Here's a link to the slides for today's Take Two earnings call: https://ir.take2games.com/static-files/583b366d-d35d-4474-9db6-9c03ba55f242
Earnings Call:
The corporate spokesman said extremely little about Civ 7. He characterized the release as a success at the beginning at the call. However, later in the call as he was going more in-depth on the various titles, he did not share sales numbers and did not highlight the Metacritic score, as he did with the other titles he spoke about (i.e. NBA 2K, WWE 2K, PGA 2K). Instead, he said they were doing work to update the game and expand the audience.
The corporate spokesman said extremely little about Civ 7. He characterized the release as a success at the beginning at the call. However, later in the call as he was going more in-depth on the various titles, he did not share sales numbers and did not highlight the Metacritic score, as he did with the other titles he spoke about (i.e. NBA 2K, WWE 2K, PGA 2K). Instead, he said they were doing work to update the game and expand the audience.
Call is still going, but I have to step away. You can find the call here: https://www.take2games.com/ir
My takeaway from what I've heard is that they aren't particularly proud of how Civ 7 is doing. I'd have to go back and time it, but I would guess that they spoke about Civ 7 the least out of the major releases they highlighted.
KayAU
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Well, that's why I wouldn't fit in that kind of position, I just couldn't bring myself to lie like that. The only sense in which I could characterise the release of Civ 7 as a success, is that it has indeed been released, as opposed to somehow being stuck in the pipeline.
queenpea
Emperor
What strikes me about all of this is the seemingly very minor role Civ VII plays in their revenue structure/planning.
Unlike in the last report, in which they announced three big releases in 2025, one of these being civ 7.
You can also see this on gamalytic, which displays sales split up by countries (although only the top 3 are visible for free). A third of civ 6 owners are from China. For 7, it‘s less than 20%.Not sure if this was discussed at some point, but I realized today that we can get something interesting from player charts when comparing civ 6 and 7.
When checking at what time peak is happening for each game during weekdays, civ 6 has its peak at 14:00 UTC and it's much bigger compared to any other secondary peak.
View attachment 731950
Then civ 7 has peak at different time - 19:00 UTC.
View attachment 731951
Now a bit of speculation:
I think it shows that at least on Steam both games have big difference in relative demographic size from different parts of the world. More precise conclusion I would try to draw from it is that civ7 lost a lot of demographic from 14:00 UTC peak but has bigger percentage overall in 19:00 UTC peak.
Now if I would try to guess, what part of the world that would be, I would draw a conclusion, that it's a working gamer in its 30-40+ age often having kids, so gaming window usually happen somewhere around 7:00PM - 10:00PM.
This translates first peak (civ6 favored) to UTC+5 - UTC+8. And second peak (civ7 favored) is in UTC+0 - UTC+3.
So final conclusion that can be drawn from all this is civ6 was quite popular in east Asia, so most likely a lot of Chinese players while biggest peak from civ7 comes from Europe. So game did not appeal to Chinese market as much as previous one? Or maybe this could explain lower numbers on Steam - are consoles much more popular in China these days instead of PC?
A lot of speculation here on my part so if you see different ways to interpret some steps, I'm all ears.
Was able to pick up where I left off. Here’s what my further takeaways are:
Only one investor question mentioned Civ 7, and that was in the context of congratulating them on a successful release, apparently taking Take Two’s word for it.
Most of the questions related to GTA6 and expectations surrounding that game’s release. They are counting on that one to make an inordinate amount of money. Take Two’s business rests on Zynga mobile games, NBA 2K, and Rockstar games.
The main investor concerns were development costs (potentially bad for Civ) and pricing strategy (effectively, “why aren’t you guys charging $80 yet?). How little attention Civ 7 got might allow it to just continue unnoticed, particularly if GTA 6 does as well as they believe it will.
Sagax
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Pretty much this. Transcribing the full quote that TT made in regards to Civ 7:
That's all we got. In comparison, every other title (including the ones that are similarly new releases) was covered with either concrete numbers tied to sales and engagement, or were accompanied by a general comment stating that the title met or exceeded expectations. Amidst all of that, Civ 7's coverage actually stands out - "the silence is deafening" may actually be applicable here.
Take it as you will. As someone who dealt with business presentations and how financial performance is typically shared with investors, I think the defence line of "we can't know for sure because nobody explicitly said it's bad" is not that strong anymore. You always flaunt positives in front of investors. If there's anything you could showcase to demonstrate that things are going well, then you do that. It's not a setting for downplaying and being humble.
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queenpea
Emperor
Wow, that’s worse than I thought.
Gori the Grey
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Yeah "we're confident . . . that ongoing efforts . . . will" is what you say when you can't say "we raked in this ****ton of money"
Oberst Kraft
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Yes.
From vgchartz:
"Take-Two Interactive has released its latest earnings report for the quarter ending March 2025 and in the report has provided an update on the latest sales figures for its best-selling franchises, as well as an update on the sales of individual games.
The Grand Theft Auto series is the best-selling franchise by Take-Two with over 450 million units sold-in. This is up from 440 million units from the previous quarter. Grand Theft Auto V has sold-in over 215 million units, which is up from 210 million units.
The Red Dead Redemption series has sold-in over 100 million units worldwide, which is up from 95 million units. Red Dead Redemption 2 has sold-in over 74 million units, which is up from 70 million units.
The NBA 2K series has sold-in over 160 million units worldwide, which is up from over 155 million units.
