The Tomb Raider franchise has been dormant for some time, but it looks like the series is gearing up for a comeback. At Epic Games’ recent State of Unreal stream, several developers from across the industry spoke about working with Unreal Engine 5 for their upcoming projects, from CD Projekt RED to The Coalition.
Another developer that took the stage was Crystal Dynamics, with Dallas Dickinson – Tomb Raider’s franchise general manager – confirming that the studio is currently developing a new Tomb Raider game, and that it’s going to be built on Unreal Engine 5. No other details on the game were shared, but we do know it’s currently in the very early stages of development.
The last Tomb Raider release was in 2018 with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which was stewarded by Eidos Montreal while Crystal Dynamics was busy with Marvel’s Avengers. The last game in the series to be developed by Crystal Dynamics was 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Both games were developed using the studio’s proprietary Foundation engine, so it should be interesting to see what the change in engines does for the next game’s development.
During the State of Unreal presentation, Dickinson said Unreal Engine 5 will enable “next level storytelling and gameplay experiences”, before adding the Crystal Dynamics is looking to “push the envelope of fidelity” and deliver a “high-quality cinematic action-adventure experience”.
In January last year, while speaking about the series’ future, Crystal Dynamics called for patience from fans, but said that it would look to “unify” the Tomb Raider timelines going forward. Read more on that through here.