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PC Games (Games) PlayStation (Games) Entertainment Games

Tomb Raider Delays Worry Eidos 41

Posted by simoniker from the financial-year-or-bust-pledge-picks-latter dept.
Thanks to several readers for pointing to a Yahoo/Reuters report discussing the continued delays to Lara Croft: The Angel Of Darkness, the latest in Eidos Interactive's Tomb Raider series. As the article mentions, "Already delayed twice, 'Lara Croft: The Angel of Darkness' is slotted for a release on June 20th. But that's looking less likely.. the game has to be in stores by June 30th in order for the company to recognize sales [estimated to be 1.5 to 2.5 million units] for its current financial year." With rumors of a delay into July for another long-awaited title, Republic: The Revolution, Eidos definitely has cause for financial concern. But of course, gamers will probably forgive and forget if both of these titles turn out well, even after so many delays.
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Tomb Raider Delays Worry Eidos More

Tomb Raider Delays Worry Eidos

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  • I really hope... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Suicide ( 45320 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @03:30AM (#6230915) Homepage
    that one day, these idiots pushing games out the door start to understand htat we want finished games, not "sort of, but not really, but only because we said its not a beta" software.

    Yes, you hype a game before it comes out, if you hype too early, then people will lose interest, thats the risk you take when you start guessing at completion dates. Push out an early product, you may get more sales because more people are still interested, but they will not be happy with purchasing an unfinished product, and will tell their friends, post ot the net, etc...

    Yes, all choices with release dates are a gamble, unless you actually choose a realistic date with padding for safety. Then either hold release once finished until the chosen date, or just release early, giving the people who preordered a nice surprise.

    I'll wait for a good, finished game, and I think most others would too. But don't sell me unfinished junk, and expect me to wait for the patch, because I'll have already returned it, and will never look back.
    • The people at 3DRealms kinda agree on that, they want to bring out a game that's finished.
    • Where can you return computer video games without a hassle, even after you open them? I've tried Electronics Boutique and Walmart... both are a pain in the ass though.
    • Gamers may care, but gamers are just the market.

      The real reason to rush out a game is right there in the text:

      the game has to be in stores by June 30th in order for the company to recognize sales [estimated to be 1.5 to 2.5 million units] for its current financial year.

      As such, if they sink a lot of cash into the game, and don't have any return, the company may be fine but that appears on their books forever. Like, really forever.

      Even in news reports like "Games shop Eidos, who booked a loss of 1 kaz
  • is undergoing final checks to determine if there are any last minute bugs to rectify.

    Remember 'The Last Revelation' anyone? Classic bugs like platforms you needed to jump on over bottomless pits, that were actually invisible!
    I really hope they get this game right though, but the constant set-backs are not exactly making me confident.
    • I loved the first couple of Tomb Raiders. But imagine my horror when after several hours of happily playing Tomb Raider 2, the game crashed out on the penultimate level!! once I'd got past a certain point, the next time I pressed 'jump' the game would freeze. I emailed Eidos about this, being considerably annoyed to have to give up with the endgame in sight, only to be told that it was most likely to be a problem with my memory card. (probably by a bloke wearing that ThinkGeek tshirt, don't blame us, it's a
  • There will be a very funny comic about how noone cares at Penny Arcade tomorrow.

  • This is that "dark" one advertised ages ago, right (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Kris_J ( 10111 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @03:49AM (#6230983) Homepage Journal
    . But of course, gamers will probably forgive and forget if both of these titles turn out well, even after so many delays.
    Hence the concern at Eidos.

    Yet another illustration of why you shouldn't advertise products that aren't finished.

  • Eidos financal power (Score:2, Insightful)

    by neglige ( 641101 )
    I honestly don't think that the existance of Eidos depends on these two titles. And I get the feeling that delayed games are common nowadays (and I won't mention that tall, blonde dude that lets god sort them out...).

    It may even be better for Eidos: the longer the wait, the more people pre-order a title. And those will get the game before they can read any review. If the game is decent, well, no problem. If not, it is too late for the buyer and the company cashes in.

