Greetings, and welcome to the Take 2 Interactive Software First Quarter 2017 Fiscal Year Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Hank Diamond.
Thank you, Mr. Diamond. You may begin.
Good afternoon. Welcome, and thank you for joining Take 2's conference call to discuss its results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2017 and in June 30, 2016. Today's call will be led by Strauss Zelnick, Take 2's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Carl Sladoff, our President and Lainie Goldstein, our Chief Financial Officer. We will be available to answer your questions during the Q and A session following our prepared remarks. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that the statements made during this call that are not historical facts are considered forward looking statements under federal securities laws.
These forward looking statements are based on the beliefs of our management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to us. We have no obligation to update these forward looking statements. Actual operating results may vary significantly in these forward looking statements based on a variety of factors. These important factors are described in our filings with the SEC, including the company's most recent annual report on forms 10 K and quarterly report on Form Ten Q, including the risks summarized in the section entitled Risk Factors. I'd also like to note that unless otherwise stated, all numbers we will be discussing today are GAAP.
Our press release provides a reconciliation of our GAAP to non GAAP measurements and further explanation. And on our website, we have provided additional details regarding the non GAAP components of our cost of goods sold and operating expenses. Our press release and filings with the SEC may be obtained from our website at www.take2games.com. And now, I'll turn the call over to Strauss.
Thanks, Hank. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. I'm pleased to report that fiscal 2017 is off to a solid start, with 1st quarter net revenue up 13% year over year. Our results were driven by the continued strong performance of Grand Theft Auto Five and NBA 2k6 18, coupled with growth in recurrent consumer spending, including record bookings from Grand Theft Auto Online. Grant Theft Auto5 and Grand Theft Auto Online once again performed significantly better than we'd anticipated and continue to generate remarkable results as they have in every quarter since the release.
According to new data from the MPD group, which combines physical sales and full game downloads, Grand Theft Auto5 was the number 2 selling game across all platforms in 2015, and is the number 3 selling game of 2016 year to date through June. In addition, Grand Theft Auto Online continues to grow with the game delivering record bookings in the first quarter. Rockstar Games has driven sustained engagement increased recurrent consumer spending by exciting audiences with the ongoing release of a rich array of free additional content. Most recently with the further adventures in finance and felony, Powerplay and Cunningham Stunt's updates, and as many more updates still to come. The incredible staying power of Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online nearly 3 years after their original release reflects that these titles remain the standard bearers for excellent in our industry and underscores consumers tireless passion for this iconic series.
Another testament to the strength of Rockstar Games Creative Portfolio, the highly demanded 2010 classic Red Dead Redemption was made available to play in Xbox 1 as part of Microsoft's backwards compatibility program on July 8. Red dead redemption remains one of the most critically acclaimed entertainment experiences ever launched and is Rockstar Games' highest selling title aside from Grand Theft Auto. Every owner of Red Dead Redemption for Xbox 36 can now play the game directly on their Xbox 1 regardless of which version of the title they own and for those who have yet to experience it, Red Dead Redemption is also currently available for us through digital download from the Game Store on Xbox 1. Rockstar Games is also hard at work on some exciting future projects that will be revealed soon. MDA 2K16 has continued to build on our industry leading basketball series trend of annual growth and is now our highest sales of the game's virtual currency were once again the largest contributor to bookings from recurrent consumer spending next to Grand Theft Auto Online.
During the first quarter, bookings from our current consumer spending on NBA 2K grew more than 50% year over year, driven both by online play and the free to play My MBA companion app. We believe we can continue to expand NBA 2k's loyal fan base as well as drive increased engagement and recurrent consumer spending for years to come. On May 3, 2K released Battle Born, a new intellectual property from Gearbox Software, the makers of our popular borderland series. While the game launched a solid reviews, its performance in the market has been below our expectations. For this unique experience over time and 2K will continue to drive engagement and recurrent consumer spending on the title to add on content and virtual currency.
