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Poor Duke Effort Will Affect Take-Two's Bottom Line

It had plenty of hype and it might avoid the status of "total flop" due to name-brand recognition alone.

But even so, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says his firm has lowered their quarterly expectations for Duke Nukem Forever publisher Take-Two Interactive. Unfortunately, the sluggish performance of the poorly reviewed DNF has sort of balanced things out after L.A. Noire sold better than anticipated. Said Pachter in a note to investors:

"We had previously expected Duke to be one of the year's top sellers due to a high degree of hype and a dedicated fan base, and expected solid profit contribution as the bulk of development had been previously expensed. However, the game's poor reviews (average Metacritic score of 49) likely had a negative impact on sales, causing us to lower our [first quarter] sell-in estimate to 1.5 million units from 3 million units."

Yeah, well, an average score of 49 is just about right; even a little generous in our opinion. In regards to L.A. Noire, Pachter said initial expectations sat around 3.5 million copies shipped, but the game has already shipped over 4 million. Sadly, this good performance can't quite make up for the Duke falling flat.

Related Game(s): Duke Nukem Forever

Tags: dnf, duke nukem forever, michael pachter, take two

7/5/2011 8:55:12 PM Ben Dutka

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Comments (22 posts)

LegendaryWolfeh
Tuesday, July 05, 2011 @ 9:22:41 PM
Reply

Doesn't matter, the game was great entirely just for the fact that duke and his one-liners was in it. Sure it had plenty of tech problems, but I don't care, getting to be the Duke again was just a blast.

Agree with this comment 7 up, 3 down Disagree with this comment

Nlayer
Tuesday, July 05, 2011 @ 9:26:54 PM
Reply

I really enjoyed Duke this time around. Also enjoyed LA Noire, but not as much as Duke for some reason. (I say that because I only played through LA Noire once while I played through Duke more than once)

Agree with this comment 5 up, 1 down Disagree with this comment

AugustoDeItalia
Tuesday, July 05, 2011 @ 9:45:39 PM

i dont understand how you could prefer DNF to LA noire ... i played both, and being a BIG duke fan i was very disapointed and sad about it, while LA noire is actually a GREAT game with a lot of potential and quality, and the only thing DNF have is duke's personality and emblematics, the game itself was just, well, a big disapointment to all duke fans
Last edited by AugustoDeItalia on 7/5/2011 9:45:52 PM

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Nlayer
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 1:48:17 PM

I suppose that the reason I enjoyed Duke so much is that I didn't have any big expectations for it. Everyone was looking forward to it with high hopes, but I kind of knew it wouldn't rise to the hopes of the many. The game was what I expected, a nice shooter that had some 5th gen elements of gaming in it. That's all I wanted from it and in my opinion that's what I received.

Now, LA Noire was an amazing game. However, I enjoyed the story a lot more than the actual gameplay. Same way I felt with Portal 2. I loved LA Noire's story greatly! However, the gameplay elements were nothing special to me. For some reason it felt dull; maybe because I had felt that I played similar games compared to it. Whereas with Duke, I hadn't played a game like that in a long while.

I'm usually the kind of guy who will only buy a video game because of it's story, like LA Noire. But occasionally I enjoy games like Duke Nukem Forever that are only games and are just fun to handle. =]

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Jawknee
Tuesday, July 05, 2011 @ 9:54:10 PM
Reply

Really now, how did they not see this coming?

Agree with this comment 3 up, 3 down Disagree with this comment

Qubex
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 3:59:25 AM

Exactly!!! The market has moved way beyond Duke...

Duke is finally dead... but his spirit lives on... poor bastard!

Q!

"play.experience.enjoy"

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WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, July 05, 2011 @ 10:05:17 PM
Reply

At first I was underwhelmed as Duke has clearly been overshadowed by the flashiness of this generation. But on my second playthrough I found out why it wasn't so great... I was playing it like a modern FPS. I was being careful, trying to figure things out, using modern cover methods, conserving ammo, conserving pipe bombs and pills, sticking to certain guns for certain situations.

All of that modern thought doesn't work. If you go ballsdeep from the get go and run and gun and drop and pick up weapons and toss bombs and execute aliens and pop pills and slam beers and pound alien ass without thinking about a single thing and taking all logic out of the puzzles by going with the obvious: then the game is a total blast and riot and doesn't feel like the stitched together Frankenstein that it kinda is.

I stand by my 6.5 for the dull effects, but I'm really happy I bought it. And you know, it's worth it to unlock the Duke soundboard and put all Duke's lines on my Cell Phone.

So I really hope Gearbox get's a chance to give Duke a true next gen experience and soon. To 2K: "Quit bleedin', P*ssy"

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Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 12:30:57 AM

And I stand by my analysis that the game sucks hardcore donkey balls. ;)

Agree with this comment 6 up, 2 down Disagree with this comment

WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 1:47:38 AM

hey hey "donkey balls" is mine!

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Qubex
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 4:00:05 AM

Ben... poor fracking donkey :)

Q!

"play.experience.enjoy"

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Geobaldi
Tuesday, July 05, 2011 @ 10:05:28 PM
Reply

Despite the bad reviews, it is still one of the most enjoyable games for me so far this year. My expectations weren't as lofty as other peoples apparently, so I wasn't disappointed in the least. Except for the whole Halo-style two weapons only thing.

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WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, July 05, 2011 @ 10:38:06 PM

yeah that was stupid. A guy like Duke is big enough to carry all his weapons. Just another attempt at modernization that failed, which is why Resistance 3 is going back to the weapon wheel.

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Nlayer
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 1:50:07 PM

That bugged me too. I wish they had a weapon wheel in Duke Nukem Forever. I'm very glad that Resistance 3 is going back to that kind of game style. More games need weapon wheels in my opinion.

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StangMan80
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 12:55:04 AM
Reply

I played the Demo and it wasn't great, wasn't good, I'm not even sure if it was okay.
Not for me any ways.

It reminded me of doom. I loved doom. I much rather play Doom then this.

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WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 1:48:13 AM

speakina which where in Duke's name is Doom 4?

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Geobaldi
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 4:09:12 AM

id is more worried about getting Rage finished and released first, then they'll start really cranking on DOOM 4. It's still about two years or so away but I'll be there on day one to nab a copy.

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___________
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 3:52:37 AM
Reply

good ol patcher stating the obvious again!
why does this guy get paid for this?
can someone pay me for stating the obvious?
uncharted 3 will get GOTY, MW3 will be the best selling game of the year, and skyrim will be buggy as f*ck!
there, now wheres my paycheck?

Agree with this comment 6 up, 1 down Disagree with this comment

Qubex
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 4:00:47 AM

Patcher?

Hmmm... enough said :)

Q!

"play.experience.enjoy"

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Clamedeus
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 6:39:03 AM

Because World says when it ends. :)

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sunspider13
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 8:19:35 AM
Reply

It's nice that Duke came back, too bad the game didn't live up to the hype. However I'm not worried about Take-Two. This is just a minor hiccup for them and I'm sure they'll bounce back.

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TheOldOne
Wednesday, July 06, 2011 @ 10:37:27 AM
Reply

The game was fun. I don't think it deserved a 49% overall score. I give it a 3.5 of 5 based on fun factor alone.

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Slime
Thursday, July 07, 2011 @ 3:39:31 PM
Reply

Not plasyed it myself but judging from reviews DNF is a bit sloppy quality wise ?

BUT WHY ! to say how long its been supposedly coming surely nobody would have been bothered if it had been delayed to make it perfect ? why rush it they had all the time in the world :D

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