Take-Two Shares Drop As LA Noire Fails To Hit Sales Targets

Take-Two Interactive saw its share price fall, as sales of its detective title LA Noire were lower than expected, and Duke Nukem Forever was panned by critics. Shares in the company were down just over 4 percent to $14.80 at the end of trading on Tuesday, according to MarketWatch, meaning it has now fallen by more than 15 percent in the last four weeks. Data from the NPD Group earlier this week revealed that the well-reviewed LA Noire sold 899,000 copies at U.S. retail during May -- less than was expected. Elsewhere, Duke Nukem Forever received poor reviews from critics. Doug Creutz of investment bank Cowen & Co. noted that the chances of Take-Two now achieving its earnings target for the year have been "significantly reduced." Last month, Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick told Gamasutra that LA Noire's first week was "very successful." However, he admitted, "We certainly don't want to be subject to comping all of our new releases of new franchises against the extraordinary success of Red Dead Redemption."