Innovation and creativity are among our core tenants, and we fully support our team's vision to push the envelope in order to set new benchmarks for our company and our industry, With the understanding that in a highly creative enterprise, not everything always turns out the way one might like. Given the strength and diversity of our company, we have the ability take these risks and whether any unexpected shortfalls expectations. Recurrent consumer spending grew 22% year over year, while full game downloads declined as expected as last year's first quarter benefited from the launch of Grand Theft Auto V for PC. In addition to virtual currency for Grand Theft Auto Online and NBA 2K, for current consumer spending was enhanced by other offerings, including downloadable add on content led by Xcom 2, Sid Meier's Civilization 5 in the Borderlands series, and free to play games, including WWE SuperCard, which has now been downloaded nearly 11,000,000 times, and NBA 2K Online in China, which has over 32,000,000 registered users. Looking ahead, we're excited about our upcoming holiday lineup, which features eagerly anticipated new offerings from some of our most successful franchises, including mafia 3 and Sid Meier's Civilization VI, as well as groundbreaking new releases from our annual sports series NBA 2K and WWE 2K.
Carl will have more to share in these titles shortly. In addition, we have robust development pipeline that extends well beyond the fiscal year and we expect to grow bookings and cash flow from operations in fiscal 2018.
Today,
from advances in technology that influence how we create, distribute and experience interactive entertainment to the expanding globalization of our audiences, there's never been a more exciting time for our industry. Take 2 is well prepared to capitalize on these positive trends strategically, creatively and financially. As a result, we're positioned to achieve continued success and deliver returns for our shareholders over the long term. I'll now turn the call
the holiday season. On July 7, 2K internal revenue has launched Evolve Stage 2, a new free to play version of Evolve exclusively for PC through Steam. Evolve Stage 2 features a completely overhauled experience, including a new game design and mechanics, as well as improved gameplay, balance and system performance. Players who previously purchased Evolvent's team, as well as any add on content such as skins or characters, will be granted founder status and all of their paid content will carry over into Evolve Stage 2. In addition, founders will get exclusive badges and other items at launch, as well as additional new content as the game is updated over time.
Evolved stage 2 welcomed over 1,000,000 new players in its 1st week of availability and continues to attract new fans. On September 13th, 2 cable released BioShock, the collection for PlayStation 4, Xbox 1, and PC. For the first time, BioShock, BioShock 2 and BioShock infinite will be made available in one collection, complete with all previously released single player downloadable add on content, all completely remastered for new generation consoles in full high resolution with up to sixty frames per second. In addition, BioShock the collection includes a never before seen video series, Director's commentary, imagining BioShock, which features insights from the creator of the series, Ken Levine. Consumers who already purchased the PC versions of BioShock, BioShock 2 and or Minerva's den through Steam will be able to upgrade to the remastered versions for free.
The BioShock series remains one of the most beloved franchises in gaming and great care has been taken to meticulously preserve the developer's visions for the unforgettable worlds of rapture in Columbia. On September 20, 2K released MVA 2K17, which will feature Indiana Pacer's all star shooting guard, Paul George, as the game's cover athlete and continue the series proud tradition of working with the NBA's most elite athletes. NBA 2K17 also will celebrate the legacy of Kobe Bryant by featuring the recently retired 18 time NBA All star on the cover of the NBA 2k17 Legend Edition. This special edition will highlight Bryant's career with themed memorabilia and exclusive digital content. As part of a partnership with USA Basketball, fans will be able to play as this year's USA Basketball's men's national team, as well as the legendary 1992 Dream Team, comprised of NBA Hall of Famers, such as Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson.
Developed by visual concepts, NBA 2k17 promises to once again raise the bar for excellence in our top selling and top rated basketball series. Today, we are announcing that 2K now plans to release Xcom 2 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox 1, on September 27th in North America and September 30th internationally. This short delay was necessary to ensure that the game is fully polished at launch, and meets the team's high standards for their critically acclaimed PC hit. 2K and 4 access games are excited to broaden the audience for this beloved series, and they will also continue to support On October 7th, 2K will launch mafia 3. Currently in development of 2K's Hanger13 studio, mafia 3 is the next installment in our successful organized crime series set in New Bordeaux and reimagined New Orleans circa 1968.
