People say Jane Cavanagh, the founder of the SCi Entertainment Group, has just released the company's 2007 annual report where they revealed that sequels to the Tomb Raider, Hitman, and some of their other IPs are in development. There's an uneasy air surrounding its emergence, however, since SCi's own investors called for the ousting of Cavanagh a few months ago. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

SCi Entertainment, the company that owns the Tomb Raider franchise, is currently experiencing an upheaval. Owing to falling shares and the lack of offers to purchase the company, shareholders are now demanding for the resignation of Jane Cavanagh, founder and chief executive of the company. Details in the full article.

It looks like Lara Croft won't be getting a new daddy any time soon. Contrary to prior reports that Ubisoft will be vying for SCi Entertainment, the company who owns the rights to one of the video gaming world's most popular female characters, it was announced by a spokesman that "Ubisoft has no intention of making an offer for SCI-Eidos."

Although Ubisoft won't be bidding for any shares to SCi Entertainment, SCi has been considering a number of potential buyers whose identities they were not willing to reveal just yet.

It looks like anybody who's interested in owning the hand of the fair Miss Croft won't find it cheap either. Analysts have reported that SCi management, led by Chief Executive Jane Cavanagh, will not accept anything less than 500 pence (around US$ 10) a share and could lead to something as high as GBP 300 million (US$ 600 million).

The three biggest bidders previously reported were Time Warner, Ubisoft, and an unnamed Chinese company. Ubisoft, however, explained that SCi's valutation did not fit with Ubisoft's "profitability criteria." In other words, the game for SCi's bid was just a little to rich for its blood.

Ubisoft's spokesman explained it further saying "we are looking at other opportunities for external and internal growth which can create more potential value for shareholders."

Eidos apparently believes that Kane & Lynch: Dead Men has the potential to replicate the success of Hitman. According to MCV UK, SCi CEO Jane Cavanagh revealed even though the game hasn't been released yet, a sequel is already in production.

"We've already got Kane & Lynch 2 in production, which just goes to show the belief we have in it as a long-term franchise", Cavanagh said. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) is being developed by IO Interactive, the same studio behind the successful Hitman series.

Eidos is also reportedly pumping a lot of money behind the marketing drive for Kane and Lynch: Dead Men. According to reports from MCV, Eidos is dishing out more money into the game's marketing than it did for any game in the Tomb Raider series.


Buy: [Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (PC)]
Buy: [Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (PS3)]

It looks like whether we like it or not, more in-game advertising is coming our way as Eidos Interactive has just announced a three-year deal with in-game advertising specialists Double Fusion.

The deal between the two companies will cover ten Eidos titles, all currently in various stages of development. The ads will reportedly range from dynamically-served advertisements, which can be rotated or changed after the games' release, to deep integrations and product placements.

Eidos Interactive Chief Executive Jane Cavanagh had the following to say regarding the deal: "This is an exciting and innovative opportunity for Eidos, we're delighted to be working with Double Fusion and we fully believe that our titles will offer the perfect platform for the right media partners."

It seems that Eidos Interactive will not be releasing any of its big PlayStation 3 titles until next year. This is despite the successful launch of the PS3. The company feels that the console's installed base is not high enough right now and that it is expecting the market to be saturated enough to release big name titles by the second half of 2008.

CEO Jane Cavanagh said, "We believe that PlayStation 3 will be a successful platform, and are developing technology and products for this console." While these are encouraging words from the CEO about Sony's PS3, she also mentioned that they don't believe that the "installed base will be high enough until the second half of our 2008 financial year" for them to release high profile games.

Eidos is credited for two chart-topping games in the UK (Just Cause and Battlestations Midway) during the second half of last year. But until next year, we should not expect any major games on the PS3 from Eidos. We just wonder how this is going to affect the PlayStation 3's standing in the console wars.