Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Take-Two: Duke Nukem will be profitable

L.A. Noire, Red Dead Redemption sales.

Critically mauled shooter Duke Nukem Forever will be profitable for publisher 2K Games and parent company Take-Two.

Chief Executive Strauss Zelnick said during an earnings call last night the Gearbox developed FPS will end up making money for the publisher – despite its negative reviews.

"We're grateful to compete in a market where you can have a critical response that was disappointing, but can still make money," he said.

Take-Two declined to offer sales figures for the game, however.

The Xbox 360 version of Duke Nukem Forever is currently sitting on a 48 out of 100 Metascore. Eurogamer's Duke Nukem Forever review returned a 3/10.

Meanwhile, Team Bondi developed crime caper L.A. Noire shipped four million units. Rockstar cowboy sandbox Red Dead Redemption – one of the biggest games of 2010 – has shipped a whopping 11 million units since May last year. Two million units of the standalone expansion Undead Nightmare were shipped.

Despite its sales success, for the first quarter of its 2012 financial year, Take-Two made a loss of $8.6 million. Sales dipped from $375.4 miillion to $334.4 million.

"Looking ahead to fiscal year 2013, we have already announced three exciting new releases: BioShock Infinite, Spec Ops: The Line, and Borderlands 2, and we have a very strong pipeline of yet-to-be announced titles in development," Zelnick said.