Lafayette 3 places players in the role of gifted antihero Lincoln Clay, a Vietnam vet determined to take revenge on the Italian mob for betraying and murdering his surrogate family. Mafia III will take this series in a bold new direction by combining its trademark, cinematic storytelling with a dynamic open world. Mafia 3 had a fantastic showing at E3, earning more than 60 accolades at the show, including 12 awards and a host of top 10 recognitions. We believe mafia III has the potential to be the breakout hit for what is already a highly successful series. On October 11th, 2K will launch WWE 2K17 and take our popular sports entertainment series to exciting new heights.
Brock Lessner, who is best known for his unparalleled accomplishments in WWE, UFC and NCAA division 1 wrestling, with the game's cover superstar. In addition, legendary WCW and WWE star, Bill Goldberg, will return to action as part of the game's pre order campaign. In WWE, NXT, the global brand that creates and develops emerging WWE Superstars, will serve as a focus for this year's collector's edition. Later this month, WWE 2K17 will be part of the WWE summer slam weekend in New York, We are confident that Yuke's and visual concepts will continue to innovate this series and build on its positive momentum. On October 21, 2K will release Sid Meier's Civilization VI, the latest offering from our award winning turn based strategy series, that is sold in over 35,000,000 units worldwide.
Developed by For Access Games, Civilization VI will mark the 25th anniversary of the series and provide the most detailed, vivid and beautiful experience ever featured in a civilization game. As players race to achieve victory in this all new title, active research and technology and culture will unlock new potential ways to play. Cities will physically expand across the map, and world leaders will pursue their own agendas based on their historical character traits. Civilization VI also had a terrific E3, earning over 30 nominations and winning 15 awards, including best strategy game honors from game informer and IGN, as well as best strategy game and best PC game from the official E3 game critics awards. In addition to our frontline releases, we will continue to deliver an array of digitally delivered offerings designed to drive engagement with and recurrent consumer spending on our titles.
Later this month, 2K will have a major presence at Gamescom in Germany. Fans and the media will have the opportunity to get hands on time with NBA 2K17 WW 2K17, BioShock the collection, and Civilization VI, as well as experience a developed Berlin theatre presentation of Mafia III. We're confident that this show will further wet consumer appetite for what we believe will be one of 2 K's strongest holiday lineups. With the diverse range of genres represented, this set of holiday releases exemplifies 2 K's commitment to providing uncompromising AAA Entertainment experiences. Looking beyond the current fiscal year, we have a robust long term development pipeline across both of our labels which features offerings from our renowned franchises, along with new intellectual properties that promise to further diversify our industry leading portfolio.
I'll now turn the call
over quarter results and financial outlook for the remainder of the year. As announced earlier this week, we are no longer reporting non GAAP financial measures just for the net effect from net revenue and related cost of goods sold. We're making these changes to comply with the SEC's updated compliance and disclosure interpretations issued on May 17th. These changes to our non GAAP measures will have no effect on Take 2's business, GAAP net revenue, GAAP earnings, cash flow, balance sheet or how our management and Board of Directors evaluates the company's performance. In order to help investors who may wish to continue to evaluate our company's performance based on the same measures that we focus on internally, we are providing the following additional metrics.
The change in deferred revenue, which can be added to our GAAP net revenue to arrive at the metrics that we formally reported as non GAAP net revenue, The change in deferred cost of goods sold, which can be added to our new non GAAP cost of goods sold, to arrive at our old calculation of non GAAP cost of goods sold, And the net effects from deferral of net revenue and related costs of goods sold, which can be added to our new non GAAP net income to arrive at our old calculation of non GAAP net income. Please note that we do not defer all costs of goods sold related to deferred revenue. Including internal and external royalties, which are calculated based on the performance of our business under our old non GAAP metrics and will continue to be calculated that way going forward. In addition, we are introducing a new operational metric bookings, which represents the total amount billed by the company from sales of physical products sold into retail and available to consumers, net of allowances, plus products digitally delivered to consumers during the period. We are reporting these metrics they are used by our management and Board of Directors to evaluate the performance of our business.
