More Developers Lose Their Jobs

More sad news has emerged, as UK publisher Eidos Interactive has announced that sales of Tomb Raider Underworld didn’t hit its internal forecast, resulting in the publisher’s share dropping 25% and most likely contributing to approximately 30 employees losing their jobs.

The Crystal Dynamics developed game had sold 1.5 million units by the end of the year, which in a period of just a month and a half or sales in such a packed season, seems rather respectable. This didn’t stop shares falling sharply (which has since recovered slight though) as Eidos announced the sales missed expectations, which begs the question, how high were they aiming?

“In a difficult North American economy we have seen retailers restricting inventory levels and triple-A products being price discounted above our expectation,” the company stated, before revising its expected revenues to £160-180m, down from £180-200m.

Following this news, Eidos confirmed to Joystiq that approximately 30 employees have been let go, stating the reason for the layoffs, “We have increased the focus on the Tomb Raider franchise at Crystal Dynamics, regrettably this has resulted in the reduction in headcount.” 

In a time of mass layoffs left, right and center across the gaming industry, it seems unfortunate that Eidos overestimated the appeal of Lara in such a competitive time frame. It seems apparent that even the games industry isn’t safe from the gloomy economy.