Crystal Dynamics announced this morning that Tomb Raider has been delayed from its original Fall 2012 release window until sometime during the first quarter of 2013.
A message posted on the Official Tomb Raider Blog from the head of Crystal Dynamics, Darrell Gallagher, revealed the bad news to fans, saying that the decision to delay the game was made to allow the studio to “put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level [we] deserve”. The one bright spot for fans who were looking forward to jumping back into Lara’s hot pants this Fall is that it has now been confirmed that Square Enix will be bringing the game to E3 next month.
As disappointing as this news is, it’s not entirely unexpected. Crystal Dynamics has been very quite about Tomb Raider since last year’s E3 and the upcoming jam-packed Holiday season has already started to force game delays into 2013.
Darrell Gallagher’s full statement reads as follows:
A Message to the Tomb Raider Community
When Crystal Dynamics first set out to reboot the Tomb Raider franchise, there were two goals that we were extremely passionate about. The first was to create a modern Tomb Raider game that would surprise and excite gamers. The second was to make this the best game of our careers, something we would be really proud to be a part of. We truly believe that we have something very special on our hands and we can’t wait to share it with you.
Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game. In order to do this, we have decided to move the game’s release date by a few months, from Fall 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.
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.
Darrell Gallagher