    Loss of reputation? Come on... you

    • Re:Eidos financal power (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Loss of reputation? Come on... you buy a game, not a game from a company

      you do? i certainly do pay attention to the company im buying from. most companies, all except blizzard actually, i wont buy a game until its been out 3 months, or i have played it and know its done.
    • Loss of reputation? Come on... you buy a game, not a game from a company. If a reputation could really be damaged from a bad game, Sierra would have died after "Outpost" (the only game that made me write a letter to the publisher).

      For the most part, I agree... except that I kinda liked Outpost. (I don't understand why so many people hated it, but oh well.) I do pay attention to what company it's from. Blizzard is a good example. Name a bad game from Blizzard. Also, how about Acclaim? Name a good game fro

  • I thought we were done with this (Score:4, Insightful)

    by lidocaineus ( 661282 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @04:29AM (#6231132)
    Has anyone really cared about Tomb Raider since the first one? I mean the first one was somewhat original (and even kind of cool if you played the funky Saturn version). Tomb Raider 2 wasn't bad, but it was already going downhill at that point. By the time The Last Revelation came out, most people had a serious hatred or Lara Croft.

    Then again, those are more avid gamers, not the casual ones, who seem to enjoy Lara's adventits... I mean adventures. When I heard about Angel of Darkness, I wasn't even mildly interested. Has there been some kind of groundbreaking graphical and gameplay developments that have lifted the series out of the mire?

    As to whether it's vital for Eidos, I dunno. Like I said, the casual gamer clearly knows who Lara Croft is, and maybe it's just an easy way to maintain market mindshare. Those who aren't really into games more than fleetingly haven't really heard of things like "Deus Ex".
    • The Tomb Raider games were great, with the exception of Tomb Raider 3. Give the "originality" thing a rest. There haven't been really original games coming out anyways (gee, Wolfenstein 3D, real original). I will agree with you that Eidos has a nasty habit of releasing games -- especially Tomb Raider ones -- before they're really ready, and then never cleaning up their mess. However, the games are still fun, and some of the bugs are actually useful (like the jump-bug).
      • Well, like I said; the original was fun, and the second wasn't bad, but you have to admit, the series quickly grew stale, barely added innovations besides a few different moves, and the graphical engine was hardly even touched throughout the past games.
        And yes, it *was* quite original at the time; previously, there had been no real 3d platformer type games, which Tomb Raider at its heart really is. And originality doesn't always have to revolve around pioneering new, unseen types of gameplay (REZ, an exc
        • Which is why Eidos keeps on making it. People keep on buying it. Lots of them. there's also a dedicated fan-base, as there is for Descent (D2X and D1X have been made to allow older versions of Descent to use OpenGL).
          • You do have to admit however that large fanbases does not equal quality (as seen in everything from Brittany Spears to Windows), but I'm glad you like it as that's the point of any game you purchase - to have fun.

            • true (Score:2)

              by dh003i ( 203189 )
              Descent never had a particularly large fan-base, yet it was one of the most solid games I've ever played (still play all 3 games).

              The question regarding Tomb Raider is, will it be a classic. I think it will. Don't know about all of the sequels, but they're still fun.

            • PS (Score:2)

              by dh003i ( 203189 )
              Who ever said Britney Spears doesn't make quality music? Not saying it's the Beethoven of this century (maybe John Williams in that category), but it's good music imo.
    • Judging by the screenshots and movies, graphics are already outdated. May be because of long development time (they only updated the engine long ago), may be because of limited power of current consoles. It's nothing to be proud about in 2003. Of course, they abandoned the cube-based levels, but no other improvements in graphics can be seen. Lara's own model is as blocky as ever. I guess, that's on the official site Eidos only shows postage-stamp-sized screenshots (340x230).

  • Not true at all, Simon. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Inoshiro ( 71693 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @04:33AM (#6231150) Homepage
    "But of course, gamers will probably forgive and forget if both of these titles turn out well, even after so many delays."

    It'd be nice if that was true, but it's not. The moment you miss a target on an 18 month game development cycle, and don't address the issue, you've set yourself up for failure. Look at Daikatana. They slipped, and ended up having to get a new gaming engine (Quake 2). The results? They had to redo all the maps, QA testing, entity models, etc, just as if they'd started from scratch. The only difference was that they still had wasted all that money on the previous version.

    Duke Nukem Forever is in the same situation. Because they were unwilling to release the versions based on the Unreal engine and the Quake engines, they've effectively flushed all the money they spent on those development branches down the toilet.

