Greetings, welcome to the Take-Two Interactive Software Q4 fiscal year 2016 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star 0 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Henry Diamond, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications for Take-Two Interactive. Thank you, Mr. Diamond. You may begin.
Good afternoon. Welcome, thank you for joining Take-Two's conference call to discuss its results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2016, ended March 31st, 2016. Today's call will be led by Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Karl Slatoff, our President, and Lainie Goldstein, our Chief Financial Officer. We will be available to answer your questions during the Q&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 from 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 Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-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 non-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.taketwogames.com. 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 2016 marked the third consecutive year in which Take-Two delivered revenues and earnings that significantly exceeded our original outlook, driven principally by positive momentum in our core offerings. We generated record digitally delivered revenue, including our highest ever recurrent consumer spending, and our strong earnings converted into significant cash flow. We finished the fiscal year with our balance sheet in its best shape ever, including cash and short-term investments of nearly $1.3 billion. We believe our company has the best creative talent in the business. The key to our success has been their consistent ability to deliver the highest quality entertainment experiences in our industry, as reflected both in the outstanding critical reviews and strong sales that our titles enjoy.
Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online have exceeded our expectations in every quarter since their release and continue meaningfully to expand their audience more than two and a half years after their initial launch. Grand Theft Auto V remains the highest-rated title on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and is the must-have experience for gamers, especially as the install base of the new generation of consoles continues to grow. To date, Grand Theft Auto V has sold in more than 65 million units worldwide. Moreover, engagement with Grand Theft Auto Online continues to be fantastic, with both fourth quarter and fiscal 2016 revenues up year-over-year. Rockstar Games has driven sustained engagement with the Grand Theft Auto Online by delighting audiences with the regular release of free content updates, and they have many more on the way to keep this community thriving.
Rockstar Games is, of course, also hard at work on some exciting future projects that will be revealed soon. NBA 2K16 has continued to build on our industry-leading basketball series track record of annual growth. The title has outperformed our expectations and remains poised to become our highest-selling sports game ever, with sell-in of nearly seven and a half million units up double digits versus the same period for the prior release. NBA 2K has benefited from strong player engagement, and sales of the game's virtual currency have been the largest contributor to recurrent consumer spending next to Grand Theft Auto Online. During fiscal 2016, recurrent consumer spending on NBA 2K grew 70% year-over-year, driven both by online play and the MyNBA2K companion app. The NBA 2K experience has become much more than a traditional sports simulation game.
It's a true sports RPG that incorporates deep storylines along with pop music and culture. This evolution has helped to broaden its appeal beyond sports fans, with revenue from the series increasing at an extraordinary 31% compound annual growth rate over the past seven fiscal years. We believe that 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. Our annual WWE 2K series has also continued to grow, with WWE 2K16 crossing the three million unit sell-in mark during the fourth quarter, and revenue from the title has been further enhanced by the success of its downloadable add-on content, including a season pass. Since acquiring the license in February 2013, we've grown unit sales every year, reversing the negative trend under the former publisher.
During its peak from 2007 through 2009, the WWE video game series sold six to seven million units per year. Today, the WWE brand remains as popular and vibrant as ever, and we believe we can continue to grow sales by further leveraging the development and marketing expertise of 2K and Visual Concepts, which are responsible for the tremendous success of NBA 2K. During fiscal 2016, we extended our long-term partnership with WWE, and we look forward to many more years of successful collaboration. During the fourth quarter, 2K launched "XCOM 2," which was developed by the strategy experts at Firaxis Games. "XCOM 2" received stellar reviews, with IGN awarding it a 9.3 out of 10, PC Gamer a 94% out of 100%, and Game Informer Magazine a 9.5 out of 10.
Sales of the title have exceeded our expectations and are higher than the PC version of its predecessor, "XCOM: Enemy Unknown," during the same period after launch. "XCOM 2" is being supported with an array of add-on content, including the Anarchy's Children and Alien Hunters packs that are available now, which should enable "XCOM 2" to achieve the long-tail success that Firaxis Games strategy titles typically experience. During fiscal 2016, we continued to capitalize on our industry's ongoing transition towards digital distribution. We generated record digitally delivered revenue of $835.2 million, which grew 36% year-over-year and accounted for 54% of our total net revenue. Recurrent consumer spending grew 33% year-over-year to its highest level ever and accounted for 26% of our total net revenue.
