videogame publishers stock leads sp 500 gainers tops 140 for first time in more than a year after groundbreaking guidance gives hint about 2024 release dates for blockbuster games taketwo interactive software inc soared thursday after the videogame publisher hinted that fresh blockbuster titles like grand theft auto vi will arrive in 2024 or early 2025 taketwo ttwo shares finished up 117 at 13963 after surging as much as 13 to an intraday high of 14147 a price not seen in more than a year shares had been on track for their best oneday percentage gain since may 19 2015 when shares jumped 183 but instead by the end of the session the stock turned in its best performance since may 17 2022 when the price rose 118 taketwos stock also led gainers on the sp 500 index  which closed up 09 thursday taketwo shares are up 341 year to date while the sp 500 is up 93 and the nasdaq composite index is up 212 this year taketwo  which publishes such videogame franchises as grand theft auto and red dead redemption under its rockstar games label and borderlands and nba2k under its 2k label  on wednesday offered a disappointing forecast for the fiscal year that just began but pointed to the next fiscal year as the launch point for several groundbreaking titles that is expected to include grand theft auto vi the sequel to the most successful videogame of all time that gamers and investors have been anxious to see wedbush analyst nick mckay pretty much called it earlier this week noting that if taketwo lowballed the outlook for the year  as he expected  without mentioning any big titles coming out then shares would be under pressure taketwo however all but confirmed late wednesday a sixth installment of grand theft auto coming out next year along with this years poor guidance allowing bulls to dream as mckay had said jefferies analyst andrew uerkwitz who has a buy rating and 165 price target on taketwo called the guidance groundbreaking thursday this is it uerkwitz said in a rare move taketwo gave 2year forward guidance with year3 color the large immersive core titles weve been waiting on since the company started its investment cycle in 2018 are finally expected to be released in calendar 2024 and 2025 uerkwitz said and with executives quoting 8 billion in net bookings out to fiscal 2026 that means this growth is more than one specific title the jefferies analyst said full earnings coverage taketwo stock soars as outlook suggests grand theft auto vi is a little more than a year away rockstar games confirmed last year that active development for the next entry in the grand theft auto series is well under way td cowen analyst doug creutz emphasized the several part of taketwo chairman and chief executive strauss zelnicks statement that the forecast involved several highprofile longawaited titles in our pipeline and called the anticipation tremendous the mention of groundbreaking titles to us pretty clearly includes gta6 as we feel confident in saying no other combination of title releases would allow management to confidently project a yearoveryear 25 billion plus increase in bookings creutz said we think it almost certainly also includes borderlands 4 as we know that title is in development and marketing commitment levels disclosed in the last two 10ks have suggested a fiscal 2024 or 2025 release creutz has an outperform rating and a 147 price target of the 29 analysts who cover taketwo 22 have buy ratings and seven have hold ratings along with a price target of 14488 up from a previous 13414 read applovin stock roars as analyst sees an edge from ai in struggling mobilead market earlier in the week microsoft corp msftwon european union approval for its 69 billion acquisition of call of duty publisher activision blizzard inc atvi but the deal is still being blocked by uk regulators and microsoft has said it would appeal the uk block pressured shares of activision blizzard recently despite an earnings beat also electronic arts inc ea with shares up 33 year to date reported record bookings and forecast a strong outlook last week this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal