Take-Two shares slump after Duke Nukem scores

The share price for Take-Two has fallen by more than 15 per cent since mid-May, after concerns at lower than expected sales for L.A. Noire and a poor critical response to Duke Nukem Forever.

The share price is currently down to $14.53, up around 20 per cent on the year but down considerably over the course of the last month.

Analysts such as Doug Creutz of Cowen & Co. have cited relatively disappointing sales of L.A. Noire as one of the causes for the dip, even though the game's debut originally caused a sharp increase in the publisher's share price.

The game also became the fastest-selling new IP ever in the UK and was the top-selling title in the US for May. But the sales of 899,000 units were seen as disappointing by some analysts, compared to the 1.5 million sales which Red Dead Redemption had accumulated by this point - having been released at the same time last year.

Also causing concern is the critical response to the more recently released Duke Nukem Forever, the Xbox 360 version of which currently has a Metacritic score of 49. The game has already debuted at the top of the UK sales charts, although its long term appeal remains to be tested.

As a result of the problem Creutz now suggests that Take-Two's chances of meeting its full year earnings targets are "significantly reduced". The analyst currently rates the stock as underperform or sell.