In addition to virtual currency for "Grand Theft Auto Online" and "NBA 2K," recurrent consumer spending was enhanced by other offerings, including downloadable add-on content led by "Borderlands," "WWE 2K," "Sid Meier's Civilization," and "Evolve." "WWE SuperCard," which has now been downloaded more than 10 million times and it's our most financially successful free-to-play mobile offering, and "NBA 2K Online" in China, which delivered record revenues and now has over 31 million registered users. Continuing to drive increased engagement with our titles remains a key strategic priority for our organization and is one of our most important long-term growth and margin expansion opportunities. We now support virtually all of our new releases with innovative offerings designed to achieve this objective. Our results also benefited from strong growth in full game downloads, with over 20% of units for new-gen consoles and over 90% of units for PC delivered digitally.
In addition, it bears noting that approximately half of our catalog sales for old-gen consoles are being delivered through digital download. Digital distribution is disproportionately benefiting our catalog, as it gives consumers the opportunity to buy older titles that no longer receive physical shelf space. In particular, Rockstar Games has been having tremendous success with their hit PlayStation 2 titles, such as "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" and "Bully," which are now available for download on the PlayStation 4 via the console's emulation technology. Rockstar Games is the top publisher in the PlayStation 2 Classics on PlayStation 4 program, with three of the five highest-selling games. Today, we believe Take-Two is better positioned than ever for long-term success.
Fiscal 2017 is poised to be another year of non-GAAP earnings in excess of $1 per share, and we currently expect to grow both revenues and earnings in fiscal 2018 based on our robust development pipeline. The winds at our back, with favorable industry trends, including a current install base of over 60 million new-gen consoles, which IDC expects to reach 115 million by 2019, and a thriving digitally delivered market for PC games. The opportunities for interactive entertainment on emerging platforms, such as tablets and smartphones, and in developing markets, such as China and Korea, are expanding rapidly, and we're actively pursuing these sectors with a highly disciplined approach. We have what we believe is the best collection of owned intellectual property in the business, and the extraordinary success of our products is breeding greater demand from consumers worldwide, which in turn creates increased opportunities for our company.
These are really exciting times for both Take-Two and our industry. While interactive entertainment has been enjoyed for decades, we're just beginning to see what can be achieved by combining technological innovation with the artistic passion of our creative talent. We're committed to delivering the highest quality, most engaging entertainment experiences that captivate audiences wherever they are, and that will continue to generate returns for our shareholders over the long term. I'll now turn the call over to Karl.
Thanks, Strauss. I'd like to begin by congratulating our colleagues around the world for delivering another strong year. The hard work and dedication of our teams continue to benefit our company and provide a sound foundation for the future. I'll now discuss our recently released titles and upcoming lineup. On April 26th, 2K launched the physical release of "Tales from the Borderlands," the critically acclaimed, award-winning episodic adventure game from Telltale Games and Gearbox Software on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC. Renowned for its humor and thrilling action, "Tales from the Borderlands" is a terrific complement to the immensely successful Borderlands series. On May 3rd, 2K added a promising new brand to our industry-leading portfolio with the relaunch of "Battleborn." We are encouraged by this title's potential and will continue to expand the experience with a host of free and paid additional content offerings.
2K and Gearbox Software will be supporting "Battleborn" with five add-on content packs to be released post-launch, which players may purchase individually or together at a substantial savings through the game's season pass. Free content updates for "Battleborn" will include five new playable heroes, bringing the total roster to 30, as well as additional competitive multiplayer modes, maps, balance updates, and community features. In keeping with the success we've had supporting our AAA titles with free-to-play mobile games, 2K also released the "Battleborn Tap" companion app, which mirrors Battleborn's progression and loot system and enables players to earn new character skins that can be used in the full game. I'd like to congratulate 2K and Gearbox Software for once again delivering an entirely new, groundbreaking entertainment experience.
Excitement continues to build for 2K's October 7th launch of "Mafia III." Currently in development at 2K's Hangar 13 studio, "Mafia III" is the next installment in our successful organized crime series. Set in New Bordeaux, a reimagined New Orleans circa 1968, "Mafia III" places players in the role of gifted anti-hero Lincoln Clay, a Vietnam vet determined to take revenge on the Italian mob for betraying and murdering his surrogate family. "Mafia III" will take the series in a bold new direction by combining its trademark cinematic storytelling with a dynamic open world. "Mafia III" will be present at E3, highlighted by a stylized area at our booth that is not to be missed. 2K and Hangar 13 will continue to reveal more details about this amazing new title in the coming months.
Turning to our annual sports releases, 2K is hard at work on this year's versions of "NBA 2K" and "WWE 2K." In the coming weeks, we will reveal the cover athlete for "NBA 2K17," which will continue the series' proud tradition of working with the NBA's most elite athletes when the game launches in September. "NBA 2K17" will also celebrate the basketball 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. In addition, "WWE 2K17" is currently in development at Yuke's and Visual Concepts, and we are confident that they will continue to innovate this series and build on its positive momentum when the game launches in October.
