Red Dead Redemption will be profitable, Take-Two CEO says

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jun 29th 2010 11:00AM

Take-Two Interactive CEO Ben Feder recently told VentureBeat that runaway stagecoach hit Red Dead Redemption, which supposedly ended up having one bucking bronco of a budget after six years of development, will be profitable for the company. Take-Two announced last month that the western had shipped over 5 million units, putting it en route to surpass the alleged 4 million units in sales it needed to recoup costs.

The executive added that Red Dead Redemption "sucked the oxygen out of the room" upon its release, leaving little room in the market for anything that launched around the same time. The UK sales charts would agree, with RDR having held a prominent place since launch. Now, we wait for the US NPD figures (which will cover two months of data) to give us an idea of how the game's been doing in the States.

Red Dead Redemption

Source: VentureBeat

Tags: microsoft, playstation, ps3, Red-Dead-Redemption, rockstar, Rockstar-San-Diego, Take-Two, Take-Two-Interactive, xbox

Reader Comments (41)

Cowboys is great success!

As pleasant as RDR's success was, I always dislike that "shipped" statistic. Just tell us the copies sold, it's much more powerful. This goes for all games.

The number of shipped units was available (and more importantly, impressive), so Take 2 released that information to comfort shareholders. When the NPD number roll in and the game's been proven a success, you can expect PR will let you know about that as well. The sales figures are for the business end, and I personally don't understand why anybody outside of Take 2's board room (or perhaps Mr. Pachter) would care.

@MGTrey

I think it's just easier for Publishers to report shipped numbers since they have more control and awareness of the exact amount. Investing is mostly about predictions and future confidence so when a publisher says they shipped a certain amount, investors can be happy about the companies future earnings. When it comes to sales a lot of figures can be ambiguous. Even NPD is not perfect because it does not report on every retailer or downloads.

Although, the Publisher should have a good estimate (if not exact amount) of how many have sold as well. That is how they make money.

That reminds me, I should do some research on the amount of "Hero" games that Activision says it shipped vs how many are reported sold.

@MGTrey

To the developer the number shipped is more important. It shows the momentum and excitement behind the game from retailers.

Also, it's not a consignment business. Once those copies leave the docks the developers have made all the money they ever will get from that sale.

@Lerkero

There has to be some sort of statistical fudge factor that's used that translates the "shipped" number to an average "units sold number", otherwise the number would be useless.

It's a fair assumption that the number of units sold is representative of sales. Besides, when somebody buys a game, and then re-sells it on Ebay, there's no way to track that as a potential opportunity "loss" sale.
All in all, the numbers are an approximation.

I contributed... but I can surely say that it's overrated.

@holysocks Yeah, looks good, but its not terribly fun.

@holysocks

I bought Alan Wake and my buddy bought Red Dead. We finished our games and traded, and while he's finished Alan Wake, I just have totally lost interest in Red Dead. Its a great game, but just not my cup of tea.

@holysocks

You're joking, right?

@holysocks
It's not going to be everyone's cup-o-tea.

I grew up watching westerns, Good the Bad and the Ugly, Winchester 73, Man who Shot Liberty Valance, Wild Bunch, Fistful of Dollars, The Searchers, True Grit, Silverado, Pale Rider, Unforgiven and so on and so forth. To me the pitch and pace of RdR matched up with the pitch and pace of many of the above. It's depth is punctuated by shocking violence.

I understand that this is not going to appeal to a lot of gamers. The instant gratification that games and movies now-a-days cater to has created people unable to get into the depth, or appreciate it more for the shocking punctuation.

So I understand completely why people don't like it. I'm going to loan my copy to my little brother who is not as marinated in the mythos of the western as I am and see what he gets out of it.

@holysocks
I've never played a GTA style game before so take that as you will, but I have to agree that I'm a bit disappointed with this game. I am constantly annoyed trying to figure out what the game is asking of me.

This example happens all the time: Someone comes running and says 'help, help!' with two big ugly dudes with guns running behind them. I want to be the hero so I quickly shoot down the pursuers. Then a message pops up "lost 50 honor". WHAT?! I guess they were cops(?) but the game doesn't tell you these things. This has happened several times to the point where I just don't help random strangers anymore. I dunno, I love the world and the voice acting is phenomenal, but I wish the gameplay was a bit more. /end

@(Unverified)

My biggest issue with the game is the exact reason you loved it. I was expecting, and hoping for, a sequel to the previous Red Dead, which was very over the top. I like the open worldness, but I do miss the characters and boss battles from it's predecessor

@343 Guilty Fart Well, the fact that they have sheriff uniforms should be a clue. Personally I prefer if the game doesn't hold me in the hand and tell me what to do..each to their own I guess.

overrated by who? I haven't seen anyone claim this is the greatest game ever. Its just a normal well liked game.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I just wish I could now sell it for $45

Yay! They deserve it for such a beautiful game. Hopefully, they learned a thing or two along the way as well.

Now, wheres the PC version?