I'll now review our first quarter results. All comparisons are year over year unless otherwise stated. Our press release provides a reconciliation of our GAAP to non GAAP measurements and we have provided additional details regarding the non GAAP components of our cost of goods sold and operating expenses on our website. In addition, our press release provides a table showing how to bridge the new non GAAP presentation of our first quarter 2017 first quarter 2016 results to the old non GAAP presentation. Turning to the highlights of our results.
GAAP net revenue grew 13 percent to $311,600,000, Growth was driven primarily by the recognition of previous deferred revenues from Grand Theft Auto5 and NBA 2K16. GAAP net revenue benefited from a change in deferred net revenue of $39,000,000 versus being reduced by a change of $91,100,000 last year. GAAP digitally delivered net revenue grew 12 percent to $172,100,000. GAAP digitally delivered net revenue was reduced by change in deferred net revenue of $19,100,000 versus being reduced by $100,000,000 last year. Non GAAP cost of goods sold $187,000,000, down by $10,900,000.
This decline was due primarily to lower internal royalties, which are calculated based on the performance of our business under our old non GAAP metrics. Non GAAP cost of goods sold was increased by a change in deferred cost of goods sold of $24,600,000 versus being reduced by a change of $100,000 last year. Non GAAP operating expenses were $148,500,000, up by $28,800,000 due primarily to higher marketing expense for the launches of Battleborn and our upcoming lineups. GAAP net loss narrowed to $38,600,000 or $0.46 per share as compared to $67,000,000 or $0.81 per share. Non GAAP net loss narrowed to $17,600,000 or $0.21 per share as compared to $33,200,000 or $0.40 per share.
And the net effect from deferral of net revenue and related costs of goods sold was a benefit to non GAAP net income of $11,300,000, versus a reduction of $67,400,000 in the prior year. Decreased to $1,190,000,000 at June 30, as compared to March 31, due primarily to our ongoing investments in game development. Turning to our operational metrics, total bookings were $253,400,000 as compared to $353,800,000, in last year's first quarter, which had benefited from the launch of Grand Theft Auto V for PC. Total bookings exceeded our expectations driven primarily by the continued outperformance of Grand Theft Auto5 and Grand Theft Auto Online. Digitally delivered bookings were $172,700,000, led by Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K and Battle Born.
Bookings from recurrent consumer spending grew 22% and accounted for 60% of digitally delivered bookings or 41% of total bookings. If calculated pursuant to our prior non GAAP measures, Our fiscal first quarter results would have included non GAAP net revenue of $272,600,000, which is based on GAAP net revenue of $11,600,000, excluding the $39,000,000 benefit from the change in deferred net revenue. Or $0.34 per share, which is based on our new presentation of non GAAP net loss of $17,600,000, excluding the $11,300,000 benefit from the net effects from deferral of net revenue and related costs of goods sold. These results exceeded our prior non GAAP net revenue outlook of 2 $25,000,000 to $260,000,000, more within our prior non GAAP net loss outlook of $0.30 to $0.40 per share. Now I will review the highlights of our financial outlook, which conforms to our new non GAAP metrics.
Further details, as well as a reconciliation of our non GAAP financial to GAAP are contained in our press release and on our website. Starting with the fiscal second quarter, we expect GAAP net revenue to range from 3.75 $425,000,000, which is benefiting from a change in deferred net revenue of approximately $8,000,000. We expect total non GAAP costs of goods sold to range from $162,000,000 to $181,000,000, which is being reduced by a change in deferred cost of goods sold of approximately $15,000,000. Total non GAAP operating expenses are expected to range from $160,000,000 This is an increase from the prior year due primarily to higher marketing expense for mafia 3 and our other upcoming releases. We expect non GAAP net income to range from $39,000,000 to $51,000,000 or $0.35 to $0.45 per share.
