The publisher of Duke Nukem Forever has announced that it has fired a third party public relations company that made threats earlier this week to media outlets that posted poor reviews of the newly released first person shooter. The company, The Redner Group, and its head Jim Redner used its Twitter page earlier this week to post this now deleted message, " ... too many went too far with their reviews...we r reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn"t based on today"s venom."
Now the game"s publisher 2K Games has sent out a message to Blue"s News, stating, "2K Games does not endorse the comments made by Jim Redner and we can confirm that The Redner Group no longer represents our products. We have always maintained a mutually-respectful working relationship with the press and do not condone his actions in any way." Prior to 2K Games" statement, Redner used his Twitter page to apologize for his earlier post, stating, "I acted out of pure emotion." Another Twitter post confirms that Redner made the statement on his own and his actions have nothing to do with 2K Games.
Meanwhile the poor reviews of Duke Nukem Forever are blamed in part for a downturn in the stock price for 2K Games" parent company Take Two Interactive. Marketwatch reports that the stock price for the company went down 4 percent on Tuesday when the reviews started pouring in. According to the story, "In a note to clients on Tuesday, Doug Creutz of Cowen & Co. cited the "extremely poor" reviews for “Duke Nukem,” and said he now believes the possibility of the company achieving its full-year earnings target "has been significantly reduced."" Take Two"s stock price went down another 3.13 percent in today"s trading.