Lara Croft is to get a makeover after the digital heroine’s waning popularity in the United States forced its publisher to admit that sales would fall about £20 million short of what had been hoped.

Eidos is considering revising the look and play of her Tomb Raider adventures, which may see efforts to make her more female-friendly, in an attempt to revive sales of games starring the pneumatic archaeologist.

Robert Brent, the chief financial officer of Eidos, said: “We need to look at everything, as we develop the next game. Look at how Batman changed succesfully, from the rather sad character of the Michael Keaton era to the noir style of The Dark Knight.”

Lara Croft’s latest adventure, Tomb Raider: Underworld sold 1.5 million copies in its first six weeks, about 500,000 fewer than was expected, at a time when computer games sales are booming as the latest generation of consoles become increasingly widespread.

Full-year revenue at the company in the year to June 30 will be £160 million to £180 million, instead of the £180 million to £200 million previously forceast, as a result of the disappointment.

It is 12 years since Ms Croft first burst on to the scene, but after eight games, the commercial pressure she faces has never been greater.

Almost all of the shortfall in sales stemmed from lower volumes and lower prices in the US market, where the market for male-oriented games remains intense with titles such as Call of Duty, a Second World War drama, or Prince of Persia, competing for attention.

Piers Harding-Rolls, an analyst with Screen Digest, said: “Lara is still looked on with affection in Britain and Europe, but sequels don’t necessarily go on for ever. The market in America is very competitive and if a game is not selling, retailers simply stop stocking it.”

Lara Croft has historically been Eidos’s biggest property – and a flag carrier for Britain’s computer game business – but Underworld will now struggle to match the previous release. Tomb Raider Legend, which came out in 2006, sold more than 3 million worldwide, whereas the current game will struggle to pass two million.

Mr Brent said: “Europe was fine, but America was not as anticipated. You would normally expect Tomb Raider sales to be split half and half between Europe and North America, but this time America was considerably below that.”

Eidos shares fell 30 per cent to 12p yesterday, after this latest in many years of profit warnings at the games company, which has repeatedly disappointed under various incarnations and management teams, most recently as SCi Entertainment.

The last time that a Lara Croft game struggled, Angel of Darkness in 2003, Eidos was taken over by SCi, which at the time was far smaller. But SCi’s management team, led by Jane Cavanagh, was ousted last year.

Eidos gave a warning that, as a result of the problems, it may run up a debt before the launch of its next big game, Batman Arkham Asylum that is greater than is allowed under the terms of its lending. The company warned its shareholders that it might “need to enter discussions with our lending bank regarding our June 2009 covenants”.

The problems in the United States are all the more surprising given that Eidos has started to work in the country with Time Warner, the extensive media organisation and its largest shareholder.

Time Warner holds 20 per cent of the shares in Eidos, having helped to bail out the company last year, but the company has not adjusted to the business of dealing with computer games.

The lowdown on Lara

— Lara Croft began her life in development in 1993, under the name Laura Cruz. Lara, though, was deemed to be more appealing to Americans, and Croft was selected as it was decided she was British

— Her proportions are said to be the result of a design error, when Toby Gard, a graphic artist, accidentally increased her bust-size to 150 per cent of what he intended it to be. The error proved popular with the rest of the design team, and he was persuaded to retain her physique

— Tomb Raider games have sold more than 33 million copies since the first title was released in 1996 – and the two films, starring Angelina Jolie, have grossed $275 million and $157 million. Eidos executives remain interested in future films, although it is not clear whether any Hollywood studio is willing

— Lara Croft and Tomb Raider have been used as an inspiration for theme park rides and for promoting Lucozade (which briefly changed its name to Larazade) and in May 1997 Lara appeared on the front cover of the style magazine The Face

— Douglas Coupland, the author of Generation X, once said of Lara: “Her body is central to her existence and yet she doesn’t really have a body; this drives people nuts, but it certainly doesn’t drive them away”

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