CORE DESIGN LOSES TOMB RAIDER SERIES
Copyright 2003 Eidos Press Release

[ July 30th 2003 ]

Eidos Interactive plc, one of the world's leading developers and publishers of entertainment software, today provides a trading update in respect of the outcome for the financial year to 30 June 2003, in accordance with the Company's earlier statement of 27 June.

As a consequence of shipping all but 500,000 of the Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness games originally planned for the financial year, strong sell through of products shipped in the last quarter and increased license activity, the Company believes it will now meet the original market expectation for operating profit pre goodwill for the financial year to 30 June 2003 that prevailed prior to its announcement of 27 June.

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness successfully launched in the US on PS2 on 20 June whilst the PC version for the US and European markets was launched during the week commencing 30 June. In its 27 June announcement, the Company confirmed that it was in the final stages of approval for the multi-language versions of the European PS2 game. Given the close proximity of final approval to the Company's financial year-end, Eidos reported that there was a risk that the shipping of up to one million units may slip from June to July. As stated above, Eidos is pleased to confirm that it shipped all expected units in the year with the exception of 500,000 units that shipped in early July.

Sell through to date has been in line with management expectations. The game is expected to benefit from the launch of the Tomb Raider film sequel, "The Cradle of Life", released by Paramount Pictures on 25 July in the US and on 22 August in Europe.

On 15 July, the Company announced that Jeremy Heath-Smith was stepping down as its Development Director and as Managing Director of Core Design. Since then, the Board has been conducting a review of the Tomb Raider franchise and the studio operations of Core Design. In recognition of the Company's need continually to enhance the value and maximise the commercial opportunity of one of its key franchises, for which all intellectual property rights belong to Eidos, the Board has concluded that it will transfer development of the franchise to its Crystal Dynamics studio in the US.

The next Tomb Raider game is scheduled to release during the financial year to 30 June 2005. In the light of this decision, the Company will now be evaluating the Core Design studio's on-going direction and contribution as part of the Group's overall development capabilities.