Empire Interactive, which warned of wider losses than expected for 2002 back in January, gained on news of an exclusive deal with Take-Two to distribute its eagerly awaited Starsky & Hutch title throughout North America, under license from Sony Pictures Consumer Products. The pleasing news follows an earlier statement that it was hunting an alternative distribution partner for the game based on the cult 70's TV series for North America - Vivendi Universal Games has separate rights for France, Germany and Australasia. Take-Two is the New York-based, Nasdaq-listed games developer and distributor and publisher that has spawned the top two Playstation2 games of all time and its subsidiary Gotham Games will market and distribute the game in the US and Canada. In March, chief executive officer Ian Higgins announced some mildly encouraging 2002 numbers. Pre-tax losses narrowed by 25% to £1.8m and the loss per share was shorn by 31% to 2.72p, on turnover boosted by 126% to £25m. However, though year-end cash was £2m, debtors in the year increased by £2m to £3.7m and Empire Interactive also reported a £3.8m cash outflow, against an inflow of £251,000. On the plus side, the company has snapped up exciting licence wins for Hollywood properties like Bad Boys 2 and Bulletproof Monk. Speculative stuff.