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Harry Potter works his magic for Argonaut

Muggles rejoice as barren spell ends with profitable quarter...

By Sonya Rabbitte

Published: 12 March 2002 12:22 GMT

Argonaut Games, the computer games vendor, has turned in its first profit in two years after a Harry Potter game it developed topped the PlayStation charts.

The boy wizard worked his magic on Argonaut's results, boosting first half revenue to £9.3m - up from £1.5m this time last year.

First half profit rose to £4m, compared with a loss of £1.6m last year.

The company said it was its first profitable period since going public in 2000.

The game, based on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, went straight to number one in the PlayStation charts when it was released in November 2001 and stayed there for 12 weeks.

Argonaut said it expects second half results to be further boosted by Harry Potter royalties, before releasing a second version of the game in the next financial year.

Harry Potter also worked wonders for Amazon's first profitable period. The e-tailer sold £5m worth of merchandise in the run up to last Christmas.

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