14 DAY TRIAL // Analysis firm Wedbush Morgan has announced that it sees the recent release of Duke Nukem Forever as having a negative impact on the financial results of its publisher, Take Two Interactive, saying that the game will probably not go above 1.5 million units sold during its lifetime.
Initially, the firm projected that the name recognition for the Duke Nukem name and the long waiting period for the game will help it move close to 3 million copies to eager gamers but the title has failed to meet those estimations.
Wedbush Morgan now estimates that Take Two Interactive will have first quarter revenue of about 350 million dollars, which is a little lower than initially thought, with the problems caused by Duke Nukem Forever balanced by stronger than expected sales of L.A. Noire, from Team Bondi and Rockstar Games, which is apparently approaching 4 million units sold.
Take Two is still expected to deliver a profit for the quarter.
Michael Pachter has said, “Of the major publishers, Take-Two has had the fewest 'misses' in terms of game quality over the last two years, and as a result, delivered a profitable FY:11 without a GTA release.”
He added, “It has over a dozen core franchises, and if it can streamline development, can be expected to increase franchise releases to three or more per year.”
Take Two and Gearbox have not yet said whether they are planning to create and publish more titles based on the Duke Nukem intellectual property.
A lot of gamers have speculated that the character might perform much better if Gearbox was involved in the development process from the start.
When looking to the future, Wedbush Morgan says that it is still expecting to see a launch for Grand Theft Auto V at some point during 2013, with an official announcement of the game arriving next year.