1.5 million sales for Tomb Raider Underworld

Eidos has provided an update to the market on its trading performance over the Christmas period, revealing that Tomb Raider: Underworld, its big release of Q4 2008, failed to meet internal forecasts, selling 1.5 million units as of December 31, 2008.

While the game charted in the Top 10 for the six weeks from launch to Christmas in key European territories, Eidos notes that Lara’s latest had a slow start in North America. This is attributed to a difficult North American economy which has seen retailers restricting inventory levels and triple-A products being price discounted above the publisher’s expectations.

With this is mind, Eidos has revised its sales assumptions for Tomb Raider: Underworld and other products to be released and estimates full year revenue will now be in the range of £160m-£180m compared to previous guidance of £180m-£200m.

Moving forward Eidos stated: “We believe our strategy of focusing on cornerstone franchises is further validated by the current challenging and competitive environment. We are concentrating our efforts and resources on those high quality titles that will deliver long-term franchise value while pro-actively managing our cost base and exploring ways to improve the mechanics of the business.”

Eidos has also pegged Batman: Arkham Asylum as a big success for 2009, with the game having benefited from cross-promotional opportunities including a trailer included on all DVDs of the movie The Dark Knight.