Take-Two tanks on Wall Street

Take-Two shed almost 5 percent off its share price today. The sell-off came from investors skittish as a result of lost sales and costs incurred to manufacture additional copies of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas--absent the notorious sex scenes referred to as "Hot Coffee." On heavy trading, Take-Two closed down $1.33, or 4.91 percent, to $25.74.

Another company was caught in the cross fire. The country's largest specialty retailer of games, GameStop Corp., today said it would join Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, and Circuit City in pulling San Andreas from its bricks-and-mortar and online store shelves. The company removed the game based on its new Adults Only rating, as the game retailer has a policy of not selling AO-rated games.

GameStop said it was dialing back its earnings forecast for the current quarter as a result of lost sales. The company closes the books on its second fiscal quarter at the end of July 2005 and said today it would incur a $1.1 million charge in the quarter to "write-down the value of its Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas used inventory currently in stock."

GameStop ended the day down $.26 to $35.02.