Lara sends Eidos sales through the roof

The game was guaranteed to sell well thanks to it being the successor to the huge-selling Tomb Raider, and the massive hype generated by teenagers' pixel-based icon, Lara Croft. But Eidos told the City yesterday that sales across its range had sky-rocketed even faster than expected with preliminary estimates indicating Eidos sold about four million games in the key October-December quarter of 1997, doubling the 1996 total for the year-ago quarter.

As a result, Eidos said it expected significantly better profits when it declares its fiscal year end on March 31.

Some analysts now expect Eidos to report full-year pre-tax profit of over £15 million on sales of £130 million, compared to a profit of £7.6 million on £75.5 million revenues the year earlier.

Games experts said sales of Tomb Raider II and surprise package football management simulation Championship Manager 97/98 have been particularly successful.