Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Ubisoft and a Chinese games publisher will be taking a close look at Lara Croft: Tomb Raider gamer maker SCi Entertainment (LON:SEG) of Wimbledon this morning (if this week’s Times report correctly identified the bidders circling the the company). But the Eidos holding company posted a £30 million loss for the year ending June, citing the timing of product launches and now lower prices at which its games on the old Playstation 2 are selling for.
– Platforms: It seems the developer had been caught unaware by the runaway success of Nintendo’s Wii and DS over other platforms, particularly Playstation 3, and has been a victim of the latest generation of Sony’s (NYSE: SNE) entertainment console. CEO Jane Cavanagh admitted there had been “challenges posed in a hardware transition year” but said SCi had invested in developing for other platforms and growing the new media business through acquiring online and mobile games outfits Rockpool Games, Bluefish Media and Morpheme
– PS3: It’s allocated £4 million to spend on PS3 development, but had a stark message for Sony: “The key driver to the acceleration of the installed base of Playstation 3 will be a further hardware price cut. Therefore, until such time that such a price move is announced by Sony, the board believes that it is prudent to increase our provision to £13.8m against the carrying value of certain capitalised development costs.”
– Buyers: SCi confirmed it received an offer from an unnamed suitor early this month and today said: “Since then, it has received further approaches and discussions are ongoing with a number of potential acquirers.” Reports have also speculated Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) may be interested. Analysts this week said Cavanagh would not want to sell for less than £5 per share. But the market did not like today’s update – shares slid 5.66 percent to £3.6275 this morning at time of writing.