Tomb Raider Release Date Pushed To 2013

Crystal Dynamic announced today that they will not be releasing their Tomb Raider reboot this fall as originally planned. Players hoping to experience Lara Croft's next adventure will instead have to wait until the first quarter of 2013.

Darrell Gallagher, head of Crystal Dynamics, revealed the delay on the official Tomb Raider blog. He explained that the studio was trying to create an exciting, surprising Raider title and want it to be the best game they've ever made. To accomplish that objective, Gallagher says, they need more time.

"We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. The game is looking amazing and we can’t wait to show it to everyone at E3 in a few weeks."

The Tomb Raider reboot stars a 21-year-old Lara Croft embarking on her first adventure. Intent on finding lost relics, she hitches a ride on a salvage vessel bound for the South Pacific. The ship is destroyed by a storm and Lara ends up alone and unarmed on a remote island. The reboot is billed as survival game; Lara will have to scrounge for food and water and has limited access to weapons.

This game's seems like a promising attempt to pull the series out of its creative rut. If CD wants more time to polish up the project, then that's fine by me. If they botched this reboot, I suspect that it would be awhile before anyone attempted another installment.

To soften the blow of today's news, publisher Square Enix released a new screenshot from the game. Croft appears to be pulling a bow off of a corpse. Yum.