WWE 2K17" will also be a part of the WWE SummerSlam weekend this August in New York. 2K will have more to share about these titles and their exciting new features in the coming months. Last week, 2K and Firaxis Games announced that "Sid Meier's Civilization VI," the next installment in our award-winning turn-based strategy series that has sold in over 34 million units worldwide, will launch for the PC on October 21st. The release of "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. In this all-new title, active research in 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 as players race to achieve victory.
We're thrilled to introduce a new installment to this beloved series, which promises to once again captivate fans with every turn. In addition to these frontline releases, we will continue to deliver an array of digitally delivered offerings designed to drive engagement with and recurrent consumer spending on our recent releases and upcoming titles, including additional free content drops for "Grand Theft Auto Online." Our "NBA 2K16" esports tournament on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One is quickly approaching the June 1st finals, where the two remaining teams will compete in Los Angeles to win a $250,000 grand prize and a trip to the NBA Finals. Throughout the tournament, more than 92,000 teams competed in over 2 million games, and the playoffs and championship rounds will be broadcast on Twitch for audiences to enjoy.
We're very pleased with our initial foray into the emerging world of esports. We will continue to explore ways to leverage our properties and to engage and reward our loyal fans. Next month, 2K will have a booth on the show floor at E3 where a selection of our upcoming titles will be on display. We welcome you to stop by our booth to see how we will continue our trend of delivering the most innovative and immersive entertainment experiences in our industry. 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 to Lainie.
Thanks, Karl, and good afternoon, everyone. Today, I'll review our results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2016 and then discuss our outlook for the first quarter and fiscal year 2017. All of the numbers I'll be providing today are non-GAAP, and all comparisons are year-over-year unless otherwise stated. We respectfully provide the reconciliation of our GAAP to non-GAAP measurements, and on our website, we have provided additional details regarding the non-GAAP components for our cost of goods sold and operating expenses. Starting with our results for the fiscal fourth quarter, net revenue was $342.5 million as compared to $427.7 million in last year's fourth quarter, which had benefited from the release of Evolve and continued sales of a more extensive holiday release slate.
This result exceeded our outlook range of $260 million-$310 million due primarily to stronger than expected revenues from Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online. In addition, NBA 2K16 exceeded our expectations. Digitally delivered revenue grew 12% to $226.6 million and accounted for 66% of our total net revenue. 55% of digitally delivered revenue was derived from recurrent consumer spending, which grew 15%. The largest contributors to digitally delivered revenue were Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K, and XCOM 2. Catalog sales accounted for $211.3 million of net revenue, led by Grand Theft Auto and Borderlands. Gross margin was 46.4%. The decrease is due primarily to higher amortization of capitalized software development costs, partially offset by growth in digitally delivered revenue. Operating expenses was $109.6 million, down by $15.4 million, due primarily to higher marketing expense last year for the launch of Evolve.
Interest and other expense was $0.2 million as we generated higher interest income than in last year's fourth quarter. We recorded a tax benefit of $2.5 million, which includes $5.4 million in tax benefits related to video game development costs. These benefits were higher than our forecast. Non-GAAP net income was $51.7 million, or $0.46 per share, versus $54.3 million or $0.49 per share in the prior year's fourth quarter. This result exceeded our outlook range of $0.15-$0.25 per share due to our strong business performance and lower tax expense. On a GAAP basis, net revenue grew 26% to $377.2 million, and net income increased to $46.4 million, or $0.48 per share. Turning now to our full-year results.
Net revenue was $1.56 billion versus $1.67 billion in fiscal 2015, which had benefited from a more extensive release slate, including the launch of Grand Theft Auto V on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The largest contributors were Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online, NBA 2K16, and WWE 2K16. Digitally delivered revenue grew 36% to a record $835.2 million and accounted for 54% of our total net revenue. 48% of digitally delivered revenue or 26% of total net revenue was derived from recurrent consumer spending, which grew 33% to its highest level ever. The largest contributors to digital sales were Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K, Borderlands, and XCOM 2. Gross margin decreased modestly to 46.2%, due primarily to a lower margin title mix, partially offset by growth in digitally delivered revenue.
