Eidos misses out on Tomb Raider film boom

Games firm Eidos is set to miss out on millions after failing to cash in on the success of the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie with either a new version of the best selling game or a share of box office royalties.

With the $80m Paramount film set to gross around $300m (£210m), cash-strapped Eidos, expected to soon ask shareholders for £52m in a new discounted rights issue, must be regretting its decision to license the film for a reported $1m and a share of merchandising sales.

In contrast, Japanese games developer SquareSoft will keep nearly all the revenues generated by the film of its Final Fantasy games, according to a report in The Times.

Final Fantasy will be released next week in the US and is also expected to be a huge hit.

Eidos hoped to benefit from free publicity generated by the Tomb Raider film, but has no new versions of its most successful franchise ready to launch in an industry where the very latest and very best titles account for the vast majority of revenues.

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