No TimeSplitters 3 for Eidos

Having announced this morning that it would part ways with Sports Interactive and develop its own version of Championship Manager, Eidos' financial results for the year ended June '03 have revealed that the publisher will not be pursuing the chance to work on TimeSplitters 3 with Free Radical. And as the TS intellectual property belongs entirely to Free Radical, presumably this spells the end of the two companies' involvement for now.

Meanwhile Eidos financials were fairly positive, with turnover up 30 per cent year on year and a reversal of last year's pre-tax loss, but of the four "pillar" titles (named because they shipped over a million units), TimeSplitters looks to be going elsewhere, Championship Manager will have to be redeveloped in the long run and may never regain its former glory, and Tomb Raider was so dire that the Eidos switched development of the franchise over the Crystal Dynamics in the US. That leaves Hitman, and with developer Io Interactive shipping the rather excellent Freedom Fighters with EA, there's a question mark over the future of that relationship too.

But then again those aren't the only games Eidos has on its books. The publisher claims its pillar titles for financial year 2004 will be Commandos 3, Backyard Wrestling, SI swansong Championship Manager Season 03/04, Legacy of Kain: Defiance, Deus Ex: Invisible War and Hitman 3: Contracts. As a line-up, it should keep the publisher in the black this year, but looking beyond, things are a little bit hazy.