Eidos Pondering Makeover for Lara Croft

After disappointing sales of Tomb Raider: Underworld in the US, publisher Eidos is considering revamping the franchise, including its voluptuous lead, to appeal to a wider audience.

This deficit in sales, supposedly to the tune of half a million copies less than expectations, has apparently cost Eidos somewhere in the region of £20 million, leading the company to reconsider how the series should be developed in the future.

The chief financial officer of Eidos, Robert Brent, had this to say on the idea, "We need to look at everything, as we develop the next game. Look at how Batman changed successfully, from the rather sad character of the Michael Keaton era to the noir style of The Dark Knight."

Of course, the question of whether Tomb Raider can survive another redesign must be raised. After all, Lara had her ample curves reduced in Tomb Raider: Legend, ostensibly to appeal to a wider audience, and Tomb Raider: Underworld saw a shift away from combat with an increased focus on climbing and puzzle solving. Eidos may need to do something drastic if the franchise is to survive.

Source: The Times via MCV

Permalink

better violence could help

Why don't they just abandon Tomb Raider and make a new game?

I forgot, 13-year old wanking demographic. Silly me.

Edit: I should also say that I find it stupid to imply that no one liked the Tim Burton Batman movies. Ok, no one liked Batman Forever or Batman and Robin. But that's because they were an amazingly bad departure from the dark and tragic atmosphere of the first two movies.

And saying that Nolan's Batman is somehow an upbeat character is equally stupid and you might as well say it's an Adam West Batman if you're going to follow that logic.

Batman is, and always will be, a tragic figure.

The only reason for the insane popularity of "The Dark Knight" was the buzz surrounding the death of Heath Ledger combined with the fact that Film Noir is "in" right now.

NO they should not!
Dear god they need to let this one die.
I absolutely LOVE the original, the second and at a push, the third.
It's like Hitman, Splinter Cell, Star Wars (apart from the next KOTOR) and many other franchises that do not need any more mediocre games to try and milk some more cash.
Also the problem with the old Batmen is how camp they were and how real the latest was.

For gods sake, why can't they come up with something new? Or at least, replicate the qualities that made the originals good - when they revamp everything, its doing a George Lucas on it. Sometimes it works, with the James Bond and Batman movies, but those are more the exceptions.

Can't they just finish the Blood Omen series instead? It only needs one more game.

Danzorz:

5.65 percent more cleavage, trust me it's a sales booster.

Ahhh, the EA RTS sales tactic (Red Alert 3). It'll work, probably. That and more thigh, apparently...

new_age_reject:
NO they should not!
Dear god they need to let this one die.
I absolutely LOVE the original, the second and at a push, the third.
It's like Hitman, Splinter Cell, Star Wars (apart from the next KOTOR) and many other franchises that do not need any more mediocre games to try and milk some more cash.
Also the problem with the old Batmen is how camp they were and how real the latest was.

Wait, did you just call Tim Burton's Batman "camp"?

Do you even know what camp means? I think you should go look it up.

Adam West Batman = camp

Tim Burton Batman = Anything but camp.

It didn't sell well because they released it at the worst possible time. Competing with half a dozen AAA titles was never going to work, especially since Tomb Raider is no longer a AAA franchise. Arrogance from Eidos perhaps?

johnx61:

new_age_reject:
NO they should not!
Dear god they need to let this one die.
I absolutely LOVE the original, the second and at a push, the third.
It's like Hitman, Splinter Cell, Star Wars (apart from the next KOTOR) and many other franchises that do not need any more mediocre games to try and milk some more cash.
Also the problem with the old Batmen is how camp they were and how real the latest was.

Wait, did you just call Tim Burton's Batman "camp"?

Do you even know what camp means? I think you should go look it up.

Adam West Batman = camp

Tim Burton Batman = Anything but camp.

Oh doom sorry, I forgot about Burton's Batman.
Hell, he is my second favourite film Batman.

The next game will kill this franchise.

harhol:
It didn't sell well because they released it at the worst possible time. Competing with half a dozen AAA titles was never going to work, especially since Tomb Raider is no longer a AAA franchise. Arrogance from Eidos perhaps?

Hell yes! For starters, they claim they were remaking the game to do it "properly", and then they are surprised when the world doesn't lap up the game like its brand new and AAAAAAA quality... very arrogant - about 0.6 EA's on the arrogance scanner ;)

Doug:
...when they revamp everything, its doing a George Lucas on it.

wait... remake "Raiders of the Lost Ark"? Of course! We can replace all the guns with walkie talkies!

How about they come up with a new bloody game instead?

Fire her into space. She can look for lost, ancient alien artifacts there. If she survives the vacuum.

A change isn't yet the option... no, not yet. First, they need to abandon Lara for a few years and THEN make a big comeback with something bigger, better, and awesomer.

Avida:
The next game will kill this franchise.

It's dead already.

I've play a good chunk of the new Tomb Raider on a friends xbox and its honestly, though i'd never thought I'd say this, the current Tomb Raider is better than the current Prince of Persia.

The problem is that people just don't associat Lara with quality anymore, plus she gets a bad rap for being all about the boobs and no gameplay. Theres a decent ass on her as well you know.

Also, the game is still a constant battle with the camera sadly.

The problem was there was TOO MANY GAMES TO PLAY. I plan on getting this soon but at it's release there was too much for me to play.

They really don't understand that the reason why it sold badly was that the series is dead. Stop beating the dead horse for Christ's sake.

I'll make her over.

I don't even know what that means.

Anywho I don't think you can get blood from a sont, no matter how manny times you hit a dead horse with it.

