EIDOS TALKS TOMB RAIDER ANNIVERSARY
Copyright 2006 www.tombraiderchronicles.com

[ August 16th 2006 ]

Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary - Eidos' homage to video-game icon Lara Croft currently being developed by U.S. studio Crystal Dynamics - will release in 2007, according to Ian Livingstone.

Speaking to Games Industry, Livingstone says: "We've also made plans for an anniversary edition which will be coming out next year, based on Lara Croft, due to the fact that we've just gone past her 10th birthday, and there's another game in development too.

Ian Livingstone also broaches on the debacle that was The Angel Of Darkness, suggesting that Core Design had moved away from its roots with Lara Croft's sixth adventure as the reason for its critical mauling.

"Well there are a number of reasons, to my mind. Core had executed five games on PlayStation year-on-year, and they'd done that brilliantly within the time scale. You know, a new version each year is an amazing achievement, and they'd done brilliantly with it.

"But I guess, with the benefit of hindsight, they never really made the step up to PlayStation 2's requirements and perhaps they were a little tired - I was going to say burned out, but tired of working on that franchise. I think a sixth game on a new platform was perhaps a bridge too far.

"So we ended up with a game that had moved away from its roots, where the camera was all over the place, the control was very difficult and she was wandering around environments that the fan didn't want to be in.

"The empty streets of Paris, for example. It wasn't the game it should have been, and yet despite that it sold over 2 million copies. So we knew the fan base was still there and they forgave her.

"Obviously we had to figure out what to do next, and we made the bold decision to move her to Crystal Dynamics, because they had the technology and were looking at the franchise with fresh eyes.

"They'd done some wonderful graphic stuff with Legacy of Kain and some other games they've developed, and we thought they were the ideal studio to work on Lara Croft. That's proved very much to be the case."

Despite domestic indifference to Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life, Livingstone confirms Eidos is still negotiating with Paramount Pictures for a third Tomb Raider motion picture, with Oscar winner Angelina Jolie at the helm.

"We're also talking to Paramount about a third movie, although nothing's been signed yet and we still need to hire a script writer. The film's not been green lit yet, so for me it'd be ideal to tie in a movie script with a game script at the same time, to have them both in harmony rather than out of kilter."

For the full interview, peruse on over to Games Industry.