Turnover up, losses down as Bits Corp predicts turnaround

UK development studio Bits Corp has announced its financial results for the year ended March 2003, with improved turnover and reduced losses hoped to indicate a turning point in the company's fortunes.

Turnover for the year was £1.7 million, up from £994,000 in the previous year, while the after-tax loss for the group was £484,000 - as opposed to £1.74 million previously. The second half of the year was particularly strong, generating turnover of £1.1 million and a loss of only £16,000.

Although the first half of the year was hit by the publisher cancellation of a project based on original IP, which caused a substantial shortfall; however, the second half brought with it a deal with Fox Interactive to create Die Hard: Vendetta for the PS2, GameCube and Xbox.

Even more significantly, the team has a deal with Kemco to create a stealth action game - Rogue Ops - on all three major console platforms. The game was most recently shown off at London Games Week, where it received significant praise - in fact, we awarded it our "Best Surprise" award in the EG-GI Autumn Game Awards a few weeks ago.

"The year to 31 March 2003, and particularly the second six months, may well be looked upon as a turning point in the group's fortunes," according to Bits Corp chairman John Corre. "Whilst all of the new contracts signed recently are extremely encouraging, there is still a lot of hard work ahead in order to produce the games on time, and to use the platform now established with leading publishers to enable Bits to become one of the leading developers in the industry."