Operating expenses were $483.5 million, down by $14.8 million due to lower marketing expense, which was partially offset by increased personnel expense from a higher headcount, higher research and development expense, and increased depreciation expense. Interest and other expense was $6.7 million. We recorded a tax expense of $13.2 million, which includes $37.6 million or $0.33 per share in tax benefits related to video game development costs. Excluding these benefits, our effective tax rate was approximately 22%. Non-GAAP net income was $218.3 million or $1.96 per share as compared to $219.2 million or $1.98 per share in fiscal 2015. On a GAAP basis, net revenue grew 31% to $1.41 billion and net loss narrowed to $8.3 million or $0.10 per share. Turning to some key items from our balance sheet in March 31st, 2016, as compared to December 31st, 2015.
Our cash and short-term investments balance increased to $1.27 billion. This equates to net cash of $11.12 per share, which includes the potential dilution from our convertible note. Our accounts receivable balance decreased to $168.5 million, primarily reflecting collection of receivables. Inventory decreased to $15.9 million and software development costs and licenses increased to $393.2 million, reflecting the development efforts around our pipeline of upcoming releases. Now I will review our financial outlook, which is provided on a non-GAAP basis. Starting with the first quarter, we expect net revenue to range from $225 million-$260 million and net loss to range from $0.40-$0.30 per share. Revenues are expected to be lower as compared with first quarter 2015, driven primarily by our assumption that revenue from Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online will start to moderate, partially offset by the launch of Battleborn.
The largest contributors to revenue are expected to be Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online, NBA 2K16, and Battleborn. We expect gross margins to expand to the upper 40s. Total operating expenses are expected to increase by approximately 32%, due primarily to higher marketing expense for the launches of Battleborn and Mafia III. Selling and marketing expense is expected to be about 30% of net revenue based on the midpoint of our outlook range. We project interest and other expense of $2 million and weighted average fully diluted shares of 86 million, and our effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 23%. Turning to the details of our full-year outlook, we expect net revenue to range from $1.5 billion-$1.6 billion and net income to range from $1-$1.25 per share.
Our revenues are expected to be roughly unchanged as compared with last year, driven primarily by our assumption that our new launches and expected growth from NBA 2K and WWE 2K will be offset by moderating results from Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online. Our net income is expected to be lower versus fiscal 2016, due primarily to higher expected operating expenses and substantially lower tax benefits than recorded last year. The largest contributors to revenue are expected to be NBA 2K17 and NBA 2K16, Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online, Mafia III, WWE 2K17, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, and Battleborn. We expect the revenue breakdown from our labels to be roughly 75% 2K and 25% Rockstar Games. We expect our geographic revenue split to be about 60% U.S. and 40% international. We expect gross margins to expand to around 50%.
Total operating expenses are expected to increase by approximately 27%, driven primarily by higher marketing expense for our fiscal 2017 release slate as well as our lineup for fiscal 2018. Higher research and development expense, increased personnel expense from a higher headcount at our development studios, and increased depreciation expense. Selling and marketing expense is expected to be about 18% of net revenue based on the midpoint of our outlook range. We project interest and other expense of $4 million and weighted average fully diluted shares of 117 million. Our effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 23%, which includes $16 million in tax benefits related to video game development costs. Interest on the convertible notes, net of tax, is $4.4 million, which will be added back to net income to calculate net income per share.
We expect our operations to generate a modest amount of cash in fiscal 2017. In closing, the consistent execution of our strategy to deliver the highest quality interactive entertainment experiences, coupled with disciplined financial management, enabled Take-Two to deliver another year of better than expected revenues, profits, and cash flow. Fiscal 2017 promises to be another strong year for our company, creatively, operationally, and financially. We are well-positioned to deliver growth and margin expansion over the long term. Thank you. I'll turn the call back to Strauss.
Thanks, Karl and Lainie. On behalf of our entire management team, I'd like to thank our colleagues for delivering another strong year for our company. To our shareholders, I want to express our appreciation for your continued support. We'll now take your questions. Operator?
Thank you. At this time, ladies and gentlemen, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line has entered the question queue, and you may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please while we poll for questions. Now our first question comes from the line of Michael Olson from Piper Jaffray. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, good afternoon. Congratulations on a strong quarter. I was just curious, there's some changes in the industry and wondering how you're thinking about Take-Two being affected or not affected by some of those changes in the ecosystems. That would be around the PlayStation 4.5, a new Nintendo console, virtual reality. I guess you mentioned esports. Are those various things opportunities, challenges, or indifferent for Take-Two? Thank you.
I think in general, these are all opportunities, depending on how things pencil out. A successful new console gives us another opportunity to release titles, whomever it comes from. Esports is a very exciting area that we talked about in today's call. We're just beginning to participate through our NBA 2K tournament. I think the fact that there were 92,000 teams that were involved is pretty extraordinary. Right now, esports still tends to be a marketing vehicle for our games and create more engagement. We are able to monetize that engagement with the recurrent consumer spending, so that's certainly a good thing. I've talked a bit about VR in the past, and there's a lot of excitement in the marketplace, and a lot of our people are excited, too. We're still in our R&D mode around here because this is still not a consumer business.
