Eidos disappointed with Underworld sales

by Dustin Burg { Jan 9th 2009 at 10:00AM }

Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that Eidos' latest Lara Croft installment, Tomb Raider: Underworld, has failed to meet internal sales forecasts and that its performance has been disappointing.

"On a global basis our sell through to 31 December, which we estimate at approximately 1.5 million units, is below our internal forecasts," admitted an Eidos rep, adding that the lower than expected sales were "primarily due to a lower start in North America." Well, there's always a chance at financial success with Arkham Asylum.

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

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

DJcube @ Jan 9th 2009 10:07AM

I'd consider over 1 million to be a good number, even for multiformat games.

Urza @ Jan 9th 2009 11:31AM

You're right, it's not a bad number, especially for a company doing so bad.

Personally I think TRU might have done better had they not tried to hide 8.0 ratings and gotten such bad press over it. That to me is a good way of saying, "We know the game has it's problems and might suck, but we're releasing it anyway."

juank @ Jan 9th 2009 10:10AM

i hope this doesn't affect the future of the franchise,i loved underworld

OS Perry @ Jan 9th 2009 10:14AM

Well, take a tired franchise, that has been stale the last couple of releases, and release it during one of the most crowded, best reviewed Fall/Holiday sales for 360/PS3 titles in recent memory... Tomb Raider, got lost in the shuffle. Most people bought 3 or 4 games lets say for the holidays... on 360, it was probably Gears of War 2, Fable2, Fallout3, Prince of Persia (perhaps), Call of Duty World at War... shall I go on? They should have released it during a slower time... Kept it in the cooker looked at the release calendar like a lot of consumers do, and give a vague release date like Spring/Summer 09, and then find a month that is pretty dry and release it then. They got lost in the shuffle. With an average review of 75%, it is only a barely above average scored title, so people aren't going to make it their number 1 or 2 purchase... especially given that they have come up short, the past few games. Pretty simple really.

Larry @ Jan 9th 2009 10:44AM

Agreed. They should have pushed the game back to this year and released it in March or April.

Gemini Ace @ Jan 9th 2009 10:45AM

Pretty much what I was going to say. :-)

bioadam @ Jan 9th 2009 10:46AM

You said it man, especially considering the platforming gameplay was done better in "Mirror's Edge."

LegendaryRedass @ Jan 9th 2009 12:24PM

You're right about releasing it into a flooded market. But to the contrary, the last release, Legend, wasn't stale. It brought the series back from the brink that Eidos greedily hurtled it towards in a cash grab.

Cafecito @ Jan 9th 2009 2:23PM

They really should aim to bring Lara's design into the current gen. Give her a real-looking (not cartoony) face, and that's enough to boost sales. Heck, they can even use her official model as base. She's freakin' hot.

dabilee01 @ Jan 9th 2009 10:36AM

man, look at those puppies. i want to pet.

Neuromancer @ Jan 9th 2009 2:52PM

I was wondering when someone was going to make a boob comment. Took 10 posts, but it was worth it.

Rickmanx @ Jan 9th 2009 10:42AM

I got Underworld for Christmas and played the crap outta it. I couldn't put it down till I beat it so I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Honestly, I think the only reason it didn't catch on as good as it could of been is because of the crappy reviews web sites like IGN gave it. They complained about existing camera angle problems, yet I can only remember one time where the camera was a problem in the entire game, and it was minor. I swear I'm starting to HATE IGN with their pathetic reviews. Unfortunately they are also the most popular gaming website out there so they pull alot o' weight.

wargamer17 @ Jan 9th 2009 10:51AM

I was one of those people that bought most of the games that came out in Fall and I also had interest in the Tomb Raider games. I never owned one, but I played the others at my friend's house.

I tried the demo for Underworld and was very disappointed. I had so many issues with it. Most notably, issues with jumping and that. I would get onto a ledge, make sure the camera was in the right position and then jump. For some reason, even though the ledge was right in front of her, Lara wouldn't not grab it. I repeated it over and over again, and eventually, just randomly, it worked. Also happened many times on the columns.

Bought prince of persia and everything worked out just the way I wanted. Missed a few jumps by my mistake, but for the most part, they actually worked.

So, maybe it was just the demo and the game was good, but they should make it work in the demo, otherwise, it just turns you away. Sorry for long comment.

Miguel @ Jan 9th 2009 11:02AM

Played the demo, didnt like.

Buggy, combat sucked, and platforming was too easy to figure out but difficult to perform at times due to poor camera.

Add to that all the other games released this winter, I dont see how they expected any better.

LegendaryRedass @ Jan 9th 2009 12:17PM

The problem is it still has Eidos' name on it. Everyone remembers what they did to TR before Crystal Dynamics got a hold of it. Eidos almost killed the whole franchise, like what E.T. almost did to videogames in general. People don't forget that garbage. I was real tentative when Legend came out, and I wouldn't have got it if Eidos has developed it. Underworld is an excellent game and it should sell once people figure out a competent developer made it.

avada kadavra 9 @ Jan 9th 2009 12:17PM

Disappointed but are they surprised? Lara croft games have not changed since the first one, give the gamers something new and exciting not just a different artifact to go after guys. They game was dull if you ask me, not worth the buy if you want to see a woman in skin tight clothing just watch porn - or RENT this game.

Michael Paul @ Jan 9th 2009 2:37PM

I hate games that throw in what are, to ME anyway, stupid mini-games that require more button-mashing than I can manage so I never progress past that point.

TR: Legend has that water dragon thing that I tried dozens and dozens of times to get by but failed, so it's been maybe a year since I tried. Anniversary is still unwrapped, waiting for me to get the bad taste out of my mouth. Underworld would already have been bought, but again why throw money at the franchise if they don't provide a good experience?

It's not just them: The Simpsons had that D-pad-only dance thing near the end that my D-pad refused to work good enough on, so that got put away unfinished too...

save smith @ Jan 9th 2009 5:43PM

i pirated the game for the Wii and was very disappointed. lazy eidos developers couldn't even be bothered to code usage of the classic controller... you have to make do with annoying wiimote + nunchak
they should sack their developers and get some talent in. they wasted 4GB bandwidth + 5 hours of my time downloading