Eidos disappointed with TR: Underworld sales, stock drops

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jan 9th 2009 9:00AM

Following UK publisher Eidos Interactive's announcement that sales of Tomb Raider Underworld didn't hit its internal forecast, the publisher's shares dropped 25% this morning (there's been some slight recovery since). Eidos states that Lady Croft's latest adventure, since its debut in November, sold 1.5 million copies by the end of 2008, which makes us question how high Eidos set the bar for the adventurer to spring, swing and flip off of.

Eidos' expectations come even more into question with its statement that the "difficult North American economy" caused restrictive inventory and price discounts. The assertion has a ~~heaping~~ hint of truthiness to it, more so following GameStop's astronomical sales during the holidays. We love Lara, but it doesn't sound like Eidos knows the limits of its own franchise in a competitive market.

Source - Eidos: 1.5m Tomb Raider Sales Miss Expectations (Edge)
Source - Eidos shares plunge 25% on bad news

Tags: eidos, eidos-interactive, tomb-raider, tomb-raider-underworld

Reader Comments (47)

It's a shame that Crystal Dynamics has brought so much life back into a franchise that nobody cares about anymore. They are very talented and I would love to see what kind of adventure game they could create if not confined to an existing IP.

I only hope given the recent developer closures and sales, that this doesn't foreshadow problems for CD as well.

I really want to buy this game but Xmas left kind of broke, so probably I will get this game late in February.

I hate being right sometimes. Kotaku now reporting layoffs at Crystal Dynamics. :-( Best of luck to them all.

"It's a shame that Crystal Dynamics has brought so much life back into a franchise that nobody cares about anymore."

1.5 million copies = nobody?

They need a new Legacy of Kain game to save the company.

I just want another LoK game. They can't leave a story that good with no ending.

Whenever I think of Legacy of Kain, I attribute it more to Silicon Knights than Crystal Dynamics, why is that?

Because Silicon Knights made the first one (blood omen), although it was published by Crystal Dynamics. Everything after was developed by Crystal Dynamics.

Damn you, now I wanna go back and play them.

sigh.... again and again.

I cant sat this enough to game publishers.

DO NOT release 15 AAA games in the span in 6 weeks. Every other game that is not these games is going to fail! I'm looking at you Dead Space and Mirrors Edge and Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider.

Yeah I'd have to agree here. Had they released this earlier in the year where games tend to come out slower, TR:Underworld probably would have done a lot better. I don't think Lara has the pull anymore to come out on top when there's tons of other high profile games released at the same time.

That nailed it right there. Furthermore, it would've been a stronger game to boot if they hadn't rushed it to make it out before the holidays. It had nothing to do with Tomb Raider. It just didn't have a fraction of the "value" of some of it's holiday competitors.

Still a damned good game, though. I'm still in a nearly non-existent minority that thinks it was a lot more fun than PoP, bugs and all.

I was under the impression the game was actually doing pretty well?

It's a very good game, the reviews were definitely ridiculously harsh on it.. Besides the rather clunky combat, (which is not the focus of the game at all, there's only a handful of times were there's any combat in the whole game) it was fine.

I don't see why it was considered "outdated" when things like Uncharted and Prince of Persia are very similar and get nothing but praise.

1.5 million copies in 2 months sounds like it did well to me.

I just got finished playing underworld. It took about 10ish hours at most to play through the main campaign. Not only that, I'm sure it could be done in 3/4 the time if their physics and jumping mechanics actually worked correctly like prince of persia. There were numerous times where I'd die over and over again just because I didn't have the camera at the correct angle, or the camera jumped to a side-view right as I had it lined up perfectly to press up on the LS and hit A to jump.. making me jump about 3 inches to the right of the beam I aimed for.

The camera was horrible, the collision detection was horrible, the jumps were more a leap of faith even when you COULD see where you were jumping, I had to turn the brightness all the way up to avoid eye strain, and the environment was so lush and overgrown that many jumps couldn't even be distinguished from the background even when looking right at them.

