Tomb Raider Is Coming To A New Platform
Tomb Raider will come to the Nintendo Switch in 2023.
Two Tomb Raider spin-off games, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, are arriving on Nintendo Switch in 2023. The news was shared by their development team Feral Interactive via Twitter. We’d call this good news—and the arrival of these games on Switch is good news—but the Twitter post actually announces the pushback from the original 2022 release date to 2023. This news comes amidst uncertainties regarding Alicia Vikander’s reprisal of Lara Croft and rumors suggesting a new mainline game.
Both Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris were very well received when they launched on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2010 and on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2014, respectively. Now, almost nine years later, both Tomb Raider spin-offs are coming to Nintendo Switch, most likely as part of the push by Square Enix to keep their games relevant across as many platforms as possible, now that they’ve sold Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal to Embracer Group.
Said gaming holding company has acquired Square Enix properties, including the Tomb Raider franchise, but it would seem that the two games—re-released by Square Enix—weren’t part of the deal. Regardless of what’s actually going on behind the corporate curtains, Square Enix is apparently pushing the Tomb Raider Switch port. And though the games didn’t have any official release date, the fandom assumed that they’d launch by the year’s end. Now that the year’s end is upon us, fans have been inquiring about the games, and Feral responded by announcing the pushback.
Delays are never pleasant. Gamers are disappointed, semi-competent bosses in the gaming industry are explaining the delay to the higher-ups while blaming the devs and freelancers—as is the controversial case with Mick Gordon and ZeniMax Media—and nobody’s happy. But there is some good news on the horizon; Feral suggested that a physical release is something that could very well happen. Boxed copies are a possibility, though the company made it clear that nothing is certain.
Though released more than eight years ago, both Tomb Raider titles are the hallmarks of the franchise, despite being “mere” spin-offs from the mainline games. They offered exploration, platforming, and puzzling, along with co-op multiplayer, character progression, and a fast-paced combat system. Additionally, they were more RPG-oriented than the typical action-adventure we’ve gotten accustomed to from the Tomb Raider gaming franchise.
Tomb Raider is a massive media franchise that originated from the action-adventure gaming series centered on a fictional British archeologist Lara Croft. In fact, the success of the entire franchise can be accredited to the first Tomb Raider, which also made Lara Croft the First Lady of gaming. The franchise was so influential it’s directly responsible for Alien Resurrection seeing the light of day, and though it already had several reboots, Crystal Dynamics is currently working on yet another franchise entry.
As for the delayed Tomb Raider Switch games, both gaming hits would actually play well on Nintendo Switch, making the fandom’s excitement well-justified.
