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EIDOS ANNOUNCES
TRADE OUTLOOK IN 05
Copyright 2004 www.tombraiderchronicles.com
[ November 25th 2004 ]
During
the current financial year (FY05), Eidos [ news
] has launched three key titles. ShellShock: Nam
'67 [ news
] , has proved to be a successful new franchise
with shipments to date of circa 800,000 units,
and with strong sell through, which exceeds our
original forecasts. A sequel is already underway.
In addition, Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes
The Neighborhood [ news
] and Crash 'n' Burn [ news
] have recently been launched on schedule and
initial shipments were in-line with management's
expectations.
As
previously announced, the PC release of Championship
Manager 5 [ news
] was deferred from October 2004 in order to allow
for further development and refinement of the
game. It will now release, closely followed by
the platform and online versions, in the second
half of FY05 on a date to be announced in due
course. This will add to the already heavily weighted
and strong second half release line-up which will
see Project: Snowblind and Imperial Glory [ news
] release in Q3 and Just Cause, 25 to Life and
Commandos Strike Force, together with the eagerly
awaited next in the series of Hitman [ news
] and Tomb Raider [ news
], all currently scheduled for Q4 release.
We
believe that the fundamental strengths of Eidos,
in terms of its owned intellectual property, creative
talent and technical capabilities, continue to
make it one of the leading independent companies
in the sector. However, given the volatility inherent
in the hit-driven computer games industry and
the increasing levels of development expenditure
required to launch new titles, the outlook for
Eidos as a listed company remains challenging.
IO
Acquisition: The integration of IO Interactive,
the Danish games developer that we acquired in
April this year, has been a success. In addition
to bringing ownership and control of the highly
acclaimed Hitman franchise in-house, IO has provided
the Company with significant additional, high
quality development capability and technical expertise.
Specifically, IO is now leading the Group's in-progress
transition programme to the next generation PlayStation
and Xbox hardware platforms.
Strategic
Review: As shareholders will be aware, the Board
announced in June that it intended to undertake
a strategic review of both the business and the
future direction of the Company. During the review
process, we concluded that shareholders' interests
would be best served by exploring the sale of
the Company. Consequently, in conjunction with
our financial advisers, UBS, we prepared a short
list of the most likely potential partners. We
then held preliminary discussions on a confidential
basis with short listed candidates as well as
with certain other interested parties who approached
us directly.
Following
this initial review, more detailed discussions
were progressed with a smaller number of potential
acquirers and due diligence is now continuing
with certain of these parties. The Board is pursuing
this process with the utmost vigour and with the
objective of securing an acceptable offer for
the Company. It is our intention to bring this
process to a satisfactory conclusion as soon as
possible. However, at this point in the discussions,
there can be no assurance that an offer for the
Company will be forthcoming.
In
parallel with the strategic review, the senior
executive team has remained focused on its day-to-day
management responsibilities in driving the business
with the aim of achieving our FY05 operating objectives.
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