When Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO) CEO Strauss Zelnick appeared on Mad Money with Jim Cramer, Cramer claimed TTWO stock should trade on the level of Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ:EA) and Activision Blizzard, Inc (NASDAQ:ATVI).

“Strauss Zelnick’s putting together 10 franchises of five million units or more. It deserves to trade on parity with Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard and is too cheap. This is not just Grand Theft Auto!”

I’m not sure I buy what Cramer is selling, however.

While Take-Two may not be as dependent on Grand Theft Auto as it was a few years ago, the TTWO stock performance suffers from a lack of transparency into its release schedule; The company typical posts weak earnings on the years it doesn’t have a non-sports title hit.

EA and ATVI are indeed key barometers for evaluating Take-Two, but a close look at the three software companies together shows just how overvalued TTWO stock currently is by comparison.

TTWO Stock – Driving with the Lights Off

Take Two operates two gaming labels – 2K Games and Rockstar Games. Under these labels are a multitude of titles, but TTWO is dependent on one in particular – Grand Theft Auto.

It’s important to note, then, that Take-Two Interactive’s outlook for the current quarter is a bit below what analysts are estimating according to Yahoo! Finance consensus targets for both revenue and earnings. That’s because of the late PC launch of GTA V. And unlike another high selling title, ATVI’s Call of Duty game, Grand Theft Auto isn’t released on a yearly basis. Grand Theft Auto 4 came out in 2008 and the sequel released in 2013.

TTWO investors can’t wait another four to five years for another GTA to hit shelves.

The rest of the fiscal year looks rather soft for TTWO, too, with its full-year guidance of $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion in sales and 75 cents to $1.00 in EPS coming in below longer-term consensus targets of $1.42 billion sales and $1.01 in EPS — which already indicated a roughly 15% drop in sales and profits that should be about half the year-ago figures.

Compare that to EA’s projected earnings growth from $2.51 this year to $2.83 next year to $3.27 in fiscal 2017. ATVI’s earnings future looks a bit rocky, but at least the stock is less volatile than TTWO, it pays a dividend,and its ability to generate hits from several franchises gives investors more confidence in Activision’s long-term business.

TTWO Stock Doesn’t Have Enough Good Titles

Aside from numbers, the release cycle is telling. For instance, Activision has Guitar Hero Live and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 both releasing this holiday season and EA has Star Wars Battlefront, Mirrors Edge and PGA Tour on the horizon.

What does TTWO have? An unannounced game that may or may not release this year and Battleborn, releasing “sometime” in fiscal 2016.

How much more upside could there be in TTWO when there’s no more GTA to throw its weight around?

This isn’t just my opinion, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter claims the soft full-year guidance reflects TTWO’s future releases, described as “underwhelming”.

For instance, Evolve was supposed to be a surprise hit for TTWO, it received mostly positive reviews but the game sold-in (meaning units shipped to retailers, not actually sold to customers) just 2.5 million. TTWO needs to sells at least 5 million before it has a hit that can maintain its earnings when GTA runs out of steam.

According to VGChartz, the only TTWO franchises outside of GTA to break the five million mark in the last few years are Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands and NBA 2K.

In the past year EA released 36 games, and has major franchises such as Titanfall, Medal of Honor, Mass Effect, Battlefield and Madden, among others.

While ATVI is closer to TTWO in terms of the amount of hit franchises it produces, ATVI has more consistency in its schedule than TTWO and has dozens of titles at its disposal to fill in the gaps of its major releases.

When Take-Two can say that, then maybe TTWO stock deserves to trade on the same level as ATVI and EA.

As of this writing, John Kilhefner did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.