17. SCi/Eidos

FY07 Revenue: $285M, -24% (Rank: 17)
FY07 Profit/Loss: -$197M (Rank: 17)
Titles in Global Top 100: 2 (Rank: 11)
Units in Global Top 100: 1.3M (Rank: 14)
Review Average: 68% (Rank: 9)



Explanation of Ranking: With revenues between $275 and $375 million in the past two fiscal years, SCi/Eidos is a bigger publisher than those below it on this list. However, it also lost a tremendous amount of money in the past year.

Eidos made its name on games like Tomb Raider and Hitman, but in the past year it has tried to create new action experiences with Kane & Lynch: Dead Men and Conflict: Denied Ops, both for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The publisher has also been building a presence in casual games with titles like Diner Dash on the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP and My Best Friends: Cats and Dogs on the Nintendo DS. Outside of the U.S. Eidos publishes the popular Championship Manager series in which a player can manage a football (i.e. soccer) team.

Eidos has also made the leap into the MMORPG market with its recent launch of Age of Conan for Windows PCs. (An Xbox 360 version is planned.) Within a year any financial gain, or loss, from this venture should be visible in the company's public documentation.

Perhaps the most important title for Eidos in the second half of 2008 will be Tomb Raider: Underworld, the second new episode in Lara Croft's adventures developed by Crystal Dynamics. Unlike Tomb Raider: Legend, which received a perfunctory port on the Xbox 360, the new game will be built with the new consoles as the target platforms.