We want to be really clear. If this is the consumer's platform of choice, we'll bring our intellectual property to it aggressively and ambitiously. We just tend not to vote when we don't have to. The vote that we cast is be wherever the consumer is. That's channel, distribution vehicle, platform, product type, geography. Be there with the best intellectual property in the market. Where we don't have to vote yet, we don't. The wins that are back, it's also our competitors' back. We think the people who win most are those that are the most creative, the most innovative, and the most efficient, and that's what we aspire to be.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Eric Handler from MKM Partners. Please proceed with your question.
Yes. Thanks for the question. Two questions for you here. On Grand Theft Auto Online, last year in fiscal 2016, you thought there'd be some moderation. You're expecting some moderation now in fiscal 2017. Are you seeing anything to suggest right now in your monthly data that there is, in fact, a slowdown going on? Then secondly, for Lainie, how are you guys treating the convert that you have coming due in December in your guidance, and what's weighing on the cash flow outlook for the year?
In terms of Grand Theft Auto Online, I see it the way you do, Eric, which is, in fact, it has performed better than all of our expectations, and that's certainly gratifying. I think that's a reflection of how amazing Grand Theft Auto V is, how fantastic Grand Theft Auto Online is, and how great the additional content drops have been. We have been very pleased by the continuing results. It's more than two and a half years after the initial release, and yet results continue to be up quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. We can't quite say when results will moderate. So far the title continues to perform very well indeed. At some point, one's expectation would be for moderating results. Lainie?
For the convert, we're accounting for the convert as if they are to be settled in stock, which is what is included in our guidance right now. That's our current intent, but we have the option to settle in either cash or stock. When we get closer to the maturity date, we'll evaluate the best way to settle the convert. We can look at where our cash balance is at that time. Right now, at the end of the year, we were at $1.27 billion. We have a strong balance, and we'll see what the potential uses for that cash are, and we'll determine what our best option is at that time.
The free cash flow, is there anything particular that's weighing on your view that it'd be modestly positive?
Yes. We're continuing to invest in the game development for our pipeline and also IT-related fixed asset expenses.
Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from the line of Ben Schachter from Macquarie. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, guys. Congratulations on another great year. A few questions. One, I think I know the answer to this, but just to clarify, all the guidance there, all the figures you've given us so far include only the announced title date. That's the first question. Second question, Strauss, I think you mentioned that you expect FY 2018 revenue and earnings to grow. If you could just discuss why you have confidence to give so much guidance today. Finally, any update on just how you're thinking about the cash and how you're thinking about M&A in general? Thanks.
To your first question, just to clarify, we've announced the entire release schedule for the year, and that's what you should expect our release schedule to be. That's what our outlook is based on. Any changes would be performance-based, largely. I'm going to skip to question three, which is cash uses, and our view remains the same, which is there are three potential uses. Support organic growth, which has been our story all along, has been a very good story. We do think there are wonderful opportunities for organic growth, whether that's new types of products or expanding our focus in other geographies like Asia, which has been very fruitful for us, or supporting new platforms as they develop or other new opportunities like e-sports. There are opportunities for inorganic growth. Those tend to sort of come along when you least expect them.
That's why we believe cash is a strategic asset. We are very disciplined. We do believe in doing accretive deals. That does distinguish us from some of our competitors historically. Retrospectively, that's been a very good call on our part. Of course, we believe in returning cash to the shareholders. In the past several years, we've purchased about $300 million worth of stock, and we certainly have an opportunity to do so in the future. We have an outstanding authorization for buyback. Would you mind repeating your second question because I seemed to miss it?
You mentioned that you expect growth, I think, on both revenue and earnings for FY 2018. What gives you the confidence to say that now?
That was more a comment than a question, or was there a question in there?
What gives you confidence?
No, what gives you confidence.
What gives me confidence? Yeah, it's what we're working on at our development studios.
We have very good visibility into our pipeline, and given what we see and also our ability to continue to grow recurrent consumer spending in the context of great new releases, it gives us high confidence in fiscal year 2018 growth.
Great. Thanks, and good luck.
Our next question comes from the line of Brian Fitzgerald from Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.
Yes. Hi. This is Timothy O'Shea first for Brian. Thank you for taking my question. Just another one on the outlook. I know that Lainie mentioned the higher OpEx and taxes next year, but I was just hoping you might help us understand the specific situation that might be driving a disconnect between top-line growth and EPS growth outlook for fiscal 2017. Is there a game that's going to be less profitable than expected? Maybe I noticed that large deferred revenue outlook. Just how should we interpret this? Then I had a quick follow-up. Thanks.
