The company recorded a year on year drop in turnover to £6.9 million for the six months ended January 31, down from £9.3 million the year before, mostly due to a significant fall in royalty income which was only partially offset by a 20 per cent rise in advances. A pre-tax loss of £1.1 million in the period compares with a profit of £4 million last year, although the company did make a small profit if goodwill and impairment charges are discounted.
During the reporting period, Argonaut’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets title was released, and predictably enough sold over a million units – becoming the sixth game created by the studio to do so, which isn’t a bad track record by anyone’s standards. However, the company’s frontline Xbox (and now PS2) title, Malice, has been delayed until Autumn of this year despite being initially demoed to journalists and trade long before the Xbox first launched.
Although disappointed with the delay in the completion of Malice, Argonaut is pleased with the success of the latest Harry Potter title as well as our strong pipeline of games for the rest of the current financial year and for next year, commented chairman Julian Paul.
The company does certainly continue to grow its resource base, and now employs 284 staff – compared to 186 at this point last year. This larger pool of talent is no doubt at least partially responsible for the impressive 2003 release schedule the company has planned, which includes SKUs being published by Microsoft, Vivendi, Lego, Sierra and Namco, with six titles (13 SKUs) currently fully signed and scheduled.
Source: Gamesindustry.biz
