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Take-Two's net revenue for its first quarter of fiscal 2012 (which ended June 30) represents a downturn year-over-year -- $334.4 million versus fiscal 2010's $375.4 million (Take-Two shifted its fiscal calendar since then, in case you're wondering why we're comparing Q1 2012 with Q3 2010), with a net loss of $8.7 million instead of profits of $26.3 million. Last year around this time, of course, everyone on Earth was buying Red Dead Redemption, pushing Take-Two's profits into the stratosphere.

With the game sold to all of Earth's residents to date, that leaves only babies born in the interim as the audience for new copies of the game; that market of babies has done well enough for the company to count RDR and its Undead Nightmare expansion as one of the leading products in this quarter, with 2 million Undead Nightmares shipped life-to-date and 9 million Red Dead Redemptions. Other leaders include Duke Nukem Forever, LA Noire, NBA 2K11 and Carnival Games: Monkey See, Monkey Do.

It's time to dust off your dusters and revolve your revolvers, as Rockstar has announced yet another DLC pack for the multiplayer component of Red Dead Redemption. The "Myths and Mavericks" pack, scheduled for this September at the low, low price of no dollars, will add a few "fan-favorite" character skins to players' rosters, as well as a few new battlegrounds to Deathmatch, Gang, Grab the Bag and "other popular online modes."

One of the beloved characters therein will be Landon Ricketts, the grizzled justice-doler who serves as an occasional mentor to protagonist John Marston. He's a decent addition, but based on the title of the DLC pack, if we don't get a playable Bret Maverick in the mix, we're going to be sorely disappointed.

Coming this September is the Myths and Mavericks Bonus Pack for Red Dead Redemption, a completely free multiplayer update that adds new characters and locations for Deathmatch, Grab the Bag, Gang matches and other online modes...

#reddeadredemption Rockstar puts a name and a date of the final free installment of downloadable content for its award-winning western, Red Dead Redemption. More »

#reddeadredemption These fireworks may not carry an official Rockstar license, but something tells me the developer would approve of something that shoots flaming balls. As seen on Reddit. More »

This week and next, Microsoft is offering savings on DLC for the Xbox 360 versions of Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption -- discounts that, if you were straining to tie them into GTA somehow, you might call "a steal."

From today through July 18, you'll be able to get the RDR Undead Nightmare Collection (containing three separate DLC packs) for 1,000 Microsoft Points, down from 1,600. That deal is part of a "Zombies!" promotion also featuring Dead Rising 2: Case West (now 400 Microsoft Points) and Stubbs the Zombie (800 MSP).

From July 19 through July 25, it's all GTA, with GTAIV add-ons Ballad of Gay Tony for 800 MSP, The Lost and Damned for 400, and GTA San Andreas for 800 points. See a few more items, including new Avatar items and Dance Central DLC, on Major Nelson's site.

#rumor Out of nowhere, Rockstar Games on its official Twitter has suggested that more downloadable content for Red Dead Redemption is coming, with a release date details to be provided "in the coming weeks." More »

If you're ready to quick-draw some funds from your bank account, and your trigger finger is itching to click "buy", you'll be pleased to know that some new Red Dead Redemption DLC is on the way. We don't exactly know when, but Rockstar mentioned on Twitter that the release date and details for this unnamed pack will be revealed "in the coming weeks." Maybe this time it'll be about old-west Draculas, or invisible cowboys.

In the meantime, if you're looking for something to do in the currently released RDR content, Rockstar is hosting a quadruple XP event through Monday. Your cowpoke will get four times as grizzled!

Former Rockstar designer Anthony Gowland is breaking out on his own. His past work includes GTA: Chinatown Wars and Red Dead Redemption and, today, he announced the formation of Mainly About Games, a self-professed micro-studio based in Edinburgh that will focus on mobile and web-based games.

The new studio's first project will be Tealy & Orangey, a puzzle-platformer for the web. "My passion is in creating small titles that have solid gameplay hooks and big budget polish," he says. In addition to development, Gowland also says his studio will offer consultation services.

Mainly About Games has a barebones site up, which you can access here.