The good things: lara looks good in the free blue wetsuit, you get to wield a cool weapon at the end (no spoilers), and 630+ gamerscore is incredibly easy to get even plowing through the bugs.

I just haven't cared about Tomb Raider since the 90's. I think these companies need to think about new IPs instead of sinking all their development into a game that has been done to death.

You should try Legend. It's very good and you can probably pick it up for about $10 these days.

I played the demo and I agree that is was decent, I personally didn't want to invest my time to it as I felt like I played the heck out of them a decade ago and there were many other games that had my attention. Hopefully some young blood got into them but I guess that isn't the case.

Bottom line, they should have made it $40. I like Tomb Raider, but never did Underworld scream "full price game" to me.

Agreed completely. A tiered pricing for games is long overdue. When Sonic Unleashed costs the same $60 as MGS4, Call of Duty, Fable 2, or Fallout 3, something isn't right. Clearly there is a different level of value.

I say, if there is no online play, knock $10 off the price immediately. Less than 10 hours single player, knock off another $5 or 10. That sort of thing. Maybe at $40 or $50, new IPs like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space would find their audience, even during holiday release season. I dunno, what do you all think?

I've got nothing to add, but I agree completely. Saves me a step of waiting a week or two until someone puts it on sale. And someone ALWAYS puts it on sale. Prince of Persia was sale priced at $40 (new) at GameStop for a while, and Target had Tomb Raider for $40 just recently.

I suspect revenue creates that tiered pricing system by itself. Shorter games mean people are more likely to resell or swap them, meaning more copies available for people to buy without giving anything more to the company.

Longer, epic games like the MGSs, FFs, Fallouts, GTAs...etc tend to be keepers for me. I don't know why - I rarely replay them. It just ends up that well because I was impressed first time around. Short games tend to be unimpressive and I'm more likely to trade them in for something good.

well how many times can you rehash the same damn game over and over. Yeah it looks better than the PS1 version but damn its still pretty much the same game and then they released it at a time there were tons of new games and blockbuster games. Why dont devs release games like this when there is a drought in games. There really isn't anything coming out that is a blockbuster hit this month. Everybody tries to hold out until Nov. to drop a game and its byting them in the butt.

Underworld wasn't nearly as good as Legend.

1.5 Million copies? I have to wonder if Eidos is all there. 500,000 is generally considered a success, and they want to complain about thrice the amount?

Success or failure is defined by projections, if they projected it to do more than that, it has failed, despite Zack and Wiki and No More Heroes (both about 350k) being deemed great successes

To sell well means nothing if you fail to meet projections

My thoughts exactly. Unless it cost them a ridiculous amount to make it, or they were hoping it would sell enough to keep them unscathed in these hard times, 1.5 is VERY good. Also, nice avatar :)

No worries, she'll land on her chest, and bounce right back up.

I bought it on PS3 and returned it in the same afternoon. The game simply didn't meet my quality expectations. The frame rate is really bad at times. I found the same thing with Legend on Xbox360, back then i was playing in SD and it was fine, but now i've got HD and trying to play Legend in HD with that framerate is not fun. And there was never a patch to fix it either. I've heard the 360 version runs smoother but at a lower resolution. Perhaps i'll pick up a copy pre owned in a month or so.

Oh yeah and the combat STILL sucks. You'd think they'd have fixed that by now. I enjoyed Mirrors Edge waay more than TRU

I liked the combat in TRU way better than mirrors edge for two reasons.
1) there's less of it
2) the game gives up and gives you an "iwin" weapon at the end.

I want to play Tomb Raider, it is just at the bottom of a long list of games I need to play first. IMHO, Releasing in November is what really hurt sales of this game not the economy.

I used to love Tomb Raider, especially the first two or three games. But every Tomb Raider since then has been disappointing which is why I wont buy this game. The reviews said the game was short and buggy and from my experience on the 360 demo the buggy and "really poor combat" is 100% correct. Was Eidos really expecting the game to do that well in a season with so many good games? How did they possibly expect to compete with the tons of great games (on both systems) that were released between October and December.