Well, for next year, when we're looking at the disconnect in terms of the bottom line, what you said is true, we don't have as big of a tax benefit. We have $0.33 per share this year. Next year we're going to only have $0.14 per share. Also our operating expenses are going to increase about 29%, primarily due to higher marketing expense. Our margins are higher. The pipeline is set and is strong. It's just a big difference because of the marketing expense as well as the taxes.
Okay, got it. Thank you. Just broadly speaking as a higher-level question, we've seen some consolidation across the space with the biggest games in each category taking more market share. I'm just curious, first of all, if you would agree with that sentiment, and if so, how that trend towards consolidation impact your planning decisions around both your larger franchises like GTA and NBA and maybe also your smaller ones, which may not be category leaders. Thank you.
Yeah. In this instance, we would agree with what you're observing, which is that the bigger and better are getting stronger, and that's consistent with the nature of the entertainment business, which is as entertainment businesses mature, a greater proportion of consumer attention, and therefore revenue, goes to the highest quality releases. Essentially, when entertainment businesses are nascent, people are willing to experiment among a number of brands. As they mature, all consumers' tastes tend to narrow and focus on the biggest titles in the business. This has been true from time immemorial, since the beginning of the electronic entertainment business across every different type.
It's why we've had the strategy that we've had at this company, which is create and put out the highest quality releases and do a limited number so you can really focus, and focus not just on your existing IP, but try to launch new successful IP every year. We've been able to do that most years since we took over the company, and that's why we have 11 titles that have each sold over 5 million units in an individual release and something like 45 that have each sold 2 million units or more in an individual release, which we think is the standard bearer of the industry. Yes, the strong get stronger, and that was true in motion pictures and television and in music.
It's going to be true in interactive entertainment, that puts pressure on us and on our key competitors to continue to deliver the highest quality titles.
To focus on doing so. We see it as an opportunity as much as a challenge. Certainly for the haves, it's a much better place to be than the have-nots.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Arvind Bhatia from CRT Capital. Please proceed with your question.
Okay, thank you. I'd like to add my congratulations, guys. This is for Strauss Zelnick. As you go back to this time last year, you started with guidance of $0.75 to $1. Obviously, you delivered earnings that were significantly higher than that. As you look back, would you say that most of the upside was from GTA V and GTA Online? Perhaps you could review the top three reasons you were able to deliver that much upside. My second question is specifically on Mafia III. If you could maybe provide a framework for us to be able to think about the scale of this, to be able to model it, maybe talk about the marketing support, other things that you're doing, and how you're modeling it perhaps as of this point. Thank you.
In terms of our guidance from this past year, when we set our original guidance, it was our best estimate at the time when we gave out those numbers. We had a very light release schedule. As you mentioned, some of our titles performed stronger than we had expected, GTA V and GTA Online. That, coupled with our tax credits, is what helped us to have these fantastic results for this year.
Arvind, in terms of Mafia III, obviously, this is a title that we're very excited about here from a creative perspective, but also from a commercial perspective. We think this title has the perfect combination of what people are looking for in an open world, story-based driven title with a lot of things that a lot of games don't have. A lot of time and money has gone into this. We've got a great creative team being led by Haden Blackman. We are very excited about this title and the prospects of this title. When you get this right in this particular genre, you can obviously achieve significant success. We've done that before in general. In terms of providing you with a specific model that you can go by, I don't have anything specific for you to go there.
I can tell you that our expectation is that we should be exceeding anything that we've ever done on the Mafia side before, again, from a creative perspective and a commercial perspective. You can always look at the previous Mafia titles as a benchmark, but again, I wouldn't stake too much on that because we think this title will vastly exceed what the previous Mafias have been able to accomplish over the past.
Great. That's very helpful. Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Doug Creutz from Cowen and Company. Please proceed with your question.
Thanks. You mentioned that you've had success with some of your older Grand Theft Auto titles from the PS2 era on the PS4 with the ability to play older titles. Just wondering if there's any appetite there for actually doing remasters of some of those older titles into HD. Is that something conceptually that you think would be a worthwhile use of your talent and time?
That's something that the labels will decide and talk about in due course. Certainly, we wouldn't rule it out. It will be largely an economic decision. We wouldn't do anything that's not going to look great creatively. The starting point is this going to delight consumers? Is this going to look good? You know that we're a company that is not driven first and foremost by can we create revenue this way? We would start by saying, will this be exciting to consumers? Will they be happy with it? Will it reflect well on our brands? Will it reflect well on our company? If the answer is yes, then it may well be a compelling opportunity. If the answer is indifferent or no, then even if we have an opportunity to make a few bucks, we probably would decline.
