In article <[email hidden]>,
rrevved <[email hidden]> wrote:
From Avault.com:
Friday, March 24, 2000 - 11:26 am CT
Daikatana Release Date Rumor Squashed
Scuttlebutt hit the street today regarding John Romero?s long-awaited 3D
action game, with rumors citing a delay until first quarter 2001. The
source of the information was an Eidos plc press release, which seems
official enough, and although unbelieving, we contacted Eidos just to
confirm--and sure enough, it is true. However, the ambiguous press
release was referring to the fiscal quarter 2001, which starts in eight
days on April 1--no fooling.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
DAIKATANA: Delayed until 1Q - 2001
Read it and weep ... or laugh ..
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000324/fh.html
*SNIPPET:
"Due to the current lower level of consumer demand, which had led to
congestion in the retail channel, Eidos said it would now delay the
release of certain products including Nomad Soul (Dreamcast), F1 World
Grand Prix (PC), Tomb Raider (Game Boy Color) and Daikatana (PC) to the
first quarter of 2001."
*FULL TEXT:
Friday March 24, 6:27 am Eastern Time
FOCUS-Lara Croft caught in games war crossfire
(Adds more background, updates share price)
By Philippa Moreton
LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - Shares in computer games maker Eidos Plc
crashed on Friday after warning it would be hit hard by the transition
to a new generation of gaming platforms, as players proved unwilling to
buy current stocks.
Cyber-babe Lara Croft, star of Eidos hit Tomb Raider series, faces her
toughest ever challenge as she enters the battle zone of next-
generation gaming platforms such as Sega Enterprises' Dreamcast, Sony
Corp's Playstation 2, Microsoft Corp's (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) X-Box and
Nintendo's Dolphin.
``The company anticipates that these new more powerful gaming platforms
will have a positive impact on the market in the long term,'' Eidos
said in a statement.
``However the transition is likely to lead to a further weakening of
current-generation software in the near term,'' it said.
The company said second-half operating profits would be significantly
worse than a year ago and results for the year to end March would
therefore be substantially below last year.
The stock was struck down in early trading, tumbling to half the
previous day's close. The shares had plummetted 36 percent or 221p,
trading at 384p at 1100 GMT.
The stock hit a low of 295 at one point -- its lowest level since
February 1999. In December it was worth over 13 pounds at its peak.
Due to the current lower level of consumer demand, which had led to
congestion in the retail channel, Eidos said it would now delay the
release of certain products including Nomad Soul (Dreamcast), F1 World
Grand Prix (PC), Tomb Raider (Game Boy Color) and Daikatana (PC) to the
first quarter of 2001.
WARNING JUST THE LATEST REVELATION
In January, Eidos announced a profit warning after the revelation of
disappointing Christmas sales and product delays and at the end of last
month the group posted a 45 percent decline in third quarter pre-tax
profits and revenues down 19 percent.
For the nine months to end 1999 the company reported operating losses
of 11 million pounds compared to a profit of 36.2 million pounds the
previous year on turnover down 16 percent to 142.6 million pounds.
Analysts have expressed increasing concern the group is too dependent
on Lara Croft, who is set to become a film star later this year when
her own movie is released.
Second-tier products, such as Nomad Soul and Abomination, have not sold
as well as the Tomb Raider series, which had sold over 16 million
copies in January.
But the company said it would release several other key titles before
the end of the current quarter including UEFA Champions League on PC
and Playstation, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation on Dreamcast, Thief 2
on PC and Resident Evil Survivor on Playstation.
The company said it would continue to position itself to take advantage
of opportunities afforded by hte arrival of new platforms and
development of seven Playstation 2 titles was already ongoing with
anticipated releases in the next 18 months.
Separately ,Eidos said it would sell 1.14 million shares of its total
holding of 1.47 million shares in Norwegian data storage firm Opticom
which would result in exceptional pre-tax profits of around 84 million
pounds.
--
* rrev at mindspring dot com *
We have asked Lankhor (developer of F1 World Grand Prix) about it and they
have confirmed that the game will release early next month...So it's a delay
of about a week or two...
--
Kenneth Verburg
Editor-in-Chief, High Gear
http://www.simracingnews.com
"rrevved" <[email hidden]> wrote
> DAIKATANA: Delayed until 1Q - 2001
Oh my! This is too funny...
I don't want to look at c.s.i.p.g.a, there must be some heavy bashing there
at the moment 8)
--
-- Fran�ois M�nard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...