They would have been far more successful had they spent more time fixing the bugs, combat, and adding more levels, and then releasing the game in April or May when not many other games will be released.

1.5 Million Copies sold and they are SHORT of expectations? That's ridiculous. This franchise isn't Halo or Gears of War...it's been in decline for years. Seems like the folk over at Eidos need a reality check. Has nothing to do with the economy or anything else.

they should have bought higher game reviews, I guess..

i wouldve kept playing the game if there wasnt a glitch on the level with the giant tower in the middle, you have to get down to the bottom with your motorcycle, but after i got killed down there i got transported back to the top with no motorcycle :( i cant even walk down or id fall to my death, damn you laura and your non-fall breaking titties!

Why not just reload the save at the begining of the level? It autosaves all levels leaving you with a ridiculous 25ish saves!

I WILL be picking this game up!!!

Shot themselves in the foot by announcing exclusive DLC for the platform that sold fewer copies.

Personally, Eidos cant crash and burn fast enough for my liking. They should be caned and linched.

I really hope Eidos will Allow for a new Legacy of Kain game. I also think a new Fear Effect, Thief and Gex would be cool to see. It is to sad that Tomb Rader is not selling well but they really need to put this series to rest for some time that way when people bring out a new one more people will want it.

Plus next time if you make a game the developers should try and make the game have less glitches. Plus may be look at Naught Dog for ways to make a great game.

its not because a difficult american economy. its just the fact that the franchise hasnt evolved that much. it way the went of Sonic....

The franchise had gone the way of Sonic around the era of Angel of Darkness. If Sega pulled Sonic out of the mud the same way Crystal Dynamics has with the last three Tomb Raider games, we'd all be shaving Tails into the side of our head and partying like it's 1992 again.

karma for Eidos, eh? Putting too much stock in review scores and the gamer media in general.

1.5 million is good for one SKU. Tomb Raider Underworld has six SKU's. 1.5 million over six SKU's is bad.

They are dissapointed with 1.5 million? In this economy and the competitive nature? The market is a bit different than when Tomb Raider initially released. I think Eidos really doesn't have a sense anymore.

Though Underworld seems to be a solid game anyway. I haven't bought it yet.. but do plan on it..once I get through more of this massive back log.

DAMN RIGHT!
I want a new fucking Soul Reaver!!!!
OR a remake of Soul Reaver 1 on the consoles!!!
with:
-HD graphics (lol obviously)
-a deeper combat system
-the story! i want an even darker feel to it!
-keep the soundtrack..it's the best soundtrack EVAR!
-easyer to use glyphs and a cooldown system
-make an awesome-er death coil (Raziel's HP spiral)
-give him a spirit coil allong the hp one (for the use of glyphs of course)
-i want the soul sword to look like a melting lightsaber if you know what i mean ;)
-better voice-acting for raziel (make him only whisper in another language while in spectral..and speak normally in the material realm)...needs a darker..more creepyer voice.
-rare to find weapons
-upgradeable glyph powers and melee combat...a leveling system like in God of War
-harder to kill bosses and minions (they're piss-easy to defeat)

And that's about it....if they make a new Soul Reaver THEY GET MY FUCKING MONEY!!

..i have a right to dream at least ..no? =((

Damn pirates!
Oh wait, nevermind.

The game sucked. It's glitchy and the story is confusing. They're lucky they got all those sales

Of course what dud they expect? They want to revive a franchise on next gen consoles and they now corner off PS3 owners with no demos and downloadable content!!! WTF!! PS has been the home of tombraider fans for more than 10 yrs and they just dump them on the side like used tissue paper?! Screw 'em!!

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Eidos disappointed with TR: Underworld sales, stock drops

Reader Comments (47)

Posted: Jan 9th 2009 9:18AM Maulok said

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