Eidos, the computer games maker which issued a profits warning on Tuesday after weak sales in the run up to Christmas, has been thrown a potential lifeline by a deal to distribute its Tomb Raider game on Sega's new Dreamcast console.

The agreement follows the end of a contract with Sony to format the series exclusively for the Playstation and PCs and could provide a fillip for the Eidos share price. Yesterday, shares in the company slipped another 2.5% to £25.48 after losing a third of their value on the back of the warning.

"This will bail them out after the last couple of weeks which have been a disaster," said one media analyst. "Tomb Raider is a pretty decent franchise and they could get away another half a million on the back of Dreamcast which would add perhaps £5m to profits this year."

Sega hopes that Dreamcast, which has a built-in modem for internet access and online playing, will enable it to get back into contention in a market which has been dominated in recent years by Sony. Sega claims to have sold 250,000 Dreamcast consoles in Britain alone since launch at the end of last year.

Eidos made pre-tax profits of £37.9m last year on sales of £226.3m.