In a post, along with offering a pencil sketch of an Allosaurus, Douglas also noted that he would have preferred the series to explore new settings rather than going back to the ones we have already seen. He also alluded to the pressure that the developers of the original Tomb Raider had been under back in the 1990s when making the game with the tight-knit crew of six people.

“She’s back apparently,” wrote Douglas. “Personally I’d prefer exploring new lost worlds than another remake/remaster/reimagining of something we crafted under intense duress in the 90’s. Fingers crossed, eh.”

In another post, Douglas wrote more positively about both of the Tomb Raider games’ announcements. While he acknowledged the need for “another 90%+ [Tomb Raider]”, since the first one in the franchise is the only one to get over 90 on Metacritic, he also noted that the two titles both look visually stunning.

“There needs to be another 90%+ TR after all this time,” he wrote. “I’m quite looking forward to seeing both new games now. Visually they are stunning, something we only dreamed of 30 years ago. We will have to wait and see if the gameplay and resulting feelings of exploration and adventure are as good.”

Both Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst were both unveiled during The Game Awards 2025 with their own trailers. While Catalyst seems to represent the next big step for the franchise, Legacy of Atlantis is essentially a remake of the 1996 original.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is being developed using Unreal Engine 5, and will seemingly see some changes made to its story to tie it into what has been referred to as the Unified Timeline, which is essentially an effort to re-establish the lore and continuity of the series.

As for Tomb Raider: Catalyst, game director Will Kerslake discussed the title’s story, and how it is set to take place after the events of 2008’s Tomb Raider: Underworld. In an interview, Kerslake also confirmed that the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy is also canon to the Unified Timeline, serving as protagonist Lara Croft’s origin story.

“What’s important to know is that this is a new chapter in Tomb Raider,” he said. “So whether you followed Lara from the start, or this is your first Tomb Raider game, Tomb Raider: Catalyst is designed to stand on its own as an adventure that can be enjoyed by everyone.”

Neither Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis nor Tomb Raider: Catalyst have release dates. Both titles are being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and while the former has a 2026 release window, the latter is slated for 2027.

Rawr! She's back apparently. Personally I'd prefer exploring new lost worlds than another remake/remaster/reimagining of something we crafted under intense duress in the 90's. Fingers crossed, eh.Dinosaurs will always be cool though…

— Paul Douglas (@cnhyv.bsky.social) 2025-12-11T12:07:16.317Z

There needs to be another 90%+ TR after all this time… I'm quite looking forward to seeing both new games now. Visually they are stunning, something we only dreamed of 30 years ago. We will have to wait and see if the gameplay and resulting feelings of exploration and adventure are as good.

— Paul Douglas (@cnhyv.bsky.social) 2025-12-14T19:45:36.761Z

Well, it seems all doubts have been erased as a trailer for the title had leaked. And lest you think this is AI-generated, Amazon Content Services LLC filed a copyright claim to take it down (though a mirror is available on Reddit). The next game in the series is published by Amazon, which noted in 2022 that it would be the most “expansive” entry yet.

Recent rumors suggest that the team behind Shadow of the Tomb Raider at Eidos Montreal is also working on the project and that it’s an open-world action-adventure. With the next Tomb Raider’s reveal coming up at The Game Awards today at 4:30 PM PST, we won’t have to wait long to find out, so stay tuned for more details.

The last major title in the franchise was Shadow of the Tomb Raider, developed by Eidos Montreal. Though very little is official about this new entry, Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson alleged that the same development team has been working on a “big” open-world third-person action-adventure title since 2019 – one year after Shadow’s release.

Whether this is the next game in the series or not remains to be seen, but the sequel was allegedly “well into full-scale development” as of January 2023. At this point, a reveal seems well overdue.

Alongside Lara Croft’s future, The Game Awards will feature announcements like The Ascent developer Neon Giant’s new project, Resident Evil Requiem, Phantom Blade Zero, Exodus and whatever that statue ends up being.

“Today we’ve made the difficult but necessary decision to reorganize Crystal Dynamics’ studios and teams,” wrote the studio in its announcement. “As a result, we’ve parted ways with just under 30 team members across various departments and projects as we restructure the company and business for our next generation.”

The company has made it clear, however, that it is not stopping work on its next Tomb Raider game. In the announcement of these lay-offs, Crystal Dynamics noted that the restructuring will also help its sustainability for future projects.

“To our players – as the realities of the industry continue to evolve, we’ve made these painful choices as a way to optimize the continued development of our flagship Tomb Raider game, as well as shaping the rest of the studio to make new games for the future.”

