Red Ded Redemption ships 8 million

Rockstar’s wiki-wiki-wild-wild-western open-world bonanza Red Dead Redemption has now shipped eight million copies since its launch in May, helping publisher Take Two to work their way into the black and their first profitable year without a Grand Theft Auto title in the calendar.

The company’s quarterly financial report, published today, details all the fiscal nitty gritty: “For the twelve months ended October 31, 2010, net revenue grew 65 per cent year-over-year to $1.16 billion. GAAP income from continuing operations increased to $49.7 million, or $0.58 per diluted share, as compared to a loss of $130.4 million, or $1.70 per share, for the year-ago period.”

Ben Feder, CEO of Take-Two, breathed a sigh of relief and celebrated the company’s success. “We have achieved our goal of profitability in a year without a new release of Grand Theft Auto,” he said. “Our better-than-expected revenue growth and margin expansion were driven by strong demand for our diverse portfolio of games.”

The icing on both Rockstar’s and Take Two’s cake would be seeing Red Dead Redemption win a bevy of Game of the Year 2010 awards. VideoGamer’s end of year celebrations kick off next week, for the record.