THINGS are looking good at Eidos, the software company responsible for bringing pneumatic cybersleuth Lara Croft to computer screens worldwide.

The Tomb Raider character was the driving force behind better-than-expected annual profits for Eidos.

There had been fears that delays in getting copies of the long-awaited latest sequel of the game - Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness - to the shops would adversely affect Eidos's financial performance.

But the London group said all but 500,000 units of the game had been shipped on time, quelling earlier fears that distribution of one million copies could fall outside the company's financial year, ending June 30.

Eidos made £17.4m profit before tax, compared with losses of £15.3m for the same period last year.

The remaining 500,000 copies left for shops in July, following the company's warning over delayed shipments to Europe.