14 DAY TRIAL // The Tomb Raider franchise is one of the most famous series of adventure video games out there. Thanks to the lovely Lara Croft, the Eidos-owned IP (Intellectual Property) has sold very well, and has seen a lot of iterations throughout the years.
However, it seems that things aren't going so well for the latest game in the series, Tomb Raider Underworld, as it doesnot appear to have made an impact on fans, despite the promise of new DLC (Downloadable Content) exclusive to the Xbox 360, and hasn't achieved the sales that Eidos was expecting. This, combined with the fact that North American retailers are now introducing significant price cuts on the title, is not really benefiting the UK publisher.
“In a difficult North American economy, we have seen retailers restricting inventory levels and [...] products priced discounted above our expectations,” Eidos told the BBC. It seems that gamers' getting more and more oriented towards franchises that offer a great multiplayer mode, and thus more entertainment value, is really affecting the game publisher.
Furthermore, because of these low sales, it looks like cost cutting measures will be employed by the company, as far as the studio that made the latest Tomb Raider games, Crystal Dynamics, is concerned. Part of these actions will be directed towards the layoff of 30 people, spread across various departments of the studio, in order to eliminate redundancy and create a more efficient team.
These efforts will all be geared to the increase of the yearly revenue, from the forecast 160 million to 180 or 200 million pounds sterling. Let's just hope that things will look up for the UK company, and that no more layoffs will be resorted to so as to reduce the development team.