I think that's the lens through which we look. The actual decisions are made by the labels.
Okay, thanks.
Our next question comes from the line of Neil Doshi from Mizuho. Please proceed with your question.
Yes. Hi, this is San Phan for Neil. You mentioned the release slate is confirmed for the year, does that include any content drops in DLC? In other words, could we possibly see content that might not otherwise be baked in at the moment? Second question is regarding NBA 2K. There's been really strong growth in registered users. Just wondering if you can share any maybe additional metrics like active users or paying users, is the strategy there to drive a greater number of players to pay, or is it just to drive higher ARPU per paying user? If we can see maybe potential other revenue streams like ad-based streams for the people that aren't paying. Thank you.
In terms of our outlook, we have contemplated recurrent consumer spending in the outlook. We've contemplated product drops. There could be changes there, perhaps there's some opportunity, this is the outlook as we see it now, we contemplated all aspects of our business. Things can change. In terms of metrics, we haven't really shared a great deal of metrics on our in-game spending. We certainly give broad numbers around recurrent consumer spending, it's been great. More than a quarter of our non-GAAP net revenue last fiscal year was recurrent consumer spending. Certainly, the numbers are meaningful, we have mentioned that we have 31 million signed up users of NBA 2K Online in China.
We have mentioned that metric. We have talked about usage of Grand Theft Auto Online in the fourth quarter. We've given some metrics. We don't tend to give a broad array of metrics because this is still a work in progress and still developing activity here, because we don't want people to extrapolate, even though the results have been excellent, we don't want one to extrapolate that they're perpetually a nice, gentle, upward sloping curve because it's just too early in our experience set to see that. In terms of our strategy, I know it sounds like motherhood and apple pie, it genuinely is our strategy. We're trying to delight consumers as they engage in our products. When we make a content drop, we want that to be something exciting to consumers.
We know if we do that, then we will increase engagement, therefore, we will increase spending, therefore, we'll increase revenue and profits. Of course, we are a profit-seeking enterprise. We are focused squarely in the real world, we're a for-profit company. The way entertainment businesses survive and thrive with the backdrop, as Lainie mentioned, of being exceedingly efficient, well-organized, professionally managed, fiscally highly disciplined. With that backdrop, our focus turns entirely to creativity, that creativity surrounds what's going to make consumers most excited about our titles and most excited about our brands, most engaged with our titles and repeatedly engaged with our titles. As they are engaged, we need to give them opportunities to spend that in and of itself enhances the game experience.
Doesn't detract from it, that we don't put up toll booths, we don't annoy our consumers. We simply get paid along the way. That's what we aim to do, that has had a great result around here. Many of our competitors are actually proud of the fact that they're primarily data-driven, that they're focused on the content supporting the data that supports the purchases, that supports the revenue, that supports the profitability. We do not do it that way. We are creative. We make an incredible entertainment experience, we seek to monetize it.
Okay. Thanks, Strauss.
Our next question comes from the line of Mike Hickey from the Benchmark Company. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, guys. Congratulations on an awesome quarter. Thanks for taking my question. Two, I'm curious when you release new content for GTA Online, if you see a corresponding impact or sales impact to the base game GTA V, thinking about sort of a marketing vehicle to maybe new installs or maybe prior gen players crossing over to the current gen experience where obviously there's new content coming out. I guess still part of that question is, I guess it's sort of nebulous thinking about the pipeline for GTA Online content, but would you characterize it as about the same amount of content coming out this year or more or less? That'd be helpful, and I have a quick follow-up.
Yeah, it's a good question, Mike. GTA V has continued to sell, as you know, and we've talked about the unit sales. Certainly, there's been great news there because we've sold so many units. We have not tracked what happens to the GTA V sales when new content is dropped into GTA Online. We'd be speculating about what influencer it would be. I think anything that makes GTA Online exciting is good for GTA V, and I do expect that it's going to continue to be a very strong title going forward and a great catalog title over time. If history is any guide, that will be the case. In terms of the pipeline for online content on an ongoing basis, that's something for Rockstar to talk about in due time. There is content coming.
Okay, cool. The last question, Gearbox had some encouraging, I guess, commentary on the initial sales of Battleborn. It sort of reflected on Borderlands, I think it was maybe outpacing that a bit. My impression was they sort of suggested maybe it was a slow start, but had the potential to build into something meaningful. I think Borderlands, life-to-date , has done maybe 8 million units and stuff. Sort of curious if you share that enthusiasm for the future sales potential of Battleborn. Also, if I remember, Borderlands had done pretty well, at least in terms of attaching digital content. I'm sort of curious on more forward sales curve of if you've seen sort of outsized success in terms of full game downloads of that game. Thanks, guys.
