Lara Croft Returning February 2013 as ‘Tomb Raider’ Reboot Delayed

E3 footage teased as much-anticipated title latest to be pushed back.

Wasn’t 2012 meant to be the calm-down year after 2011’s AAA titles? Apparently not

2011 brought The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and yet another Call of Duty title. It was the year when wallets emptied at a record pace, and we thought it was a one-off. It wasn’t, unfortunately: 2012 and 2013 are bringing more releases, even if next-gen consoles are releasing.

One of those titles was meant to be ‘Tomb Raider,’ the reboot to the long-running dungeon-exploring franchise. The reboot re-introduces Lara as she is getting started as an archaeologist, after the franchise has had its ups-and-downs since its origin during the PlayStation 1 era. Originally scheduled to release later this year, it’s now been delayed until February 2013.

The news came from Eidos’ Tom Raider forum where Darrell Gallagher – head of Crystal Dynamics – announced the delay. He said in the post on the forums the studio had two goals when building the Tomb Raider reboot: a modern Tomb Raider games, and the best game of their careers (quite a challenge – the studio delivered Tomb Raider: Legends to a strong critical reception).

He also said the studio believes they are developing something special, but want to deliver a game that is of the very highest quality. Therefore, the release date has been removed from Fall 2012 to February 2013.

Recurring trend?

The news sounds awfully similar to BioShock Infinite’s delay, where 2K Games basically said they moved the game back due to wanting to add additional features. Honestly, I think it’s more of a case of studios wanting to separate themselves from the monster that is Call of Duty … and Halo 4.

Gallagher added the team wants to bring polish to the game, and will be shown at E3 2012 which runs from June 5-7 in LA. The game was revealed last month, showing a sequence where Lara is hastily crawling through a cave as she tries to survive. The game featured quick-time events – tolerable in small doses, so hopefully they aren’t pervasive – before she escaped into the open world. Whether this gets me jumping back into Tomb Raider is unknown, but it seemed to have an edge-of-your-seat feel.