Interestingly, Crystal Dynamics and its Tomb Raider project was recently mentioned in the reports about Amazon undergoing massive lay-offs affecting more than 14,000 of its employees. As part of these lay-offs, the tech giant had announced that it would be shutting down games like New World: Aeternum and would focus more on “casual and AI-focused games”. At the time, however, it had also noted that work on the Tomb Raider project would be continuing.

This is far from the first time Crystal Dynamics has been in the headlines because of lay-offs this year. The studio had also gone through lay-offs back in August where it let go of an undisclosed number of its employees. The studio said at the time that these lay-offs would not affect the development of its Tomb Raider project.

Later reports indicated that these lay-offs came about due to a deal falling through that would have ended up with Crystal Dynamics working on the Perfect Dark reboot, which was cancelled earlier this year. The deal, according to the report, involved Embracer Group buying the Perfect Dark IP from Microsoft and then selling it to Take-Two Interactive, who would then finance the development of the Perfect Dark game.

Crystal Dynamics had also gone through a round of lay-offs all the way back in March, where 17 of its employees had been affected. Much like this time around, the studio had said that the lay-offs were “necessary to better align our current business needs and the studio’s future success. It is not a reflection of the dedication or ability of those affected.”

While 2025 has certainly been quite a rough year for Crystal Dynamics, the company hasn’t yet revealed any details about its upcoming Tomb Raider project.

The memo has also noted that the company is “leaning into things that Amazon does best,” and that it will continue with the development of some of its projects, including March of Giants, as well as “casual and AI-focused games”. Work on the Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raider project is also seemingly continuing.

One of the projects affected by this is MMORPG New World: Aeternum. The development team has already announced that its last major content drop for the game – Season 10 and Nighthaven – will serve as the final bit of content. As part of this decision, the development team has also announced that the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion has been made free to all players on PC. Side activities, like world bosses and bonus weeks, will still take place. However, seasonal events will be getting cutbacks, with no more holiday events planned for the future.

While this might spell doom for the MMORPG, the studio has confirmed that its servers will remain live until the end of 2026. When the decision is ultimately made to shut down servers, the studio will provide a minimum of six months’ notice. Players across PC and console will also still be able to continue purchasing the game “until further notice.” Players subscribed to PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium will also still be able to access New World: Aeternum. The development team has also promised that support for the game will continue through the release of bug fixes, patches and server merges as required.

“As New World recognizes its fourth anniversary since launching on PC, we reflect on an incredible journey shaped by our dedicated player community,” wrote Amazon Game Studios in its announcement. “Your feedback and passion have been instrumental in evolving Aeternum into the world it is today, and our team is deeply grateful for this shared adventure. After four years of steady content updates and a major new console release, we’ve reached a point where it is no longer sustainable to continue supporting the game with new content updates.”

There is currently no word on whether these cutbacks are also going to affect another major MMO project in the works at Amazon – a game adapting the world of The Lord of the Rings. The company does seem to want to keep making smaller-scale projects for release on game streaming service Luna, however.

“Today we made the very difficult decision to part ways with a number of our talented colleagues as the result of evolving business conditions. This decision was not made lightly,” wrote the studio in its announcement. “It was necessary, however, to ensure the long-term health of our studio and core creative priorities in a continually shifting market.”

“To those impacted – we recognize and thank you for your hard work, talent, and passion. We are committed to offering the full extent of support and resources at our disposal during this transition.”

Crystal Dynamics did mention that the lay-offs have not affected the development of its next project in the Tomb Raider franchise.

“To our teams, players, and partners, thank you for your continued support as we build a creative, sustainable, and resilient tomorrow together,” it wrote. “This includes the future of Tomb Raider, which remains unaffected by this decision.”

The announcement comes a bit after Microsoft cancelled Perfect Dark, which Crystal Dynamics was working on alongside The Initiative. The title was just one of many projects cancelled by Microsoft in the wake of major lay-offs affecting the company last month. Along with Perfect Dark, Rare’s Everwild was also among the cancelled projects.

This newest round of lay-offs at Crystal Dynamics follows another round from back in March, where the studio had announced that it was letting go of 17 of its employees. It is unknown how these rounds of lay-offs have affected various projects that Crystal Dynamics has been working on.

As for Tomb Raider, the studio had revealed back in September 2024 that it was recruiting new developers for the projects. At the time, the studio was looking for a Senior Franchise Artist, who would “visual guidance to external teams developing content under the Tomb Raider brand umbrella”.

Confirmation of a new Tomb Raider being in the works first came about all the way back in 2022. The studio had also announced at the time that it was developing the title by using Unreal Engine 5. No other details about this project have been revealed so far, however. Crystal Dynamics has also not confirmed whether this new project will be a follow-up to 20018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider or if it will yet another reboot for the series.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider was the third game of the series reboot, which had started all the way back in 2013 with a game simply titled Tomb Raider. The series also included 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider, with all three titles focusing on protagonist Lara Croft’s first few adventures as she would slowly become the iconic character from the previous games in both skill and reputation.