The Borderlands series has sold-in nearly 93 million units worldwide, which is up from nearly 91 million units. Sales reported for Borderlands 2 has sold-in over 30 million, which is the same as the previous quarter. Borderlands 3 has sold-in over 22 million units, which is the same as the previous quarter.
Sid Meier’s Civilization series has sold-in over 76 million units, which is up from over 73 million units."
Quarter-to-quarter:
GTA series: +10 million units; incl. GTA V (12 yrs old game): +5 million units = +2.3/2.4%
RDR series: +5 million units; incl. RDR 2 (7 yrs old game): +4 million units = +5.6/5.7%
...
Sid Meier's Civilization series: +3 million units (no data for Civ 7) = +4.1%
My guess:
Steam Civ 7: +1 million units
Steam Civ 4 & Steam Civ 5 & Steam Civ 6 (9 yrs old game) & Civ 6 for consoles & Civ7 for consoles: +2 million units
Trav'ling Canuck
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Thanks for the transcripts and summaries @AD1730 and @Sagax
Yeah, this isn't great in terms of current sales, but does suggest the dev team is going to be given some time to turn things around, so I don't think it's too bleak for fans of Civ 7, but not positive, either.
Parsing the comments:
"During the period, 2K released Sid Meier's Civilization VII - the revolutionary new chapter in our esteemed strategy franchise. As stewards of the Civilization series, Firaxis Games strive to bring innovation with each new release."
= "We did some new things with Civ 7 that the market hasn't initially received all that well." I don't think that's news to anyone on this forum, but it could be for public shareholders/analysts.
"We're 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 dev team is working on fixing things which may improve sales. If they succeed, we'll be selling Civ DLCs for a long time." No surprise they want a long sales cycle for Civ 7. Positive for Civ 7 lovers that they still hope to have one. Negative that delivering outstanding results is dependent on updating key areas of the game, but again probably not a surprise for people on this forum.
"Our 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"
= "We're going to sell Civ 7 on every platform we can, including platforms ones Civ hasn't appeared on before like VR. Plus listen to this - Switch 2!" Analysts love to hear this sort of stuff because it tells them management is trying to leverage development costs and increase the addressable market. Analysts also love buzzwords and Switch 2 is a big one right now. Everybody wants companies with games they can sell on Switch 2.
"which will offer new mouse controls for a highly intuitive game experience."
= I'm not sure why this is here. Is this tied specifically to Switch 2? If so, why? Or is this a nod to weak console sales generally and a suggestion that they're more optimistic about the Switch 2 than other consoles? The reference escapes me.
Yeah, this isn't great in terms of current sales, but does suggest the dev team is going to be given some time to turn things around, so I don't think it's too bleak for fans of Civ 7, but not positive, either.
Parsing the comments:
"During the period, 2K released Sid Meier's Civilization VII - the revolutionary new chapter in our esteemed strategy franchise. As stewards of the Civilization series, Firaxis Games strive to bring innovation with each new release."
= "We did some new things with Civ 7 that the market hasn't initially received all that well." I don't think that's news to anyone on this forum, but it could be for public shareholders/analysts.
"We're 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 dev team is working on fixing things which may improve sales. If they succeed, we'll be selling Civ DLCs for a long time." No surprise they want a long sales cycle for Civ 7. Positive for Civ 7 lovers that they still hope to have one. Negative that delivering outstanding results is dependent on updating key areas of the game, but again probably not a surprise for people on this forum.
"Our 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"
= "We're going to sell Civ 7 on every platform we can, including platforms ones Civ hasn't appeared on before like VR. Plus listen to this - Switch 2!" Analysts love to hear this sort of stuff because it tells them management is trying to leverage development costs and increase the addressable market. Analysts also love buzzwords and Switch 2 is a big one right now. Everybody wants companies with games they can sell on Switch 2.
"which will offer new mouse controls for a highly intuitive game experience."
= I'm not sure why this is here. Is this tied specifically to Switch 2? If so, why? Or is this a nod to weak console sales generally and a suggestion that they're more optimistic about the Switch 2 than other consoles? The reference escapes me.
Core Imposter
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The people who write this stuff always gets things sideways.
Sagax
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You can probably add it to the "Look - Switch 2!" category. I think the implication here is that they aren't just going for a simple console port, but rather are fully leveraging on the unique features of Switch 2. More added value to customers, more attractive product on the console.
Looking back at that statement with the whole presentation in mind, I think they may have indeed meant the latter. Delays and cancellations are not unheard of, and both lead to unrealized sales > sad investors. Also, Civ 7 was again mentioned as part of a longer list of releases - the statement was not specifically focusing on it.
MutilationWave
IDDQD
This sounds hopeful to me, because it sounds like Borderlands suffered a pretty big decline in sales between the 1st and 2nd, then again the 2nd and 3rd games. From what I understand, they've treated that franchise well despite those numbers. Borderlands 3 even got four expansions. Reviews are pretty good though, unlike with our baby here.
The detachable controllers for Switch 2 have an IR camera and can be used like a mouse. So it would be the only console to allow point and click controls. Which is suppose is pretty neat.
Yeah, Civ VII wont just support multiple mice or mouse in 3d environment at all. The thing that makes SW2 mouse so interesting.
Askia Muhammad
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Barely any mention of it definitely isn’t a great sign in my opinion
Interpreted another way - wouldn’t them speaking to expanding the audience also imply they are trying to up the sales numbers as hard as possible and if they didn’t give any concrete ones, that’s tend to imply they are low?
Interpreted another way - wouldn’t them speaking to expanding the audience also imply they are trying to up the sales numbers as hard as possible and if they didn’t give any concrete ones, that’s tend to imply they are low?
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