Crystal Dynamics’ Tomb Raider reboot was a fairly big success worldwide considering the series’ rough history, so it wouldn’t exactly be farfetched to assume that a sequel to the game is in the works. It especially wouldn’t be farfetched because there is a sequel in the works.
Apart from being obvious, the news wasn’t very surprising – the sequel had already been confirmed when writer Gail Simone told Kotaku last month that a Tomb Raider comic book series would lead up to the events of the sequel.
The news became official today when Phil Rogers, CEO of Square Enix of the Americas, confirmed in a blog post that Tomb Raider 2 is “well” into development over at Crystal Dynamics.
“Square Enix is in production with a number of next generation projects, including Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III, which were announced at this year’s E3, and Thief coming in 2014,” said Rogers, after which point he dropped the big reveal: “I am also excited to reveal that we are well into development on a next-generation Tomb Raider sequel – something you may have heard about recently!”
A sequel to Tomb Raider may have seemed a sure thing to gamers, but if you were to ask Square Enix whether a sequel was possible several months ago you likely wouldn’t be given much hope. When Square Enix announced their poor fiscal report, the company was quick to blame western developers, such as Crystal Dynamics, for under-performing.
Considering that Tomb Raider moved 3.6 million units in a short amount of time, I think most people would be inclined to disagree. Especially when you take into consideration the fact that Tomb Raider saw the best sales record in franchise history.
The turmoil at Square Enix has left the future of the company uncertain; there has been corporate restructuring, and even one notable developer jumping ship due to poor direction within the company. Square Enix does obviously have something up their sleeve, as Rogers made clear in the post, but we’ll likely have to wait and see what that is.
At the very least, we know we’ll be getting a new Tomb Raider game.