Lainie Goldstein11:36
Thanks, Karl, and good afternoon, everyone. Fiscal 2026 was an exceptional year for Take-Two as we achieved record net bookings and operating performance. Each of our labels significantly outperformed the initial forecast we provided last May. As our teams maintain their focus on product innovation and delivering the highest levels of quality and value, I'd like to thank our teams for their passion and dedication as we embark on this milestone year marked by the highly anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto 6 and strength across our core businesses. Turning to our results, we delivered fourth quarter net bookings of $1.58 billion, which was above the high end of our guidance range of $1.51 to $1.56 billion. This reflected better than expected performance from the Grand Theft Auto series, several mobile titles, and the Red Dead Redemption series. Recurrent consumer spending growth was strong, increasing 7% over last year and accounting for 82% of net bookings. This included 7% growth for mobile and 5% growth for Grand Theft Auto Online, both of which surpassed our expectations. NBA 2K increased 10% which represented one of the strongest fourth quarters in franchise history but was softer than anticipated as trends moderated from the extreme growth we achieved during the second and third quarters of the year. During the quarter we launched Sid Meier's Civilization VII for Apple Arcade, PGA Tour 2K25 for Switch 2, and WWE 2K26.
GAAP net revenue increased 6% to $1.68 billion while cost of revenue declined 5% to $741 million. Operating expenses decreased significantly to $928 million as last year included a $3.6 billion impairment expense related to goodwill and acquired intangible assets. On a management basis, operating expenses declined 2% year-over-year, which was favorable to our guidance due to lower marketing expenditures, some of which shifted out of the period. For fiscal 2026, we achieved net bookings of $6.72 billion, which was above the high end of our guidance range of $6.65 to $6.7 billion. Recurrent consumer spending grew 17% and accounted for 78% of net bookings. NBA 2K grew over 30%, mobile increased 13%, and Grand Theft Auto Online increased 6%. All sharply exceeding our initial May guidance. Operating cash flow was $624 million compared to our forecast of $450 million, reflecting our fantastic fourth quarter. We spent approximately $163 million in capital expenditures, which due to timing is favorable to our forecast. GAAP net revenue rose 18% to $6.65 billion and cost of revenue increased 11% to $2.8 billion. Operating expenses decreased significantly to $3.9 billion due to the impairment charges that I mentioned previously from last year's fourth quarter. On a management basis, operating expenses rose 7% year-over-year, which represented strong leverage over the prior year.
Today, we are providing our initial outlook for fiscal 2027. We project net bookings to range from $8 billion to $8.2 billion, which reflects approximately 20% growth over fiscal 2026, primarily due to the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 on November 19th, along with successful execution across our entire portfolio. The largest contributors to net bookings are expected to be the Grand Theft Auto series, NBA 2K, Toon Blast, Match Factory, Empires and Puzzles, the Red Dead Redemption series, Words with Friends, Color Block Jam, and Zynga Poker. We expect recurrent consumer spending to be flat to fiscal 2026 and to represent 65% of net bookings. Our recurrent consumer spending forecast assumes NBA 2K is up high single digits, the Grand Theft Auto series is up, and mobile is down due to last year's success of Color Block Jam and our assumption that trends will moderate for several of Zynga's mature mobile titles. We expect the net bookings breakdown from our labels to be roughly 36% Rockstar Games, 35% Zynga, and 29% 2K. We are forecasting operating cash flow in excess of $1 billion, and we expect to be in a net cash position by the end of the fiscal year. We plan to deploy approximately $200 million of capital expenditures for game technology and office buildouts. We expect GAAP net revenue to range from $7.9 to $8.1 billion and cost of revenue to range from $3.5 to $3.62 billion. Our total operating expenses are expected to range from $4.18 to $4.2 billion. On a management basis, we expect operating expense growth of approximately 8% year-over-year, which represents significant leverage over fiscal 2026. This growth is largely due to higher marketing expense to support the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 and our new mobile releases as well as higher R&D costs.
Now, moving on to our guidance for the fiscal first quarter. We project net bookings to range from $1.32 to $1.37 billion compared to $1.42 billion in the first quarter last year. The largest contributors to net bookings are expected to be NBA 2K, the Grand Theft Auto series, Toon Blast, Match Factory, Empires and Puzzles, the Red Dead Redemption series, Color Block Jam, Words with Friends, and Zynga Poker. We project recurrent consumer spending to decline by approximately 3% which assumes high single-digit growth for NBA 2K and declines for mobile and the Grand Theft Auto series. We expect GAAP net revenue to range from $1.45 to $1.5 billion and cost of revenue to range from $578 to $594 million. Operating expenses are planned to range from $926 to $936 million. On a management basis, operating expenses are expected to grow by approximately 3% year-over-year, primarily driven by a modest increase in personnel costs. In closing, fiscal 2027 will introduce a new level of operating performance, which we expect to sustain well into the future. Driven by a robust pipeline and expansion opportunities across our core franchises. With our focus on incorporating new technologies and tools, we feel confident in our ability to scale our business, generate operational efficiencies, and leverage the power of our balance sheet, which we believe will drive long-term shareholder returns. Thank you. I'll now turn the call back to Strauss.