Crystal Dynamics has also previously worked on other projects, including Marvel’s Avengers.

“At least one of those will be at SGF,” said Nate on X. “Which one of them would you prefer?”

Summer Game Fest 2025 will take place on June 6. The announcement was made back in January, and while not too many details about what we would get to see at the event were revealed, producer and host Geoff Keighley did say that there would be “spectacular new video game announcements, surprises, and reveals.”

Currently, no real details on any of these titles have been revealed. The most we’ve seen in recent times has been IO Interactive confirming that Project 007 would get a release on the Nintendo Switch 2 when the game is out on other platforms as well. Back in October, the studio had also confirmed that development on the title, based on the James Bond franchise, has been going well. In an interview, studio CEO Hakan Abrak said that, while development on the game was going “amazingly well,” more details would only be revealed “soon.”

“I don’t have an update today, but believe me, it’s itching here as well to be talking about it soon,” he said. “So we are following our plans. The production’s going amazingly well and we will soon be talking more about it. I know it was a little teaser, not a lot of information, but there’s a lot of cool stuff coming up. We are also very excited and when we are ready with that, we’ll be opening up.”

In the meantime, Telltale has been quiet about its progress on The Wolf Among Us 2. While the title was announced as being in development all the way back in 2019, the studio confirmed back in October 2024 that the game had not been cancelled. Rather, development on The Wolf Among Us 2 has continued, and that more details will be revealed “when the time is right.”

In April, Telltale had said that work on the game was ongoing, and that it wasn’t yet at a stage where the studio could provide an update on its progress. “We’ve been quiet because we’ve been heads down, focusing on the promise of The Wolf Among Us 2,” Telltale wrote on its official forums. “While we can’t give a big update yet, here’s a little something for you: In-progress shots from the current build. The work continues.”

Crystal Dynamics has also been seemingly working on a new Tomb Raider game in relatively silence. A report from September 2024 indicated that the studio was recruiting more developers to fill out its team for the development of the Tomb Raider game. No new details have ben revealed since, however.

Much like Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered, the collection delivers overhauled visuals while retaining the signature look of the original games. All three titles run at 4K/60 FPS on PS5 and Xbox Series X, but there are also numerous quality-of-life improvements, including an ammo counter, boss health bars, a flyby camera maker, and more.

Fans can also experience the Times Exclusive level in The Last Revelation, previously exclusive to the PC version. For more details, check out our feature here. You can also read our interview with the development team to learn more about its approach to the remastered compilation.

Mass Effect 2

The opening of Mass Effect 2 is as climactic as most other games’ endings. This sequel begins with the player controlling a limping Commander Shepard crawling through the carnage and destruction of an all-too familiar locale from the first game; the Normandy ship. What follows is a complete breakdown of everything we built up in the first game. What’s more, Shepard has to work with a mysterious group, Cerberus, to get back what was lost and fight the Reaper threat. Mass Effect 2 feels like The Empire Strikes Back of video games with how high the stakes have been raised and how dire things have gotten.

Enhanced and Classic Graphics Unite

The most obvious upgrade with these kinds of remasters tend to be visual, and just like Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, this collection is no different. Aspyr has continued working closely with Crystal Dynamics to use a modified version of the original games’ engine with the benefit of upscaled textures and improved lighting. As seen from trailers and new images, there’s a host of new new environmental assets for IV-VI to boot. The team also carries over the option to freely toggle between original and enhanced graphic modes at any time while playing Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered.

Modern and Tank Control Schemes

One of the most notorious things about classic Tomb Raider titles are the tank controls; these too can be toggled on or off in IV-VI Remastered, though only in the menu. The modern control scheme allows full camera control and direction-dependent character movement. Dashing and ducking can also be held down or simply pressed as a toggle option.

Boss Health Bar Toggles

Classic Tomb Raider titles were known for their difficulty, and tough bosses were a big part of that. Tomb Raider IV was especially known for its memorable boss encounters inspired by Egyptian mythology. This remaster allows you to toggle health bars for every boss in Tomb Raider IV-VI, which should make those encounters with Giza’s guardians that much more manageable.

New Photo Mode Settings

Photo Mode gets a bit of an upgrade coming from the I-III Remaster. Tomb Raider IV-VI Remaster finally adds the option to adjust depth of field, zoom in and out, and change the angle of the camera.

