conditions'

Marvel's Midnight Suns was among the new releases that appear to have underperformed.

Ozzie Mejia

February 6, 2023 2:10 PM

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Earlier today, Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) issued its earnings report for Q3 2023. The publisher missed on its projected targets, something that CEO Strauss Zelnick addressed during Monday afternoon's earnings call. The earnings is miss is something that Zelnick attributes to grander 'macroeconomic conditions,' among other factors.

Take-Two Interactive ( $TTWO) CEO Strauss Zelnick blames earnings miss on 'macroeconomic conditions'https://t.co/lGuzXvfyBu #earnings pic.twitter.com/Zpbbu2U4HT

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"We believe that as a result of macroeconomic conditions, consumers shifted holiday spending toward established blockbuster franchises and titles that were offered with pricing promotions," Zelnick said during Monday's Take-Two Interactive Q3 2023 earnings call. "While our catalog benefitted from this trend, it affected the performance of certain of our new releases."

One of the titles that appears to be affected is Marvel's Midnight Suns. Zelnick told Bloomberg's Jason Schreier prior to Monday's call that the Firaxis strategy game underperformed commercially, something he attributed to a less-than-ideal release date. Despite this, Zelnick believes that the game could ultimately prove to be a success in the long run, similar to other Firaxis titles like those in the XCOM and Civilization series.

Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) issued its earnings results on Monday afternoon. The company missed on revenue and EPS expectations, resulting in a lower outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year. Whether the publisher can weather the macroeconomic storm remains to be seen. We'll continue to watch this story and report back with any updates.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?