Yeah, the initial results are very encouraging, which is, I think what you properly took away from those comments. It is early yet. The scores are good. Consumers like it. A lot of people playing it and really loving the gameplay. I wouldn't want you to draw a conclusion that the Battleborn curve is necessarily the Borderlands curve because we just don't have any of that information yet. We're encouraged, and we feel good about it. Remains to be seen how it performs. In terms of ongoing digital content, we've said there's more content coming. Again, we'll leave the specifics to the label.
Yeah, I guess I was meaning to ask about the % of sales full game download versus physical.
Yeah, I don't think we've talked about it yet, Mike.
Okay. Thanks, guys. Best of luck.
Our final question comes from the line of Drew Crum from Stifel. Please proceed with your question.
Okay. Thanks, guys. Good afternoon. As far as the fiscal 2017 revenue guidance is concerned, does it assume digital growth and more specifically growth for recurrent consumer spending? Separately, one of your competitors yesterday talked very bullishly about the opportunity in Asia. Maybe you can kind of reset or talk about what the company's strategy is in that market as you enter fiscal 2017.
For digital, our financial outlook assumes that we're going to generate modestly lower digitally delivered revenue in fiscal 2017, like a % decline in the mid-single digit. This is driven by our assumption that recurrent consumer spending will be moderately lower, around 10%, and full game downloads will be roughly flat. For recurrent consumer spending, we expect it to be lower based on our assumption that growth in virtual currency for NBA 2K and higher revenues from downloadable add-on content for a variety of our titles will be more than offset by moderating revenues from Grand Theft Auto Online. We expect our full game downloads to be roughly flat, as last year benefited from the launch of Grand Theft Auto V for PC.
Over the long term, we expect digitally delivered revenue to grow and as we continue to execute our strategy to drive greater engagement in recurrent consumer spending, and as our industry transitions more towards full game downloads, we expect it to grow over the long term.
Yeah. This is Strauss. In terms of Asia, our Asia strategy was set in motion a number of years ago when we opened a headquarters in Singapore, became a publisher in Japan, and entered a number of other markets. Then we also tried new kinds of products that we felt would be quite challenging to launch in Europe or in the U.S., but could be opportune to launch in Asia, largely free to play massive multiplayer games. We've had strong results with NBA 2K Online in China. We've mentioned those as part of today's call. We've launched Civilization Online in Korea, and that will also launch in a number of other Asian markets. We're working on a number of other really interesting opportunities. That business has already been very fruitful for us.
It's grown from a very small part of our business to a meaningful part of our business. It's a very exciting part of the world, and people's appetite for games is somewhat different than here in the U.S. or in Europe, with a significant focus on massive multiplayer games and a significant focus on the free-to-play model. We don't believe that all models work in all markets. We think you have to tailor what we bring to a particular market to the needs and desires of the consumers in that market. We're incredibly excited about Asia. I would just like to make the comment that we, as an industry, are just scratching the surface in China of what's possible.
I do believe, and it may be a contrarian point of view, but I think that an area of China that's remained very challenging, which has been the distribution of Western products. I think the Chinese government will realize more and more that it is actually not challenging, that it's actually beneficial, that it's what consumers want, that it will not cause consumers to have a view of Chinese society that is in any way unfortunate for the government. I think restrictions will probably be loosened. My guess is not within the next 12 months, but I do believe in the coming years, and that's going to be incredible news for us because, of course, the middle class alone in China is bigger than all U.S. households. We think that there's an amazing opportunity there. We're poised for the opportunity.
Naturally, we comply with government regulations wherever we are in the world, and China's no exception. I am of the view that it's time for restrictions to be softened, that it will be beneficial for Chinese society as they see it, not just as I see it. I do believe that creates a massive opportunity for us, not reflected in this year's numbers, next year's numbers or anyone's outlook for the industry.
Okay. Thanks, guys.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll turn the call back over to management for any closing remarks.
Thank you so much for joining us today. We're very pleased with our results. We're proud of our outlook. What we're really proud of is our colleagues all around the world, almost 3,000 of them, who are engaged every day in trying to make the very best interactive entertainment properties on Earth, to bring them to market, and to run a really solid, serious and responsible business in making sure that we delight consumers as they experience our products. We feel very grateful to have an opportunity to work in this business, about which we're so passionate, grateful to our colleagues, and we're really pleased with the results.
Thank you for your time and participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful rest of your day.