And to benefit from a net effect from deferral of net revenue and related costs of goods sold of approximately $17,000,000. We expect total bookings to range from $350,000,000 to $400,000,000. The largest contributors to bookings are expected to be NBA 2K17, Grant Theft Auto5 and Grand Theft Auto Online at Scom II and BioShock the collection. Turning to our fiscal 2017 full year outlook, We now expect only $200,000,000. We now expect total non GAAP cost of goods sold to range from $842,000,000 to $868,000,000, which is being are now expected to range from $606,000,000 to $636,000,000.
This increase from the prior year is driven primarily by higher marketing expense for fiscal 2017 release slate, as well as our lineup for fiscal 2018, along with higher research and development expense, increased personnel expense from a higher headcount at our development studios and increased depreciation expense. We now expect non GAAP net income to range $2.29 to $258,000,000 or $2 to $2.25 per share, and the benefit from a net effect from deferral of net revenue and related costs of goods sold of approximately $118,000,000. We expect our operations to generate a modest amount of cash flow in fiscal 2017. As calculated pursuant to our prior non GAAP measures, Our fiscal 2017 outlook would have included non GAAP net revenue of $1,550,000,000 to $1,650,000,000 which is based on GAAP net revenue of $1.75 to $1,850,000,000, excluding the $200,000,000 benefit from the change in deferred net revenue. And non GAAP net income per share of $1 to $1.25, which is based on our new presentation of non GAAP net income of $229,000,000 to $258,000,000 or $2.25 per share, excluding the $118,000,000 benefit from the net effect from deferral of net revenue and related cost of goods sold.
This represents an increase of approximately $50,000,000 versus our previous non GAAP net revenue outlook, which was a range of $1,500,000,000 to $1,600,000,000 and is unchanged versus our previous non GAAP net income per share outlook, which was based on our prior non GAAP measures. Turning to bookings, we expect total bookings to range from $1,500,000,000 to $1,600,000,000. Our bookings are expected to be roughly unchanged as compared with last year, expected growth in NBA 2K and WWE 2K will be offset by moderating results from Grand Theft Auto5 and Grand Theft Auto Online. The largest contributors to bookings are expected to be NBA 2K17 and NBA 2K16, Grand Theft Auto5 and Grand Theft Auto Online, Mapia III, WWE 2K17, Thinmira Civilization VI and Battleborn. Given our better than expected bookings from recurrent consumer spending in the first quarter and increased expectations for the remainder of the year, we now expect digitally delivered bookings and recurrent consumer spending bookings to be approximately flat versus last year.
We expect the bookings breakdown from our labels to be roughly 75 60% United States and 40% international. In closing, fiscal 2017 is off to a solid start, and we expect to deliver another year of strong results. With our industry leading creative assets, coupled with the sound financial discipline, take to is well positioned to benefit from the positive secular trends in our industry and to deliver growth and margin expansion over the long term. Thank you. Now I'll turn the call back to Strauss.
Thanks, Carl and Lainie. On behalf of our entire management team, I'd like to thank our colleagues for delivering a strong start to the fiscal year. And to our shareholders, I want to express our appreciation for your continued support. We'll now take your questions.
At this time, we will be A confirmation Our first question comes from the line of Eric Handler of MKM Partners. Please proceed with your question.
Yes. Thanks for taking my question. I got two questions for you. First, just, related to the full year guidance, maybe, Lina, you can help me. Did you say the old guidance of a buck to a buck 20 is equal to the new guidance of $2 to $2.25 and can you help me get to reconcile that.
And then secondly, with regards to mafia III, it seems like you did get some good buzz out of E3, Amazon had it as the number 3, most anticipated game, of games that were shown at E3. And I'm just curious how that how E3 maybe has changed or caused you to adjust maybe some of your expectations for the game?
Eric, let me start with the guidance for next year. So the $2 to $2.25 is, based on the new non GAAP metrics, and that's what we'll be using going forward. So that compares to the $1 to $1.25 that we gave out on our last call. And the sales is up slightly, and that's driven by our Q1 results and, our increased recurrent consumer spending. And that's offset by some additional marketing expense in the
time with the press release, but how do I reconcile, like, how do what do I need to do on my model so that $2.25 becomes $1 to $1.20?
