Work on Next Tomb Raider Game ‘Going Well’, Crystal Dynamics ‘Sheltered’ From Embracer Mess: Amazon Games Boss

The next Tomb Raider game is currently under development at Crystal Dynamics. While there’s no update on when the action-adventure title might launch, Amazon Games chief has said that work on the game is progressing, despite the turmoil at Embracer Group, that owns Crystal Dynamics. Amazon Games is set to publish the next Tomb Raider game after it signed a deal with the developer in 2022.

Work on Next Tomb Raider Title Moving Ahead

In an interview with IGN published Thursday, Amazon Games vice president Christoph Hartmann said that working on a new Tomb Raider game was a “huge, huge task” that came with high expectations, but the development on the title was moving ahead.

“I mean, doing a new Tomb Raider, the bar is so high. The longer you go, the expectation goes higher, so it’s a huge, huge task, but things are progressing. I mean, there’s some really great ideas here,” Hartmann told IGN.

While the Amazon Games boss stopped short of providing any details about the game or its development, he said that work on the game was going well and moving forward.

Turmoil at Embracer Group

Hartmann also talked about the impact of financial turmoil at Embracer Group, the Swedish conglomerate that owns Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics. The company, up until last year, went on a major acquisition spree, buying several video game studios and intellectual properties, including Crystal Dynamics from Square Enix in 2022.

Embracer, however, fell in debt after a $2 billion (roughly Rs. 16,783 crore) investment deal with Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group field to materialise, sparking a share price spiral, mass layoffs at the company and its many subsidiaries, studio closures, cancellation of multiple in-development projects and eventual sale of several studios within its portfolio.

In March 2023, the company sold Gearbox Entertainment to Take-Two Interactive for $460 million (roughly Rs. 3,860 crore) and divested Saber Interactive for $247 million (roughly Rs. 2,072 crore). Rights for several major franchises like The Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider, however, remain with Embracer.

In April 2024, Embracer announced its plan to split into three standalone companies, namely Asmodee Group, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends, each focussing on distinct properties. The Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends entity, which will remain under Embracer, holds the rights to The Lord of the Rings, Tomb Raider and other major IPs, and owns Crystal Dynamics and a few other key game studios.

In the interview, Hartmann said that the Tomb Raider developer was “fairly sheltered” from the churn at Embracer, leaving the studio to continue work on the next game in the series. “People obviously look at what the parent company is doing, but it never impacted on resources, never led to any changes on management for them, so they’re fine,” he said.

Amazon Games signed a deal with Crystal Dynamics in 2022 to publish the next multi-platform Tomb Raider game globally. As part of the agreement, Amazon Games is also providing development support for the yet-untitled title.

The next Tomb Raider game will be a single-player, narrative-driven adventure that continues Lara Croft’s story. Crystal Dynamics is utlising Unreal Engine 5 to develop the game, which the company claims will be the “biggest, most expansive Tomb Raider game to date.”