    When you look at it this way, you realize that unless people will pay a couple hundred dollars a copy (or whatever it takes to make up for late shipping), you will be losing money in the long run compared to shipping on time. No game is that good.

    • Re:Not true at all, Simon. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by D.A. Zollinger ( 549301 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @07:19AM (#6231629) Homepage Journal
      I have to disagree, because Half Life shipped over a year late, and it went on to become arguably the best game ever made. I fully believe with all my heart what Gabe Newell said when justifying the delay of the game, "A game can only be late once, but it can suck forever."

      Diakatana slipped for the wrong reason, and instead of making it right, they rushed it out the door. I am not sure if the same can be said about Duke, after all, Perhaps by not rushing it out the door after changing the 3D engines, they may have refocused themselves on developing a first class game. But after seeing the HL2 technology demonstration, Duke Nukem would have to jump out of my monitor and punch me in the face to impress me.

      Half Life won big because when it shipped, it was just about perfect. It made its money serindipitously by being a mod makers heaven, which attracted more players and more developers, and kept feeding off of itself. I know people who play TFC and CS, DoD and NS (all very popular HL mods) who have never played the original single player game all of this technology is based off of. Hell, less than a week before I heard any rumblings about HL2, mod makers for the original were still coming up with original ideas for modifications that looked enjoyable and fun to play! I suspect that Valve is going to repeat their feat by coming out with an incredible game, and providing people like you and I the tools we need to make our own modified versions of the game.


      • About perfect?!?!? That is really very funny. Maybe you bought Half-Life this weekend at Best Buy but Half-Life was FAR FAR from perfect. I managed to install it (yes the installer mostly worked.) then proceeded to D/L a 5MB patch. A week later the patch had swelled to 26 MB and is CURRENTLY 82 MB!! A game requiring an 82 MB patch is not "perfect"

        OTOH when Half-Life came out, I regularly repeated "Hell, nothing works out of the box". Still, 82 Freakin' Megabytes.

        I'm just sore, the missus won't let
        • About perfect?!?!? That is really very funny. Maybe you bought Half-Life this weekend at Best Buy but Half-Life was FAR FAR from perfect. I managed to install it (yes the installer mostly worked.) then proceeded to D/L a 5MB patch. A week later the patch had swelled to 26 MB and is CURRENTLY 82 MB!! A game requiring an 82 MB patch is not "perfect"

          That 82MB patch includes at least 3 mods (TFC, DMC, Ricochet?), and some updated models/content for the base game. It's not even close to 82MB of bug fixes.

          The
  • anyone that's looking forward to a rehash with almost nothing added should be in for what they expect. if you were looking for a great game featuring everyone's favorite (by default) gun toting female archeologist, you're going to be disappointed.

    Republic on the other hand, I haven't gotten hands on yet, but it does look to be a very intriguing game. it's certainly a fairly fresh concept. the gameplay will make or break it, but I'm looking forward to it.

  • I suspect the reason Eidos is worried is because they wanted to time the release of the game with the new Lara Croft movie in June. Like the Hulk, Spiderman, X-Men, and The Matrix these games get a huge boost in sales based on how close they are tied to the marketing of their movie. They spend millions on tie-ins for the films. Heck, the last Lara Croft movie had a cereal, candy bar and I think even a special edition Hummer...or some other car...I didn't pay too much attention.
  • when is the new one coing out...i hear the movie is coming out sometime this summer..will the game be out before the movie. I hope this one is a good one..cant wait to check it out
  • To be honest with you, I'm kind of glad they decided to double check their work and make sure that we get the best product possible. I give kudos to Eidos. I understand that a July launch would doom its key sales targets for this year, but if they could wait until July 28 when the movie "The Cradle of Life" comes out, they could do what the Matrix did and have a big franchise with the game and the movie. Eidos would make a killing cause everyone loves Lara Croft. That would even give them more time to get
  • I hope they plan on using a new engine for this upcoming release.. the last engine was looking dated by the second game and looked really bad by the last one..

  • Sorry boys, all BS ! (Score:2, Informative)

    by ballpoint ( 192660 )
    Seems like it IS coming out on schedule:

    Lara Storms Store Shelves This Weekend! [yahoo.com]

  • Nobody plays Tomb Raider games anymore.

    Did the last one even crack the sales charts?

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