|
EIDOS ANNOUNCES
NEW DELAY FOR AOD
Copyright 2003 www.tombraiderchronicles.com
[ January 21st 2003 ]
Eidos
Interactive Plc has announced a further delay
to the release of Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness
penned to make its commercial debut on PC and
Sony Playstation II next month. Fans of cyber-babe
Lara Croft are now expected to wait until April
at the earliest before Tomb Raider: The Angel
Of Darkness hits the shelves. The announcement
comes as Eidos Interactive today declared a net
cash balance of about £50 million and an expected
move into profitability when it releases its financial
results for the six months ended December 31 2002
on March 6th. It was also confident that it would
meet consensus forecasts of about 13 million pounds
in pre-tax profit and 7p in EPS for the full year
to June 30.
Chief
executive Mike McGarvey said: "We are very pleased
to be returning the Company to profitability based
on the success of our ever expanding games portfolio
combined with the benefits of an aggressive cost
reduction program which we have undertaken. Looking
forward, we have a strong line-up of new releases
for the second half and are optimistic about the
potential for our business to continue to deliver
improved performance. Whilst the release of Tomb
Raider: The Angel of Darkness has been delayed,
we believe that the game will benefit substantially
from the marketing of the new Lara Croft movie,
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, scheduled to
be released this summer."
Mike
McGarvey said he was confident that the further
delay of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness would
not hinder profits but that additional refinements
was necessary. "Significant progress has been
made in the final stages of development. Management
believe that the title will benefit from continued
game play enhancement, which will require further
time." Eidos's share price rose 15p to 115p after
it said pillar titles Timesplitters 2 and Hitman
2 had sold a combined 2.9million copies to date,
far surpassing analysts expectations, during a
"robust" Christmas trading period.
|