If you take a look at the press release, you'll see where we broke out what the deferred revenues are, the deferred cost of goods sold and then what that impact is on the net income and that will, help you reconcile it.
Okay.
And Eric, if you have follow-up questions, you can give Hank or Elaine a call. We'll be happy to go through it. And if that would be true for anyone else on the call as well. And this is Strauss. On mafia 383, yes, we had a great show We're really excited about it.
We're really proud of the way we showed off the title. And, what can I say? Something like 60 awards and, 60 accolades and 12 awards. And, enormous buzz, lots of press. And it's one of the things one of the many things that E3 is good for.
So This is a title that we put a lot of investment in and, in terms of development and marketing, both current and upcoming. And, we've high hopes for it. Stay tuned.
Our next question comes from the line of Ben Schachter of Macquarie. Please proceed with your question.
Close enough. Congratulations guys another good quarter. Few questions here. 1, so, Lien, if I just heard you correctly, the no upside on EPS Is that essentially all driven by increased marketing spend or is there just an increased level of conservatism for any other reason? And then Strauss, Postkey III, any change to the way you're going to market with mafia?
Was there anything that you saw the leads, you said we want to come at it a different way. And then also on marketing, I know I just happened to notice sort of, seeing it in some different ways, the marketing for GTA online, on Facebook and Instagram and some other areas seems to be doing a pretty good job. Or do you think that's that marketing has been particularly successful and do you expect to be increasing that for GTA Online and possibly for other future additional add on content? Thanks.
Let me address first on the guidance for, fiscal year 2017. So we did keep the bottom line the same as we said. And the revenue is still to be released, including mafia 3, NBA, WWE and Civilization VI. So it's still early in the year. We're pleased with the first quarter and we'll have to see how the rest of the year pans out for us.
Yes. And then in terms of, mafia 3 coming out of the show, I am, we're highly optimistic going into the show. And if anything more so after the show, we already have a very significant marketing budget against title as we do for all of our AAA releases, but we do try to structure our marketing budgets flexibly. So as we learn more, we can adjust them. But I think it's safe to say that we're really stepping up and getting behind this title because we really believe in it.
To your point on GTN line and other releases, You're obviously very expert in these matters. And you and I have talked about them, but we, like our competitors, are trying hard to be expert in reaching the consumer wherever the consumer is. And social media is a great way to do that, but you do have to be very expert in the area. And I think we are increasing that expertise expertise at the company broadly, and at both of our labels, and you're seeing that in our results. So, what drives the results of any given title GTA Online included is how it speaks to consumers.
And it's the creativity in the title and the the extraordinary experience of that game and that experience that has derived record results in the quarter we said we expected results to moderate and have, and we had wrecked results again. And certainly, marketing plays a role in that. But at the end of the day, of course, the product itself is what speaks to the consumer, the marketing is getting that message out. It's our job to do a plus work with both. And I think around here, we always feel like we can do more.
But yes, I think we have made some progress in social media marketing.
Our next question comes from the line of Tim O'Shea of Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.
Yes, hi. Thank you for taking my question. So obviously, you guys have had a lot of success developing new franchises, over the past few years, but more recently, it seems like new IP like Battle Born is seeing greater challenges at launch. So the question is now you have 9 or 10 large franchises. Does it start to make sense to prioritize investment towards that existing IP instead of trying to launch new franchises.
I do appreciate Strauss's comments about the importance of creativity and maybe not how everything works out, but I'm just curious how you think about this and whether you're thinking has evolved over time? Thank you.
Tim, it's a fair question. And I think one has to be careful with the success we've had because we've launched at least 1 new hit IT every year nearly every year since 2007, not every year, but nearly every year. And obviously, that's why we have titles like Red Dead and titles like Borderlands and Bioshock more recently why we were able to add WWE to the mix. Because of that willingness that openness and frankly, our risk profile. And we are capitalized now to take on that risk.
