A new Tomb Raider TV show is welcome but why is there still no new video game?

Amazon’s big announcement for its new Tomb Raider TV show is all well and good but the franchise as a whole has never seemed so troubled.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Game Of Thrones star Sophie Turner will be playing the iconic Lara Croft in Amazon’s upcoming Tomb Raider TV show. With the previous announcement that Phoebe Waller-Bridge is involved, as writer and co-showrunner, we officially know more about the show than any new Tomb Raider video game.

It’s quite shocking how little there’s been in terms of news or rumours for the next Tomb Raider game, which was first mentioned in 2021, to coincide with the franchise’s 25th anniversary. There was vague talk last year of an open world setting, and an emphasis on non-lethal combat, but nothing that’s ever been confirmed.

Tomb Raider isn’t quite a dead franchise, maintaining some relevancy thanks to the recent remasters of the original games (including the bad ones) and Lara’s cameos in other games like Fortnite, but this casting announcement only highlights how bizarre the world of video game adaptations is.

What is the Tomb Raider Amazon TV show?

After a lacklustre animated show last year, the new live action series will star Sophie Turner – which is already a disappointment considering the amazing Elizabeth Dulau (Kleya from Star Wars series Andor) literally called Lara Croft her ‘dream role’.

But beyond the well-known actor, and writer, there’s no clue what the show will actually be like or whether it’s drawing more from the original era of games or the grittier reboot. Lara is a considerably different character in both and it’s more than likely the show will just reinvent her once again.

There aren’t any on-set photos yet, let alone a trailer, which all points to it still being very early in development and thus years away from coming out, making it no less nebulous than the game.

Although, if given the choice, it’s certain that the majority of fans would rather have an update on the next game than the TV show, because that is what Tomb Raider is: a video game franchise first and foremost.

What’s more, this isn’t a Super Mario or Sonic The Hedgehog situation, where new games are coming out on the regular. Not counting the remasters or the Tomb Raider Reloaded mobile game in 2023, there hasn’t been a proper Tomb Raider since 2018’s Shadow Of The Tomb Raider.

Nintendo announced casting details for the Super Mario Bros. movie in 2022, but imagine if it did so after not releasing any new Mario games, not even spin-offs, since 2017’s Super Mario Odyssey. Most fans wouldn’t be excited, just confused that all of Nintendo’s energy had gone into a movie rather than any actual games.

Considering Amazon is also meant to be serving as a co-producer on the new Tomb Raider game, alongside the beleagured Embracer Group, you’d think it and the TV show would come hand in hand. A cross-promotion effort to ensure any new fans gained from the show would buy the game. However, there’s nothing to suggest this will be the case or that the show will be set in the same continuity.

If anything, we expect it to do what the old live action movies did and set up its own original canon for Lara, if only to further differentiate itself from the animated Tomb Raider, which is set in the same timeline as the games.

What’s happening with the new Tomb Raider game?

Game development isn’t easy or quick, and plans for the new Tomb Raider may well have changed since 2021. In fact, it’s almost certain they have given how rough the last four years have been for developer Crystal Dynamics.

As a reminder, Microsoft called on the studio to assist with the development of the Perfect Dark reboot in 2021, with a 2022 report alleging Crystal Dynamics had basically taken over the project from its original developer, The Initiative.

That same year, Square Enix sold off Crystal Dynamics to Embracer Group, with the studio hit by layoffs the following year. More recently, it laid off more staff as a consequence of Perfect Dark’s cancellation and its failure to secure a new publisher.

Crystal Dynamics did say that any progress on Tomb Raider was ‘unaffected by this decision,’ though even if all the lost employees were only working on Perfect Dark, studio morale is bound to be impacted.

At the moment, it seems as if Amazon cares far more about getting the TV show out than the game, but that just seems to be how these adaptations are handled. The lack of synergy between Hollywood and gaming has long been an issue, with new games almost never launching alongside a tie-in movie.

Nintendo had nothing for the Mario movie beyond a new Switch bundle with a special sticker sheet, Sony had already stopped making Uncharted games when it released the Tom Holland movie, and Castlevania fans are still waiting for a new game despite it getting two popular Netflix shows.

Having a new game to coincide with a movie or TV show seems like common sense, especially when the end goal is always to make as much money as possible, but it’s strange how not only does it never happen but Hollywood keeps adapting dormant franchises – unless you think that Michael Bay OutRun adaptation is going to be a massive hit.

The only exception we can think of is Sonic The Hedgehog 3, which arrived shortly after the release of a Sonic Generations remaster that wisely focused on the character of Shadow to promote his movie appearance (there was even a movie themed DLC level).

The most extreme example is when the old Fallout games saw huge surges in players thanks to the TV show, because there simply wasn’t anything new to play. And even though the Borderlands movie was awful, it apparently got new people buying the old games anyway.

A generous reading of this is that the strategy for these adaptations isn’t about promoting a new specific video game but rather the brand itself. That way, when a new game does eventually come out, there are even more customers willing to put money down for it.

Although that only makes sense if the publishers actually manage to release something new, which has not been the case for Uncharted, Castlevania, Fallout, or… Tomb Raider.

Unfortunately, Crystal Dynamics is in a no-win situation here. While a lack of game updates is frustrating, it’s probably because the game is in no state to be shown to the public and any footage shown wouldn’t be a good indicator of what the game will be like.

Maybe the Tomb Raider show will be another smash hit like Amazon’s Fallout show, and do well enough to keep generating new seasons to ensure the brand remains in the cultural zeitgeist until the next game’s ready.

But maybe it won’t. There’ll no doubt be a slew of new Fallout games in three or four years – the quickest anything new can be made after the show became a hit – and a new Tomb Raider is unlikely to arrive much before that. Although perhaps if Amazon and Embracer wasted less time making TV shows, and put more resources into the games, that wouldn’t be an issue.

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