Why Take-Two Software Stock Beat the Market Today

What happened

Uncharacteristically for a tech stock of late, Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO 0.25%) eked out a stock market gain on Wednesday. The company’s shares inched up nearly 0.3% higher, a good showing when matched against the nearly 1% slide of the S&P 500 index on the day.

So what

Take-Two’s news for the day was that its Private Division publishing arm is expanding. Marking the unit’s fifth anniversary, it announced the launch of the Private Division Development Fund. This is a facility aimed at supporting the work of small developers that collaborate with the publisher.

“We never like to say ‘no’ to an incredible game concept due to the size of the project, and the Private Division Development Fund enables us to identify and support some of the best creative ideas our industry has to offer,” Private Division’s head of business development Blake Rochkind was quoted as saying.

The Take-Two unit also announced that it had signed a publishing agreement with Poland-based developer Bloober Team. This is a team that concentrates on psychological horror games, and as per their agreement, it will be developing a title in that genre with Private Division. The specifics of this game were not revealed, although it was mentioned that it would not be released before 2025.  

Now what

One crucial aspect of any video game company is its pipeline, and with this latest announcement, it seems Take-Two’s Private Division is keeping itself plenty busy. The development fund is a particularly interesting move, as it could either lead to the production of “sleeper” titles or provide the talent and ideas for future blockbusters, depending on how it is managed.