Summary
There hasn’t been a newTomb Raidergame in nearly ten years, aside from the remastered collections. In that time, a lot has changed behind the scenes at the House of Croft.
In 2022,Square Enix sold developers Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montréal, as well as several legendary IPs — including Tomb Raider — to Embracer Group for $300 million. Even before the deal was closed, the Karlstad-based publisher expressed an interest in sequels and remasters. However, Eidos-Montréal, Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s developer (Crystal Dynamics stepped into a support role while it focused onMarvel’s Avengers), instead began work on a new Deus Ex game,only for it to be cancelled in 2024.
Little has been said about a new Tomb Raider game in the years since the acquisition, other thanAmazon striking a deal with Crystal Dynamics to develop the next major entry, but as reported byVideoGamer, a new job listing shows that the long-awaited sequel is still in the works, and might even be nearing the end of its development. Though, fair warning, it’s worth taking that claim with a grain of salt.
“We’re Looking For A Seasoned Designer”
Crystal Dynamics islooking to hire a senior level designerwho will “Spearhead strike teams as a high-impact individual contributor”. Strike teams can mean that a game is in the final stages of development, as explained inGame Developer’s postcard from GDC Europe, so the new Tomb Raider might be nearing completion after nearly a decade. But that’s not always the case.
According to various leaks,the new game will see Lara Croft as an ‘icon’ in her own world, with younger ‘Tomb Raiders’ looking up to her. It will also see Croft protecting the historical integrity of artifacts, rather than ‘Tomb Raiding’ for them.
Strike teams are typically brought in as a short-term, cross-discipline group of developers to laser in on a high-priority issue (such as the game being unstable and needing to be optimised so that it can be playtested). As they drop all other responsibilities to focus on one area of a game, wires can get crossed between departments, leading to confusion of authority. That’s why NCSoft in particular (cited in the GDC postcard) often used strike teams towards the end of development. However, it also used them towards the end of milestones or even in the alpha stage, so it’s not a set rule.
Either way, that’s one company from 20 years ago — it doesn’t necessarily apply here, and plenty has changed about game development in the decades since. But even if Tomb Raider isn’tnearing the end of its development, it’s a sign of life, and with no other news, that’s something.
