‘Grand Theft Auto’ is so influential, the company’s stock just exploded after teasing a new game (TTWO)

October 17, 2016 at 11:52 AM EDT

The "Grand Theft Auto" series is among the likes of "Super Mario," "Minecraft," "Pokémon," and "Tetris."

It's such a big deal, culturally, that it's a market-moving event when the studio behind "Grand Theft Auto" — Rockstar Games — even teases a new game. Such is the case with the past few days.

On Sunday, at 9 a.m. ET, Rockstar Games' social media channels all published a single image: a blood-red Rockstar Games logo with a faded/worn-looking outline. Video game fans pounced — could it be? finally? the long-awaited sequel to 2010 Rockstar hit "Red Dead Redemption"?

The color and the style certainly lined up. It's been six years since "Red Dead Redemption" launched on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 — a Western take on the third-person, open-world formula popularized by the "Grand Theft Auto" series. "Red Dead Redemption" was more serious in tone than the "GTA" games, and is widely lauded for some of the finest storytelling that video games — as a medium – offer.

On Monday morning, again at 9 a.m. ET, Rockstar teased another image:

Gunslingers against an artfully setting sun — with the same blood-red color in the original tease, which is a signature color scheme of the previous game. Keep in mind: Rockstar's still not said a word (or responded to request for comment). These images were published without any text, though the second image is admittedly more straightforward than the first.

Still, Rockstar's parent company — Take-Two Interactive — is enjoying a massive spike in its stock price:

As you can see from the chart above, Take-Two Interactive's (TTWO) stock price spiked on Monday morning, from $42.50/share to $45.50/share, from a tease of a game. And keep in mind we're not even talking about Rockstar's marquee franchise ("GTA").

Rockstar is likely to reveal more about its new project in the next few days, which could be great news from Take-Two's stockholders. We just wanna know more about this cowboy game.

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