The UK’s leading publisher, SCi Entertainment, released its third fiscal quarter financial results today, showing that the revenue generated in the past six months is expected to exceed 70 million Euros ($90 million)–a 40% increase over the 50 million Euros ($65 million) generated during the same period last year. The increase in revenue is attributed to strong sales of titles like the action/RPG superhero game Justice League Heroes, which sold over a million copies, and the action game Just Cause, which also sold over a million units–a sequel is currently in production. Older titles contributed to the increased revenue too, such as the continued sales of Lego Star Wars, which has sold over 5.4 million copies, Hitman: Blood Money, and Tomb Raider: Legend.
SCi discussed its future game releases, as well. Battlestations: Midway, an action/RTS game, will be released for the Xbox 360 and PC next week; Tomb Raider Anniversary, a reimagination of the original Tomb Raider using the Tomb Raider: Legend engine, will be released on the PS2, PSP, and PC in April 2007; and the company’s first Wii games–starting with Bionicle Heroes–will be released sometime in Spring 2007. Future releases include continual sequels for Tomb Raider, Hitman, and Championship Manager, along with new IPs, such as action co-op game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, strategy game Crossfire for the PC and 360, and MMORPG Age of Conan for the PC.
In early December, Warner Bros. bought 10% of SCi, planning to deliver 20 games beginning in 2008. This financial report didn’t disclose any new information about the games, but SCi will license the rights to various Warner Bros. IPs–such as Batman and Looney Tunes–to various companies. SCi’s publishing arm, Eidos Interactive, will retain publishing rights of these games in North America.
