Tomb Raider and Hitman delayed as SCi continues to restructure Eidos

Key titles drop back to next year as renovation of top UK publisher continues

Tomb Raider: Legend and Hitman: Blood Money have both slipped to early 2006, SCi Entertainment Group has confirmed, with the titles being pushed back in order to "maximise their hit potential".

The slippage was confirmed to UK trade magazine MCV by a company spokesperson, and is the first to be announced since SCi acquired Eidos in mid-May.

However, it won't come as much of a surprise to many, since SCi has made it clear from the outset of its buyout bid that it planned to give additional development time to certain key titles in order to ensure that their quality was kept high.

While Hitman remains with its original creators, the wholly owned IO Interactive, the Tomb Raider franchise was moved away from creators Core Design after the last game, the critically panned Angel of Darkness, and was handed over to US studio Crystal Dynamics.

Analysts have been largely positive about the prospects for SCi following the Eidos acquisition, with UK firm Clear Capital last week publishing a report that gave the merged company a strong thumbs up.

"With the acquisition of Eidos, SCi becomes a global player in video games publishing," the report noted. "SCi's strengths in efficiently managing the game development process and an efficient cost structure superimposed on Eidos' strong brand portfolio and global distribution network in an increasingly attractive market makes us believe this acquisition will succeed."

Source: GamesIndustry.biz July 18, 2005 by Rob Fahey

Tomb Raider 7 delayed by Eidos! (March 10)

Eidos, today announces its interim results for the six month period ended 31 December 2004. The Board has decided to move the scheduled next iteration release of Lara Croft Tomb Raider out of the last quarter of this financial year and into the financial year to June 2006. This will enable further development work to be undertaken on these titles (including additional versions of Lara Croft Tomb Raider for the next generation PSP and Xbox 2 platforms) and allow the Company to take advantage of more favourable release windows.