Rival games developer Rage Software may have snapped up the services of England captain David Beckham to plug its new football game, but Empire Interactive has hit back by securing the services of ex-Scotland international, turned TV pundit Ally McCoist. The ITV presenter has been brought in to endorse Empire's new football management simulation game 'Director of Football'. The game is the first of five PC titles Empire is planning to launch in the second half of this year. However, the real leap forward is expected in early 2002 when a series of games are released to coincide with the European launch of two new platforms, Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's Gamecube. With these factors due to culminate early next year, chief executive Ian Higgins professes to being confident of 'a move into profitability...in 2002'. Yet figures for the six months to June already reflect an impressive level of organic growth, turnover surging 271% to £4.56m. The one disappointment for Empire was at the pre-tax line, where a 14% drop in gross margins meant that losses were reduced by just £400,000 to £1.63m. Higgins attributed the drop in margin to a large proportion of first half sales coming from a back catalogue of mainly 'low priced and budget titles'. Speculative punt on an intriguing sector.