So tempting as it may be to rest on our laurels, and we do have 11 franchises that have each sold over 5,000,000 units in individual leases, something like 60s that have sold, I think, 2,000,000 units at least in 60 releases that have sold at least 2,000,000 units. It's tempting to do that, but, of course, at the end of the day, you run the risk at the that the enterprise doesn't grow in that circumstance. So while one definitely has a reduced risk profile when you put out a sequel versus new IP. I think it's both our obligation and our opportunity to do both. How we do that, is an open question.
And there are opportunities to moderate risk in so doing. And also the world allows you now, the world of interactive entertainment allows out of more than one bite at the apple. So with regard to Battleborne, we're being very frank about where we are because we're a transparent company. We're still delivering new content to Battleborne. Audiences love Battleborne.
We still have virtual currency coming for Battleborne. We're not counting it out for a minute. We're just telling you where we're at now. And equally, we just launched Evolve Stage 2. There's another way to express the IP of Evolve.
And we've had over 1,000,000 people sign up to play evolved stage 2. And that's super exciting. So the world has changed. It's unforgiving in that. We invest a lot of money in new IP.
It's much more forgiving in that we can have consumers be part of our release. We can iterate with them. We can come back and play another day. And if your watchword is quality, there are great opportunities. Say what you will, the consumers actually really have said great things about Battleborne as have the critics So we're still encouraged by our approach to bringing back beloved sequels while creating new intellectual property.
And we do have to be careful, of course, to balance our investment and our risk with the opportunity. And that's there's a little bit of science in there, a little bit of art in there, one of the things we do every day.
Our next question
I had one on the new bookings metrics. So if I look at the quarter, the bookings were down quite a bit year over year just because of the GTA 5 comp, which makes sense. So I guess questions. If the annual outlook implies flattish, I believe, was in the comments. What does the September outlook for $350,000,000 to $400,000,000 imply on a year over year basis?
And how should we expect the year over year trend to change over the course of the year? What are the key drivers there?
Can you repeat that question? I'm not sure I'm understanding
So I'm just looking, I want to make sure I'm understanding the metrics right, but I see like bookings for this quarter were 253 and I believe that was down 25% to 30% year over year because of the GTA 5 comps. And I thought in the prepared comments that the 1.5 $1,500,000,000 to $1,600,000,000 was flattish year over year. So I'm just trying to understand how we get from down $30,000,000 to there. What happens between here and there over the next few quarters?
So yes, it is flattish, from this year to last year. And it's driven by our release schedule that we have coming up for the rest of the year. We have mafia 3 coming out, NBA, WWE. We have civilization 6 and some other titles. So it's being, you know, we have a very heavily weighted fall season.
And that should, that would make up the difference for the year.
Okay. I guess just for historical perspective for next quarter $350,000,000 to $400,000,000, if you hit the midpoint of that, can you share what the year over year comp would be?
I don't have that in front of me, but if you follow-up with us after the call, we could get that to you.
Okay, great. Okay, that's all I got. Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Sam Dan of Mitsu.
Hi. This is Simon for Neil. I was just curious to see if you expect, to see an impact to recurring digital spending in the quarter from the Olympics. And there's a gap before NBA 2K 2017 comes out, but do you expect any impact to to that launch as well?
Honestly, if the political season hasn't taken away activity, I certainly don't think the Olympics will. Consumers really love what we have to offer. And, when consumers love entertainment, they consume a whole lot of it. It does not appear to be substitutable. So, no, exciting, the Olympics may be.
I don't think it will affect us, even in the smallest way.
Great. Thank you.
There are no further questions at this time during the audio portion of the conference. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for closing remarks.
We would just like to thank everyone for joining us today. We had a good solid quarter, a great start for the year. We've revised our revenue outlook up. We're highly optimistic about what will be one of our strongest fall and holiday release schedules ever. And we want to thank all of our shareholders for their continued support.
This concludes today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful rest of your day.