Take-Two let out a hearty (but metaphorical) "Yee-haw" today, reporting a 49 percent rise in net revenue year-over-year for the fiscal year that ended March 31. Thanks to hits like Red Dead Redemption (8.5 million units shipped, the company announced today!) and its Undead Nightmare expansion, and the five-million-selling NBA 2K11, Take-Two brought in $1.14 billion in net revenue. Its net income rose to $53.2 million for the fiscal year, a welcome change from the previous year's $108.1 million loss. With that kind of money, Take-Two should be able to survive the losses from when Duke Nukem Forever doesn't actually come out. (Kidding, mostly.)

The top earners for the fourth quarter included, in Take-Two's estimation, "NBA 2K11, Top Spin 4, Major League Baseball 2K11, Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete and Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (standalone disc)." In addition, digitally distributed content accounted for 15 percent of net revenue in the quarter, driven by Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands, Grand Theft Auto and Civilization DLC.

I see more interrogations in your future.

Take-Two Interactive is a company that's been largely defined by Rockstar Games, especially the monstrous Grand Theft Auto franchise. Other Rockstar releases have been critically acclaimed but until last year's Red Dead Redemption, none of Rockstar Games' releases have achieved the same blockbuster sales.

It's unclear whether L.A. Noire will achieve the same status, but based on comments from Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick on the company's financial call today, there's reason to believe it's doing well.

Zelnick was asked several times to compare the launch of L.A. Noire to Red Dead Redemption, especially after Take-Two announced the open-world Western game had sold 8.5 million copies so far.

"We certainly don't want to be subject to [comparing] all of our new releases of new franchises against the extraordiany success of Red Dead Redemption," said Zelnick. "Every title stands alone. We have every reason to believe L.A. Noire is another strong franchise for this company."

He would not, however, elaborate on sales specifics.

"No matter how you slice it," he said, "Ii's a very successful release. To be able to say that again is extraordinary. This management team is just immensely grateful to Rockstar for delivering another superb title and 2K [Games] for all the franchises they've been delivering as of late. One can never take that for granted. The hit ration of this group is extraordinary."

Following the successful release of a new property, Take-Two tends to toss the word "franchise" around pretty quickly. It happened to BioShock and Red Dead Redemption after both were released.

"We do see this [L.A. Noire] as a powerful new franchise for our company," concluded Zelnick.

#speakuponkotaku You can skip to your favorite scene in a movie, flip to an exciting chapter in a book you've read, but you can't just drop into a video game you've finished at any given point. In today's Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Smorlock wonders why. More »

#japaneseonly For decades, the term "youge" (洋ゲー) or "Western game" was pejorative. In Japanese, "you" (洋) is used to denote Western things, whether that be "Western music" (洋楽) or "Western clothes" (洋服). These words are not pejorative—not like youge has been. More »

In 2004, Erin Hoffman was the significant other of an employee at Electronic Arts who was being forced to work long hours, up to seven days a week. Frustrated with what this situation was doing to her life and the life of her significant other, she took to the web, anonymously posting a blog titl...

Chances are you didn't reserve and purchase Red Dead Redemption at several different retail locations when it launched last year, because that is something a crazy person would do. If you're missing out on the bonus in-game items offered as pre-order incentives, Rockstar's offering you a chance to complete your collection next week. The Assassin Outfit (which doubles Dead Eye regeneration), Golden Guns Weapon Pack (which increases Fame earned) and War Horse (which is a war horse) are coming to XBLA and PSN next week for 80 Microsoft Points ($.99) a piece.

Rockstar apologized on its blog for the time it took to bring these items to market, citing "unanticipated technical delays" as the cause of the hold-up. It seems they've got the kinks worked out -- the same blog post promises LA Noire's pre-order bonuses "should become available as DLC much, much sooner."

#lanoire Next week, a trio of Red Dead Redemption's pre-order bonuses—the Deadly Assassin Outfit, the Golden Guns Weapon Pack and the War Horse—will finally be made available as downloadable content via Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. More »

#rockstar Those damn cable networks that cover games only in terms of violence. Those big ‘consumer' magazines that never review games. They think we don't think. They think we don't read. They think we need to get a life. Well, we have one, and, yeah, it's rich beyond videogames. But it's also made richer because of videogames. That's why, after more than 15 years of covering games, I had to write All Your Base Are Belong to Us, How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture. More »

#reddeadredemption Independent British musical artist Akira the Don loved Red Dead Redemption so much he wrote a song about it. Wanna hear it? Here goes. More »

#column I'm just going to come right out and say it: I love drunk video game characters. More »

#dice What games did some of the thinkers and titans of the game industry play in 2010? More »

Tonight's 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (i.e., the DICE awards) saw Mass Effect 2 cruise off into the final frontier with honors for Game of the Year, RPG of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Story. However, Red Dead Redemption ended up with more trophies, riding away with wins for Action Game of the Year and Outstanding Character Performance, along with Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction, Art Direction and Gameplay Engineering.

