MediaFile

Shares of Take-Two Interactive surged 6 percent on Tuesday. But it had nothing to do with activist investor Carl Icahn, who owns a chunk of the company or any rumors about the company's earnings on Nov. 8.

What happened is that investors looked at the website of Rockstar games, the Take-Two-owned studio behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Its website had been replaced by a large Grand Theft Auto logo and a Roman numeral V wrapped around a banner saying "five."

Gamers have been salivating for GTA 5 since 2008, when the last game in the series came out, so much so that at least one analyst has said that the game could sell 25 million copies in its first year.

But the timing, price, features or any other details are not yet known. The only clue the company revealed is on its website: the trailer is coming out on Nov 2.

Dan Houser, one of its renown game developers, gave an extended interview to Gamespot last week to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the third version  but was mum on new details about the newest game.

Take-Two Interactive occupies a massive booth at the Los Angeles Convention Center, where it’s showing off its new games and serving beer at the elaborate sports bar it constructed on the show floor.  Under its CEO, Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two has been showing renewed financial health in recent quarters. In February, it posted its first profitable year in nearly a decade without a new release of its blockbuster video game franchise “Grand Theft Auto.”  Zelnick sat down with Reuters for an in depth chat touching on everything from Nintendo’s new console to Zynga’s business model, and the difference between foie gras and chewing gum.

Reuters: Are publishers on board more than ever before with Nintendo on the Wii U?

Zelnick: Well, It’s hard to know, right? At E3, there’s always a great deal of enthusiasm, as there should be. It remains to be seen what the releases schedules look like. We do think it’s pretty interesting. What they are doing with one display in your hands and the other display that’s wireless in front of you and the ability to have them work independently as well as together, creates a lot of interesting creative opportunities and that’s what we’re looking for. We’ll see how our creative teams feel but right now it looks pretty interesting.

The video game sector is often seen as being particularly ripe for consolidation, with some expecting old line media giants such as Time Warner to swoop in and scoop up a publisher to diversify their entertainment rosters.

But Strauss Zelnick, chairman of “Grand Theft Auto” publisher Take-Two Interactive, remains surprised by the lack of action on the consolidation front. “I think the legacy media companies have not been especially aggressive about interactive entertainment,” he said at the Reuters Global Media Summit in New York on Wednesday. His company, of course, fought off Electronic Arts’ hostile takeover bid in 2008.

“I have to admit there are times when I’m surprised they’re not more exposed.”

Progress?

Video games company Electronic Arts has just updated Wall Street on the latest stage in its drawn-out $2 billion bid for Take-Two Interactive Software with news that it will allow its tender offer to expire at midnight New York time.

But Take-Two, maker of the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, said it is now willing to provide a management presentation to EA containing non-public information in connection with the bid such as its three-year product release schedule and financial projections.

EA and Take-Two’s chief executives exchanged letters over the weekend and had a phone conversation on Friday.

That was fast. Already, in its first week, Grand Theft Auto IV sold more than 6 million copies globally, rocketing past expectations that were hardly modest to begin with.

So what is it with this game? Well, for one thing, it has been praised by gamers and critics alike who hail it as satirical and multi-layered, the equal of films like “The Godfather” or TV shows like “The Sopranos.”

Made by Take-Two Interactive Software”s Rockstar studio, the game also has its share of detractors, who say it’s too violent and sends the wrong message to kids and young adults. Given the big sales the first week, the criticism doesn’t appear to have hurt its popularity.

It hasn’t been the easiest week for Craigslist, which is getting sued by minority partner eBay after spurning a buy-out offer. So pity Craig Newmark when he settles down for a nice, relaxing game of Grand Theft Auto 4.

The game, released this week, takes place in a ridiculously detailed virtual world that even has its own satirical Internet. Bloggers write on “blogsnobs.org,” porn sites abound, and there’s a free classified site called “craplist.org.” Real-life blog Some Bits has the description as it appears in GTA4:

“Craplist was started in San Fierro in 1995 by some basement dwelling sociopaths with the simple mission of creating a computer-based online forum where users can sell stolen bicycles and meet up at lunch time and [content bleeped out because MediaFile is a family-friendly blog] … Capitalists don’t understand us. Newspapers hate us. Stalkers love us. Craplist is here to stay. We are you.”

There were indeed fans lined up along the streets of New York City awaiting the launch of  Grand Theft Auto IV on Tuesday morning. According to the experts, they will not be disappointed.

Even the New York Times lavished praise of a sort on the video game from Take-Two Interactive’s Rockstar studio: “‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun.”

Though the vast majority of gamer blogs were even more emphatic in their love of the game, there were bound to be many naysayers if only because “GTA” deals with such edgy content, in this case an Eastern European immigrant who runs drugs, shoots cops and beats up prostitutes. The Parents Television Council thinks retailers shouldn’t carry the game according to Variety magazine.

Things could get complicated soon in the saga of Microsoft’s quest to acquire Yahoo, since the software makers deadline for what was origianlly seen as a friendly deal — at the right price — passed this weekend without Yahoo saying “I Do.”

Now, that amicable offer could get downright hostile. Analysts say they believe Microsoft is planning to launch a hostile bid at its current price of $31 per share in cash and stock.

Three weeks ago, Microsoft said it will go hostile, or even call off its bid, if Yahoo did not agree to a deal before this past weekend. Now, Microsoft executives are poised to play their next card.