Take-Two Needs 'BioShock' Jolt

Troubled video-game company Take-Two Interactive(TTWO) may be finally seeing a ray of light through all the clouds.

In BioShock, its first-person shooter video game, the company has what is likely to be the sleeper hit of the holiday season.

The game, which has gathered tremendous buzz, bagged near-perfect scores from game review magazines and Web sites and, as a preorder, already ranks second on Amazon.com's(AMZN) video games best-sellers list.

"It's pretty rare to have this kind of buzz around a completely new game," says Shane Satterfield, editor-in-chief of Gametrailers.com, a game review and downloads site owned by Viacom's(VIA) MTV Networks.

The company's stock is down 35% in the three months since May 17, after a stream of bad news that includes the delay of the release of Grand Theft Auto IV and ratings-related issues around another game, Manhunt 2. Midday Monday shares rose 6.7% to $13.08.

BioShock could help turn that around. "If they open up another viable hit in BioShock, it will be a big positive for the stock," says Doug Creutz, an analyst with Cowen & Co.

While most analysts are betting that BioShock could sell between 1 million and 1.5 million copies, sales could go as high as 4 million.

Online video games prediction market The simExchange forecasts 3.2 million copies sold for Microsoft's(MSFT) Xbox 360 and some 980,000 copies for PCs.