Additional Poses and Outfits

These added camera controls will be great for all the newly added poses and outfits that Lara Croft is receiving in IV-VI Remaster. While the additional poses only apply within Photo Mode, the different outfits can most likely be selected from a menu and worn during gameplay. Wearing different outfits was only added with a later patch for I-III, but the devs have confirmed that IV-VI will “include additional poses and outfits for Lara Croft”. We’ll have to wait and see if those outfits are exclusive to Photo Mode or not.

4K Resolution at 60 Frames Per Second

One thing we do know for sure is Aspyr’s commitment to target 4K resolution and 60FPS for PS5 and Xbox Series X. There was a patch for I-III Remastered that added a 120FPS option for PS5 and Series X users, and we assume this will be patched for IV-VI some point down the line as well.  Xbox Series S users can expect a bit of a downgrade with a targetted 1440p at 60 FPS, while Switch and PS4 users get 1080P at 60FPS. While we don’t know for sure if Aspyr has improved performance for the classic graphics, so we can only assume IV-VI will run at a capped 30FPS while playing with Classic mode graphics like in I-III.

Inclusion of the “Times Exclusive” Level from The Last Revelation

This collection includes a neat little easter egg of a level for Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation. The bonus “Times Exclusive” level was only available as a PC download back in the day and was created to join The Times newspaper in their 75^th anniversary celebration of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb. In this stand-alone level, a Times’ employee asks Lara to investigate, you guessed it, King Tut’s tomb.

168 Trophies/Achievements

Despite the eye-watering 269 Trophies included in Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, trophy hunters were upset at the omission of any Platinum trophy to top it all off. Well, there’s still no Platinum trophy available for Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered, though the leaner 168 trophy/achievements included here ensure less of a headache to keep track of than the previous game.

Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation Story and Setting

Lara investigates Egypt this time around and even gets to raid the most famous of all tombs, the Giza Pyramids. The story really gets going when Lara finds the Amulet of Horus within the Tomb of Set.

Tomb Raider IV Returns to The Series’ Roots

The setting of ancient Egypt and its crypts and tombs called for a particularly nostalgic gameplay approach. As such, The Last Revelation emphasizes more logic puzzles and compact room platforming as opposed to the open zone key-finding design common within Tomb Raider II and III.

Tomb Raider V: Chronicles Story and Setting

Tomb Raider V: Chronicles has perhaps the most unconventional narrative out of all the Tomb Raider games. The story framing is done not from the perspective of Lara herself, but a group of her closest friends and allies. You play as Lara through a set of four-story vignettes. The reason for this somber reminiscence of Lara Croft is due to her being presumed dead following the events of The Last Revelation.

Gameplay Variety in Chronicles

Recalling the past escapades of Lara Croft dovetails naturally into distinctly varied level themes. The first story is set in Rome and focuses on platform-based gameplay, emulating Tomb Raider I’s design. The following stories emphasize stealth, action, and puzzle-solving. Tomb Raider V was the final game in this collection to be developed by the original Core Design team. Interestingly, the team wanted to kill off Lara for good in Tomb Raider IV due to burnout and fatigue, leading to what many would consider the worst game in the series, Tomb Raider VI.

Tomb Raider VI – The Black Sheep of the Series

The Angel of Darkness was the first game in the series to use a new iteration of the Core Design in-house engine for its PS2 debut. Despite the generational leap, Angel of Darkness was critically panned for its buggy gameplay and poorly implemented design. A part of the frustrating controls was the new stamina meter which made climbing a laborious chore. While it’s not yet confirmed whether Aspyr removed the stamina meter, at least the modern controls allow for more fluid movement as well as mid-air shooting and consecutive jumps.

Restored Content for Tomb Raider VI

This remaster restores a lot of cut content for Tomb Raider VI: Angel of Darkness. The other playable character, one Kurtis Trent, receives a new Chirugai disc blade weapon to use. Kurtis also gets a new psychic shield ability to defend against enemies and bosses. Other restored content includes purchasable goods from Rennes’ Pawnshop such as the Silencer and Lasersight, a new Parisian Backstreet training area, unused voice lines, new inventory items such as Von Croy’s cane, and updated notebook entries.

PC Requirements for Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered

It doesn’t take the newest Nvidia RTX graphics card to enjoy the latest Tomb Raider collection. Just like the previous remaster, Tomb Raider IV-VI can run on old laptops and still be enjoyed. As per the Steam page, the minimum PC requirements are an Intel i3 / AMD FX-4100 processor and GeForce GT 620 1gb / Radeon HD 8670D graphics card, both 10-year-old hardware. Recommended specs include an Intel i7 / AMD Ryzen 7 5800 processor and NVIDA RTX 2080 / Radeon RX 6750 graphics card. With a global release for older consoles like the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch and some very attainable minimum PC requirements, just about anybody could enjoy Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered.