Tomb Raider has seen better sales in its first week than any game in the franchise ever.
When Tomb Raider first launched for the PlayStation back in 1996, it was met with mixed feelings, but it was definitely a “love it or hate it” kind of mix. The controls were difficult to get used to if you didn’t have the patience to stick with it, but it was a general success. It wasn’t until Tomb Raider III that the developers at Eidos (now Crystal Dynamics) got cocky and really didn’t add anything new, other than making it harder to play.
Over the years, fewer and fewer gamers gave the Tomb Raider series any forgiveness.
Eventually, Crystal Dynamics decided enough was enough. Tomb Raider had to change if it was going to get its fans back.
That fan base is officially back, and with a vengeance. Tomb Raider was rebooted with a prequel for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows, and the work that was put into remaking the franchise paid off with record sales for the first week. Crystal Dynamics studio head Darrell Gallagher says, “It’s been the biggest week one sales in franchise history, and we’re only a few weeks into that launch right now, and it’s been the biggest opening so far in 2013. So, we’re happy with the outcome. It’s certainly in a place where we feel like we’re on the road to achieving everything we wanted to.”
Square Enix, however, isn’t impressed with the sales of its games, which is a major contributor to its company restructuring (read: layoffs). They feel the franchise still isn’t performing as well as they’d have liked. Square Enix creative director Noah Hughes says, “Certainly we’re proud of what we achieved, and I think for the most part, the whole organization is happy with what we did. Actuals and expectations, I guess, are two slightly different things. What I’m telling you is the actuals, and they’re communicating expectations.”
So in spite of record sales of their latest game in the Tomb Raider franchise , the two companies don’t see eye to eye as far as what the sales mean to them. Perhaps a second Tomb Raider to follow up on this one and add more of what the fans want might do even better? A lot of us were skeptical as to how the new reboot would improve on a series that has repeatedly let us down, and that skepticism may be what kept the sales from being what Square Enix wanted to see.
How do you feel about Tomb Raider ‘s sales records being the best ever in the franchise?