Fightgarr:
All that really needs to happen to this game as I see it is to get slightly better combat mechanics and develop some kind of camera that actually works.

This. You have been this'd

I thought underworld was the best in actual gameplay terms with the abbandoning of boss fights
but in franchise terms TR isn't the big name that it was despite CD doing a much better job than core design ever did.
Tomb raider brushs up to perfection but has never been truely outstanding

SomeBritishDude:
I've play a good chunk of the new Tomb Raider on a friends xbox and its honestly, though i'd never thought I'd say this, the current Tomb Raider is better than the current Prince of Persia.

I dunno, that's what I thought to start with (playing PC port), but after I worked out how to run it at 1920x1200 with max settings I'm actually starting to enjoy it. The cel-shaded thing looks better than I expected and I love the "you can't die" thing. Combat is relatively simple and you don't really need to worry about chaining combos if you don't want to. There is a lot of plot dialogue, but you only hear it if you want to (you have to specifically press the "talk to Elika" button.)

It's no Sands of Time, but it's enjoyable (to me at least).

And may it finally rest in peace.

Honestly? I thought Legend was pretty damn good, I've yet to play underworld. What they need is more cool stuff, less ostentacious wankfactor (some wankfactor, but don't beat us in the face with it), a cool story- Laura finds something only the Knights Templar are looking for it an-oh wait thats the plot of Assasins Creed, nevermind.

Look, Tomb Raider is about... Indiana Jones with Tits. Give us some action, give us some adventure, give us the supernatural, give us combat. Maybe add hand to hand combat. Make Laura badass, let her pistol whip people. The Combat has ALWAYS been Tomb Raiders weakpoint. Give us PoP style platforming and some gunkata combat. Perhaps rewrite Laura's backstory so she spends her youth after her family dies training in the wilderness like Batman.

How about actually make it run on PCs? Whenever I try to run it tells me to update my graphics drivers and won't run... when they are up to date.

Samah:

SomeBritishDude:
I've play a good chunk of the new Tomb Raider on a friends xbox and its honestly, though i'd never thought I'd say this, the current Tomb Raider is better than the current Prince of Persia.

I dunno, that's what I thought to start with (playing PC port), but after I worked out how to run it at 1920x1200 with max settings I'm actually starting to enjoy it. The cel-shaded thing looks better than I expected and I love the "you can't die" thing. Combat is relatively simple and you don't really need to worry about chaining combos if you don't want to. There is a lot of plot dialogue, but you only hear it if you want to (you have to specifically press the "talk to Elika" button.)

It's no Sands of Time, but it's enjoyable (to me at least).

I wouldn't say Prince of Persia is bad its just...muh. Sands of Time is my faviourite game of all time, Warrior Within was bad at first but won me over in the end, and Two Thrones is a great blending of the two and a satisfactory ending to the series. But the new one just leaves me feeling...a bit down to be honest. It beautiful, but thats all it is. God, I've got to do a review of that game...

But back on topic

Theres some fundimental things with Tomb Raider that need to be redone, and a reboot could be what this fanchise needs.

-Get the camera right! I need to see where I'm jumping, stop pointing straight at her fucking arse!

-Get combat right, or better yet, replace it with a cover system.

-Get rid of thoughs twats who keep talking to her in the new ones. Geeky posh boy and the Generic Black guy can go fuck themselves.

johnx61:

new_age_reject:
NO they should not!
Dear god they need to let this one die.
I absolutely LOVE the original, the second and at a push, the third.
It's like Hitman, Splinter Cell, Star Wars (apart from the next KOTOR) and many other franchises that do not need any more mediocre games to try and milk some more cash.
Also the problem with the old Batmen is how camp they were and how real the latest was.

Wait, did you just call Tim Burton's Batman "camp"?

Do you even know what camp means? I think you should go look it up.

Adam West Batman = camp

Tim Burton Batman = Anything but camp.

Actually I would say that Tim Burtons batman is a bit campy to, espesially compared to this new crap.

SomeBritishDude:

Samah:

SomeBritishDude:
I've play a good chunk of the new Tomb Raider on a friends xbox and its honestly, though i'd never thought I'd say this, the current Tomb Raider is better than the current Prince of Persia.

I dunno, that's what I thought to start with (playing PC port), but after I worked out how to run it at 1920x1200 with max settings I'm actually starting to enjoy it. The cel-shaded thing looks better than I expected and I love the "you can't die" thing. Combat is relatively simple and you don't really need to worry about chaining combos if you don't want to. There is a lot of plot dialogue, but you only hear it if you want to (you have to specifically press the "talk to Elika" button.)

It's no Sands of Time, but it's enjoyable (to me at least).

I wouldn't say Prince of Persia is bad its just...muh. Sands of Time is my faviourite game of all time, Warrior Within was bad at first but won me over in the end, and Two Thrones is a great blending of the two and a satisfactory ending to the series. But the new one just leaves me feeling...a bit down to be honest. It beautiful, but thats all it is. God, I've got to do a review of that game...

But back on topic

Theres some fundimental things with Tomb Raider that need to be redone, and a reboot could be what this fanchise needs.

-Get the camera right! I need to see where I'm jumping, stop pointing straight at her fucking arse!

-Get combat right, or better yet, replace it with a cover system.

-Get rid of thoughs twats who keep talking to her in the new ones. Geeky posh boy and the Generic Black guy can go fuck themselves.

I actually liked her team, and I thought it was funny Laura keeps a bevvy of beautiful young men in her house as her support. Kinda makes her the female James Bond.

Nah her crew was a bit lame Lara should just be on her own they were more plot devices than actual characters anyway