Eidos warns of shortfall

British publisher Eidos has warned that revenues for the first half of its financial year will fall slightly short of market expectations following the underperformance of certain titles, but expects to make up the difference by the end of the year.

Although the company stuck firmly to its operating plan during the six months leading up to December 31, releasing ten products (23 skus) during the period, two games failed to live up to sales expectations, with Commandos 3 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance both falling short of projections.

Combined with more general market factors such as declining sales of hardware in the US marketplace and the weakening of the US dollar on international currency markets, this has led to a "modest" shortfall in revenues for the first half, as compared with market expectations. However, the company still expects to meet current expectations in the full year to June 30th.

Eidos gave no figures in its trading update, however, so the full impact of these factors will not be known until the company's interim results are announced on March 4th. It's thought that operating profit for the period will be well ahead of last year's figure, thanks to increasing gross margins which are attributed to the strategy of internal development being pursued by the publisher.

Today's trading statement also included updates on some of the company's major titles for the coming six months, with the latest game in the Thief franchise being officially renamed as Thief: Deadly Shadows, while Tour of Duty has also been renamed, to ShellShock: Nam '67. A third game in the hugely successful Hitman series is also on the way in the coming months, called Hitman: Contracts.