Eidos: Bye bye GC, you won't be missed

[Steve]

EIDOS, the computer games company behind cyber-heroine Lara Croft, has dealt a blow to Nintendo with the news that it will no longer develop titles for the Japanese company’s struggling GameCube console.
Eidos yesterday revealed it had surged back into profitability over the past year, despite the late delivery of its latest Tomb Raider instalment, and unveiled a product line-up for the coming 12 months that includes the ultra-violent Backyard Wrestling: Don’t Try This At Home and a game based on the move The Italian Job.

Mike McGarvey, chief executive, said that versions for almost all the upcoming games would be released for Sony’s PlayStation 2 (PS2), Microsoft’s second-ranked Xbox console and desktop PCs.

However, there were no plans for Eidos, Europe’s second largest games developer, to release any games for the struggling GameCube, which has sold about 1.8 million units in Europe compared with sales of 15 million for Sony’s PS2.

Mr McGarvey said: “The GameCube is a declining business.†Nintendo announced last month it would temporarily stop making GameCubes to reduce a backlog of units.

Mr McGarvey said sales of GameCube products had traditionally provided only a fraction of Eidos’S revenues. He added: “If other companies follow us they will have a hard battle to fight.â€

Mr McGarvey said Eidos had completed its turnaround from a financial crisis that almost saw the company sold to France’s Infogrames in 2000. It rebounded to Ł17.4 million in pre-tax profits in the year to June 30, from a loss last year of Ł15.3 million.

He said the company was no longer reliant on the success of the popular Tomb Raider franchise, which has sold more than 28 million units worldwide, including more than one million of the recent Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness.

There had been fears that an eight-month delay in getting copies of the latest title to stores would hurt Eidos’s full-year results. The company responded to the fiasco by changing the management in charge of the game and switching its development to a US production house.

Eidos attributed its move back into the black to the shipping of one million copies each of four key game titles. Mr McGarvey said: “Some people’s perception is that the company’s still broke and all it has is Tomb Raider, neither of which is true.†The company sold 12.5 million titles over the past 12 months, up from 11.4 million the previous year.

 

[Evil_Cloud]

So Eidos has really big financial problems 8)
I am sure GameCube will hang in there, same for N5
But the situation has to change a bit drastic for Nintendo to regain a large piece of market share..

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Gamecube = Dreamcast w/EA support.

Hard to say whether or not it will be enough to save the Cube.

 

[CeiserSöze]

It's funny that only those publishers with financial problems seem to stop supporting the GCN

I'd rather worry about Eidos, Acclaim, Midway etc. than Nintendo. On the other hand there isn't much worth worrying for there

 

[LisaJoy]

Notice how they never mention Xbox sales figures when they say GC is failing..

the real picture
MS=paying money to EIDOS for the games it gets
Nintendo=not paying squat for Tomb Raider XVIII

 

[Tagrineth]

To be honest, I don't care. On one condition.

There'd f*cking better be TimeSplitters 3 for GC. Seriously. They should remember that TS2 did very well on GC.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

the real picture
MS=paying money to EIDOS for the games it gets
Nintendo=not paying squat for Tomb Raider XVIII

Translation: Microsoft is investing in its console, and Nintendo isn't.

 

[CeiserSöze]

There'd f*cking better be TimeSplitters 3 for GC. Seriously. They should remember that TS2 did very well on GC.

Afaik that's entirely up to Free Radical Design - they own the Timesplitters franchise, not Eidos.

 

[Tagrineth]

Afaik that's entirely up to Free Radical Design - they own the Timesplitters franchise, not Eidos.

But Eidos published it.

Eidos is a PUBLISHER.

 

[Grall]

Why should I give a flying #*@$ about Eidos pulling out?

There's a gamecube market. If you make good games and spread the word properly, your games will sell - as witnessed by rogue leader, metroid etc etc, and you'll make money. By the bucketful.

If you only intend to make $£!tty games and rip people off, your games won't sell and you won't make money.

Bye bye Eidos, you won't be missed. Go away, leave the money-making opportunities for those with brains and talent instead.

Good riddance!


