Duke nukes Take-Two share price
Could LA Noire have done better?
Poor scores for Duke Nukem Forever and underperforming L.A. Noire sales have damaged Take-Two stock.
Share prices fell by over 4 per cent to $14.80 earlier this week, Market Watch reported.
Stocks are down more than 15 per cent since mid-May, although up for the year overall.
Duke Nukem Forever scored a "don't buy" 3/10 on Eurogamer. Metacritic's average of industry-wide scores are, at the time of writing, 57 per cent on PC, 56 per cent on PS3 and 48 per cent on Xbox 360.
However, the incredible hype surrounding Duke Nukem Forever's launch has propelled the game to the top of the UK charts, and will presumably have a strong effect on the US sales for June.
The question will be whether, once the curiosity and fan fever dies down, there's enough quality there to sustain best-selling status.
Doug Creutz, analyst for Cowen & Co., doesn't think so. He's told clients that the "extremely poor" reviews mean Take-Two's chances of achieving its annual money target have been "significantly reduced".
He's put a black spot next to the stock, marking it "underperform or sell".
L.A. Noire sold 899,000 copies in the US during May. Investment firm Wedbush Morgan said that was "below our estimate of one million units". The long-term potential of that, more niche game than Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption is also in question.
Red Dead Redemption had shipped five million copies worldwide by mid-June. Will L.A. Noire manage to become that third blockbuster series Rockstar wants?