Tomb Raider: Underworld sold 1.5 million in 2008
Tomb Raider: Underworld has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide since it’s release in November last year. But for some reason, that doesn’t seem to be good enough for publisher Eidos.
“On a global basis our sell through to 31 December, which we estimate at approximately 1.5 million units, is below our internal forecasts, primarily due to a lower start in North America. In a difficult North American economy we have seen retailers restricting inventory levels and triple-A products being price discounted above our expectation.”
In addition, the management at Eidos has now announced that they will be “revising” the Tomb Raider games and brand and have already laid people off at developer Crystal Dynamics who was responsible for turning around the franchise with the last three games.
To quote the company,
“Eidos is considering revising the look and play of her Tomb Raider adventures, which may see efforts to make her more female-friendly, in an attempt to revive sales of games starring the pneumatic archaeologist.”
And this from chief financial officer of Eidos Robert Brent, “We need to look at everything, as we develop the next game. Look at how Batman changed successfully, from the rather sad character of the Michael Keaton era to the noir style of The Dark Knight.”
I think that Eidos needs to tread carefully here. It was Crystal Dynamics who turned Tomb Raider into a successful franchise after it was long considered dead and sales of 1.5 million are anything but bad when you consider not only the shape the economy is in but the fact that Tomb Raider Underworld was released at the same time as many other high profile releases. Hopefully Eidos won’t once again run the franchise into the ground. Making her appeal more to females probably won’t do much for the franchise, which in my experience does appeal to females quite a bit.
Did you know the unique PS Vita game Gravity Rush is helmed by the Siren series director? 
