Eidos grabs bigger slice of US games market

Strong sales of the video games Hitman 2: Silent Assassin and TimeSplitters 2 have helped Eidos grab its biggest share of the US market in more than four years.

The London-based creator of the character Lara Croft, who features in the Tomb Raider video game series, reached a market share of 6.9 per cent in the US in October, putting it behind Take-Two Interactive Software and Electronic Arts, according to figures from the Toy Retail Sales Tracking Service, Eidos spokesman James Crampton told the Bloomberg newswire.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, which plays on Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox consoles and on personal computers, was the third-biggest selling game, Eidos said.

Shares in Eidos, which makes about a third of its sales in the US, added 6.25p to 131.5p. The stock was hammered late last month when Eidos delayed the release of two video games, including a new version of Tomb Raider, to February. Investors were disappointed that the games would miss the crucial Christmas sales period.

In the year to October, Eidos did not have any titles in the 10 best-selling video games in the US, where Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto 3 topped the charts, according to NPD Group, a market research company.

US consumers are expected to spend $4bn (£2.5bn) on video games software and equipment by the end of the year, boosted by demand for Christmas gifts, NPD said.

In the UK, Eidos is ranked number two, behind Electronic Arts, with a market share of 9.9 per cent, Mr Crampton said.