*G*

 

[jvd]

Not for nothing but i will allways buy a nintendo console just like i will allways buy a sega console . I enjoy 90% of the games sega and nintendo produce. To get one console from each of them is well worth it. Plus i don't have to worry about games not playing in the system. Edios leaving wont hurt nintendo . Now there will be a few less crap tittles on the shelves .

 

[CeiserSöze]

But Eidos published it.

Yep, but they don't own the rights to it, Free Radical does. So Eidos has virtually no power over the future of the Timesplitters franchise. It's the same as with Rare/Nintendo and Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie etc.

 

[Qroach]

This isn't suprising to me really. I've heard mumblings from people at other publishers, development houses, and through retailers that aren't that happy with the gamecube sales (by retailers I mean buyers, not the actual store employees themselves).

I think the only issue is that the games that typically aren't from Nintendo won't sell well on the gamecube. There's only a handfull of companies that can generate the type of sales they want on that platform.

This is also the reason you don't see as many people claiming about poor Xbox sales. If you leave japan out of the equation (and you typically should when it comes to north american and european developers, becuase they can't sell product in japan.) for the amount of consoles that are out there, Xbox has moved a lot more software than the gamecube (I'm talking total game units sold).

 

[Evil_Cloud]

But Eidos published it.

Yep, but they don't own the rights to it, Free Radical does. So Eidos has virtually no power over the future of the Timesplitters franchise. It's the same as with Rare/Nintendo and Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie etc.

Indeed, and Eidos has already confirmed that it won't publish a TS3... FRD will prolly look for another publisher -> and will be released on GameCube?

Eidos hasn't got much to offer besides ... ??? Tomb Raider?

Good Riddance indeed 8)

 

[Rodéric]

I think the only issue is that the games that typically aren't from Nintendo won't sell well on the gamecube. There's only a handfull of companies that can generate the type of sales they want on that platform.

Maybe only a handfull firms are talented enough to compete with Nintendo's games ?

I don't remember any EIDOS game I liked lately (even not lately, in fact)...


For my NGC, 3 publishers for the games I own, Nintendo, Capcom and Lucasarts.

 

[Teasy]

Oh no.. I won't see anymore Eidos games on my GC in the next 12 months... I'm devastated

Eidos, like a few other publishers, seem to have there heads firmly wedged up there fat talentless arses. These are the games they've released on GC so far:

The Italian Job - A totally shit game that didn't sell well on GC (nor any other system AFAIK), nothing out of the ordinary there then.

Blood Omen 2 - This game was very poor and sold poorly.. again no big suprise.

Swingerz Golf - Again this was quite a poor game.. and it sold poorly once again no suprise there.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin - An excellent game that was released 9 months after the PC/PS2/Xbox versions! How in the world did they expect to sell a game when it was released THAT late with no improvements at all (morons). So again, the poor sales are of no suprise (they're deserved and should have been expected) and would be of no suprise on any system.

TimeSplitters 2 - The only really good game they released on time on GC and suprise suprise the only one of their games to sell well on GC.

The moral of the story is to release good games at least somewhere close to on time, that way you'll get sales on GC. Release utter shit or good games stupendously late and you won't. Is that so hard to understand for companies like Eidos? Seriously are they freeking idiots or what? Had they treated PS2 or XBox with the same distane and massive lack of effort they would have gotten the same results.

 

[Teasy]

Gamecube = Dreamcast w/EA support

Really?, I had no idea that Dreamcast had Nintendo support... or Square support, or Konami's biggest franchise ect ect ect

Johnny Awesome = Chap wo/brain support

 

[LisaJoy]

Of course thier games don't sell well.
if you release a game on PS2, and then release a crappy port two years later and expect anyone in thier right mind to buy it... what the hell do they expect?

 

[Magnum PI]

imagine a wealthy console manufacturer that i would call X in talks w/ eidos.

"we will make a deal with you.
you know we have a lot of money. we could lower your royalties by half , it wouldn't hurt us much. and it would help you much as you are badly in need of money..
if only you could stop making games for that particular plateform...
and make lot of noise about it, it would help our FUD practice a lot.

BTW, did you see a guy called johnny awesome on some forums ? he's part of our FUD team..

don't dissapoint us."

of course it's only paranoid fiction, there is no console manufacturer which is suceptible of such strong-arming practices

 

[Magnum PI]

GC: bye, bye eidos, you won't be missed.