Red Dead Redemption ships 8 million

By Fred Dutton Published 16 December, 2010

Helps Take Two back into profit.

Rockstar's rootin' tootin' western epic Red Dead Redemption has now shipped nearly eight million copies since its launch earlier this year, helping publisher Take Two back into its bank manager's good books.

According to its quarterly financial report out today, net revenue was up 65 per cent year-on-year to $1.16 billion, with net profits coming in at a tidy $42.6 million.

This time last year it was looking at a net loss of $140.5 million so unsurprisingly CEO Ben Feder was pretty pleased with himself.

"We have achieved our goal of profitability in a year without a new release of Grand Theft Auto," he boasted.

"Our better-than-expected revenue growth and margin expansion were driven by strong demand for our diverse portfolio of games, including the hit new titles Red Dead Redemption and NBA 2K11, as well as strong sales of catalog titles and digitally delivered content. I am also pleased to report that our 2K Sports division was profitable during the period."

Take Two chairman Strauss Zelnick went on to outline the publisher's plan to extend that purple patch into 2011. "We plan to build on the talents of our world-class creative team to deliver an increasingly diverse portfolio of high-quality titles."

He's no doubt referring to L.A. Noire, Top Spin 4, Major League Baseball 2K11, Duke Nukem Forever, Spec Ops: The Line, XCOM and BioShock Infinite, all currently in various stages of development

"We will also pursue opportunities to enter newer areas of the interactive entertainment business," he continued, "such as digitally delivered content and the expanding Asian and Latin American markets."

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (24) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • geox30 #1 1 year ago

    @neilmike
    yes it would,but I bought a PS3 just in case..

  • CaptainQuint #2 1 year ago

    Well deserved, it's one of the greatest games of all time.

    8/10 my arse.

    EG got that one wrong and they know it ;-)

  • Dogs-not-Gods #3 1 year ago

    @CaptainQuint
    Couldn't agree more Quint. Easily the most immersive game I've ever played.

  • Kanjin #4 1 year ago

    How scary is it that the company depended on one game selling to make or break it, I know films must do something similar, but I'd be worried with job security like that.

  • dsmx #5 1 year ago

    Well developers, publishers and console manufactures made the choice years ago to invest in better graphics rather than better tools to make the task of creating games cheaper.

  • Sevens #6 1 year ago

    Digitally delivered content isn't quite what made you successful. It's complete games.

  • smelly #7 1 year ago

    Least deserving huge amount of sales award goes to.....

  • Haloboy #8 1 year ago

    'Red Dead Redemption ships 8 million. PC version coming 2011' would have literally made my day.

  • GamesConnoisseur #9 1 year ago

    RDR pisses on all the GTA combined from a great height and still got enough water and oomphs left to put out Amazon's forest fire.

    That's how much better and refined the game is in my opinion, and that said I still had played through and enjoyed GTA4 and thought it was a good open world game.

    Sure it's regretful that it's not on PC, and if it's a fact that it's going to never appear on PC, then it's one more of a damned good reason to owe yourself a console.

  • Jokerrules #10 1 year ago

    it's funny, no one mention it's a SHIP NUMBER... Of course if this was a Sony games from a Japanese studio we all know what everyone would be saying don't we....

    IT'S SHIPPED AND NOT SOLD NUMBER.... lol...

    I played this game and it's a piece of trash compared to GT 3 or 4... and the graphic is not even on the same level as GT 5...

  • Bonders99 #11 1 year ago

    Good news. But in an industry now largely focused on profit, a company is only good on the quarterly numbers generated. Previous quarter highs mean jack if the next quarter does not deliver with shareholders baying for blood and CEO's with an itchy trigger finger looking developers in the eye saying....... "You feel lucky ?.....punk ?.....go ahead make my day !"..Yes I'm looking at you Bobby.

  • Ryze #12 1 year ago

    Without GTA IV, RDR wouldn't have been nearly as good.

    It's the result of refinement and evolution.

  • CaptainQuint #13 1 year ago

    Very true.

    RDR wasn't without it's flaws - they still need to put a lot of work into character movement and cover mechanics, but it got so much bang on that it's a little easier to forgive it's misgivings.

    With that said, how many more games will it take before Rockstar fully understands the importance of tight controls over scope and ambition?

  • kalinichenko #14 1 year ago

    Nice,PC gamers are still waiting for the PC port.

  • geeza2020 #15 1 year ago

    Jokerrules - What have Gran Turismo 3, 4 and 5 got to do with anything?

  • melch #16 1 year ago

    totally loved RDR, its defintely my GOTY so this is well deserved

    looking forward to playing undead nightmare over christmas

  • stegabba #17 1 year ago

    damn good game, 10/10

  • BillMurray #18 1 year ago

    Really glad this has done so well. Definitely deserved.

  • bad09 #19 1 year ago

    With all the mods I'm putting in GTA4 I hope to god Rockstar get of their arse and sort me out a PC version, there is no way in hell I'm making do with a console version.

  • Spekingur #20 1 year ago

    Rockstar, don't forget the platform that made you! :/

  • metalangel #21 1 year ago

    Played some of this last night, for the first time in a while.

    It's still great fun, the map is criminally underused in terms of the story and it's a shame the DLC has all be stupid fluffy extras as opposed to GTA4-style episodes to let us experience more of the world in ways that don't involve picking six flowers or skinning 5 coyotes.

  • AdamAsunder #22 1 year ago

    @spekingur. What, the PS2?

  • Lord_BeeJee #23 1 year ago

    Yeah, can we have a pc version pretty please Rockstar?!

  • tnt_2008smum #24 1 year ago

    Here you go smelly I'll finish off what you were saying for you.

    Least deserving huge amount of sales award goes to..... the Wii ta da!!!!