SCi jubilant as Hitman, Tomb Raider beat projections

Both Tomb Raider: Legend and Hitman: Blood Money have sold above expectations in the financial year to June 30th, capping off an exceptionally strong year for London-based publisher SCi.

The firm issued a trading statement to the City this morning revealing that Tomb Raider sold 2.9 million units during the year, with Hitman clocking up 1.5 million - both figures which are above the group's internal projections.

The statement comes ahead of SCi's announcement of its results for the year, which will be the first full set of annual results to be issued since the firm took over its larger rival Eidos in mid-2005.

The company expects to be able to record a trading profit of GBP 25 million off the back of this success - and finished the year with cash of over GBP 30 million, double the market expectation of GBP 15.1 million.

Aside from the strong performance of both of its key products at retail, the stock market is likely to take note of the fact that both Tomb Raider and Hitman - and, indeed, all of the rest of the release schedule for the year - appeared when SCi had said they would, with every title planned for FY06 launching within that timescale.

That's particularly important in light of Eidos' damaging reputation for launching products late and for shipping incomplete or low quality products in order to meet financial years or quarters - an aspect of the firm's business with SCi has worked hard to overcome since taking over the company.

Also in today's trading statement, SCi confirmed that it is on track to significantly grow its release schedule for the coming year - with 19 titles due to ship in FY07, compared with just nine titles in FY06.