The portable and casual categories were filled with rage, as God of War: Ghost of Sparta won the award for Portable Game of the Year and Casual Game of the Year went to the ferocious fowls of Angry Birds HD.

Congratulations to all the winners. Check out the full list of award recipients after the break.

When it comes to acknowledging the standout audio accomplishments in gaming every year, we look to the Game Audio Network Guild and its annual GANG awards, which selects five (or more!) nominees in categories like "Audio of the Year" and our personal favorite, "Best Use of Multi-channel Surround." It should come as no surprise that Rockstar's ode to the West, Red Dead Redemption, leads the pack with a whopping ten nominations including "Best Original Vocal - Pop" for both Ashtar Command's "Deadman's Gun" and Jose Gonzalez's (pictured) excellent "Far Away."

More of a surprise is the game with the second-most nominations: Dante's Inferno. For all the problems with Visceral's ode to ... God of War, its production values were never among them. Dante managed to snag seven nominations, including "Sound Design of the Year" and "Music of the Year." Ironically enough, the actual God of War 3 only managed to pull in six! Check out the full list of nominees after the break, and check back on Thursday, March 3rd when the winners will be announced during the Game Developers Conference.

#awards Check out that list of games nominated for the Writers Guild's Video Game Writing Award. Seem like anyone's missing? Well, there's neither Red Dead Redemption nor anything from BioWare. The Guild says these games makers "refused" to submit a script. More »

Are any of your many, many 2K Games or Rockstar titles for Xbox 360 in need of a little expansion? Maybe you'd like to have an Undead Nightmare on the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned? Perhaps a visit to Minerva's Den to settle Jimmy's Vendetta? Itching to sing The Ballad of Gay Tony in ... um, the Underdome? These analogies are escaping us, but our bloodhound-esque nose for value is not: All the aforementioned DLC, as well as quite a few other BioShock 2, Mafia 2, Borderlands and Red Dead Redemption expansions are on sale through Xbox Live until January 31.

There are also a few avatar items discounted, not to mention a few full classic games such as Sid Meier's Pirates and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. You're not likely to see a fire sale of this scope on the platform any time soon -- check after the jump for the full list of encheapened items.

#totalrecall We have four finalists in our 2010 Game Of The Year awards. All worthy contenders, but as has been pointed out, all are also either sequels or continuations of older series. So let's take a look at how far they've come. More »

#speakup Games like Red Dead Redemption and Fallout: New Vegas give players the freedom to explore unfamiliar worlds to their hearts' content, but is it too much freedom? Commenter GeneralissimoFurioso explores the price of free-roaming in today's Speak-Up on Kotaku. More »

The nominees for the 2011 Interactive Achievement Awards -- the annual awards ceremony held during the Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain (DICE) Summit -- have been announced. The list includes a number of surprises (including a Game of the Year nod for Angry Birds HD), but, somewhat less surprisingly, Red Dead Redemption leads the pack with nine nominations across the show's various categories.

Check out all the nominees after the jump for even more familiar and unfamiliar titles. (Alan ... Wake? That's a game? Never heard of it, bub.)

With all of the planned DLC out the door and a shelf full of Game of the Year awards to display, you might think Rockstar is done riding the Red Dead Redemption train -- but not so fast, pardner. A Rockstar XP challenge is now underway in the Wild West shooter which has players collectively earning XP in the multiplayer modes towards unlocking special Avatar awards for Xbox Live and PlayStation Home for everyone. The items include system-specific versions of both the RDR T-shirt and John Marston's in-game Elegant Suit.

Of course, each system's goodies will only unlock when the totals for the platform are met. You can watch the bars rise on the official Rockstar Games newswire or Social Club site. What'er you waitin' for, cowboys and cowgirls? Get to yer XP earnin'!

#gameoftheyear In another universe, they made a box containing Red Dead Redemption that's just for me. The front is familiar. The back, though, boasts the kind of bullet points I might demand of a great video game: More »

#gameoftheyear2010 Selecting the best game of the year should be the result of a thoughtful process, not a rush to the finish line. More »