Zynga and Take-Two Interactive Score Big Gains on Wall Street

A couple of video game stocks surged on Wednesday after each reported unexpectedly strong quarterly earnings.

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Zynga said Wednesday that it turned a profit of 1 cent per share while analysts expected a loss of 3 cents, and Take-Two Interactive Software, which reported its results late Tuesday, scored 67 cents per share after some items, beating expectations by 12 cents.

Shares of Zynga rose 9 percent to $2.99 on Wednesday while Take-Two shares surged 14 percent to $14.44.

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Zynga, which makes Words With Friends, Bubble Safari and many more games for mobile devices, reported revenue of $311 million in the most recent quarter, crushing the $250 million estimate of analysts. Likewise, Take-Two notched $405 million in revenue while analysts expected just $364 million.

Much of Zynga's success was attributed to cost cutting and its ability to partially wean itself from a reliance on Facebook. As for Take-Two, sales of its shooting game Borderlands 2 and basketball game NBA 2K13 were unusually strong.