@ZayCube

They're trying to get you guys to buy either a 360 or ps3.

Choose wisely. =)

It's a brilliant game so this is a good thing.

I hope this means more DLC!

Great news! Amazing, mature game deserves to make profit, and will give incentive to make more like this. Plus, free DLC is awesome.

@profeteer
I agree this was the first game I've played that was "Mature" while also being adult. The dialog, the pacing, everything played to the proper audience... that would be "not the twitchy children"

Good western games are so far and few between... we've had, what.... 2 in the last 10 years. Several taht are passable and enjoyable but only 2 that are good is a crime.

I thought it was a pretty awful game. The combat consisted of left trigger to lock on then right trigger to shoot till everone was dead, not to mention the missions always starting in one place so that you could have a ride along cut-scene to somewhere else. If the new grand theft auto game had a world so sparsely populated and empty, people would be up in arms but they praised this no end.

@(Unverified)

Well it's the wild west I wouldn't expect a town to be heavily populated. Honestly I think this game doesn't capture the loneliness factor of being out west. I would say for the sequel they capture that atmosphere from the next game. That feeling of when you came out the vault on Fallout 3 that stuck with you most of the game. That and tighten the controls and some of the games essential mechanics and this'll be on of those games I could dump a lot more hours into...

@Code601 Well, first of all of course you turn of auto aim. I thought the world was amazingly alive. San Andreas is the best selling GTA game by the way, and that had way more dead space.

What were they supposed to do? Have a Western game in a modern city? The problem you seem to be having with it seems to do with not liking the setting.

@Code601

I agree that the world feels barren, and certainly not in a Fallout 3 sense. You constantly see other people riding the trails, but opportunities for interaction are sporadic, at best.

Stumbling upon a woman being kidnapped or a wagon being held up is awesome, but seeing nothing interesting happen in the 10 minute horse ride afterward is a bit disappointing.

It isn't a massive problem, but considering how joyless controlling a horse along the trails is, and how convoluted the fast travel system is; there are a lot of roadblocks keeping me from getting to the fun.

PS: I enjoy the shooting system... It's like a happy blend of Crackdown and GTA4's aiming systems.

Good for them, it's a great game.

I'm definitely down for some more western action, hopefully the sales of RDR proves to more companies that it's viable.

Good game, only part I didnt like was the end.. but you had to know it was gonna happen.

[ed: let's keep it spoiler free dudes]

@Faenix
does this conversation really need to happen? there's people who haven't beat the game yet browsing around in here...

@Faenix But did you finish the game and get your revenge?

@(Unverified)

Dammit, man, watch the spoilers!

@Faenix
The world explodes. Yeup, didn't see that one coming.

@Fminus Negativity To The Rescue

Yup its that kinda game.

Don't good sales usually encourage a sequel?

I really hope so...

In this case, a threequel, if you will.

that picture will never get old.

left left left left

From what I've been told, this game has been selling out for a number of weeks in this part of the world (New Zealand) at all the EB games stores. They can't get enough stock in...

I don't want to upset anyone, especially R* employees that might be perusing the comments of this article, but I have to say that I truly believe this game is terrible. I did appreciate some of the excellent and less-noticeable work put into certain aspects of the game but in my opinion the product as a whole just isn't good at all. Like someone else (that got downranked) said, "I wish I could sell it to get my $45 back". One thing that I can say, and I think most people will agree on is, the entire world being open in Multiplayer with many different missions etc is a fantastic accomplishment, and one that I hope many companies replicate to an extent. I am looking forward to seeing that particular feature/innovation in their future titles.

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Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption will be profitable, Take-Two CEO says

Red Dead Redemption

Reader Comments (41)

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:04AM EvoHelix said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:09AM MGTrey said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:13AM Architecture said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:58AM Lerkero said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 12:51PM GreenElf said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 3:01PM kentuckyfried said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:09AM holysocks said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:15AM Dshark said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:22AM The Tim said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:28AM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:43AM Hunter2223 said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 12:56PM 343 Guilty Fart said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 1:15PM EGOvoruhk said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 1:22PM Dusse said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 1:53PM aughscreennames said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:13AM Frivolous said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:14AM Dshark said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:17AM ZayCube said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 3:22PM kentuckyfried said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:17AM Dusse said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:18AM Gregorius said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:18AM profeteer said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:26AM Hunter2223 said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:20AM Code601 said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:31AM PlatinumSkeet said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:52AM Dusse said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 9:12PM Chareth Cutestory said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:30AM Breakdown said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 11:38AM Faenix said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 12:03PM Energokinetic said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 12:17PM Kid Icarus said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 12:29PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 12:51PM Fata1Stryke said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 1:04PM No Kill Tayler said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 12:04PM Kid Icarus said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 12:16PM TheRepublic said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 1:04PM Architecture said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 2:27PM studiored said

Posted: Jun 29th 2010 6:44PM st3v3n said

Posted: Jun 30th 2010 1:32AM Steve XBL SteveM NZ said

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