Hi stx,
This leaves me with the impression that eidsy does not control the TR franchise and Lara Croft indefinitely, but dependently. Is this the case?
Eidos does control the TR franchise, but what Jeff is referring to is that Eidos signed an agreement with Sony that prohibits them from publishing Tomb Raider games on any console besides Sony's until sometime in 2000 (though Eidos may publish the TR games for PC or Mac). In all the scenarios Jeff raises, he is describing options available to Eidos.
Jeff, with regards to your comments, those are definitely some possibilities. I'm not sure, though, about the Lara-as-mascot idea (though the Playstation has definitely been criticized for not having a clear mascot until the last year when Crash Bandicoot pretty much emerged as the PSX mascot) -- every console mascot so far has been the property of the console maker (Nintendo's Mario, Sega's Sonic, Sony's Crash Bandicoot), and I'm not sure Eidos would give up Lara to Sony. To be honest, I think it's pretty hard to predict what Eidos will do in 2000 because the 1999-2001 timeframe is the transition period to the next generation of consoles, making it a bit tough to predict things right now. Anyway, those're just my thoughts. I'd appreciate others. :-)
Harry |
