Eidos looking to reinvent Lara Croft (again)

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jan 12th 2009 at 11:22AM }

Forget that Lady Croft's reinvention -- by the recently downsized Crystal Dynamics -- in Tomb Raider: Legend brought new life to a franchise that was on life support, Eidos wants to do another makeover of the heroine after "disappointing" Underworld sales of only 1.5 million units in the six weeks following the game's release. Eidos expected the latest Croft adventure to hit 2 million sales during this brutal holiday season.

Speaking with The Times, Eidos CFO Robert Brent says they need to look at everything when developing the next Tomb Raider title. He uses Batman as an example of a "sad character" from the Burton films, who became more "noir" in The Dark Knight. This would be a good time to note that Croft tried going "darker" before; it was called Angel of Darkness.

Eidos would also like to make Lara more female-friendly, which is understandable -- a good first step might be showing her eyes on the box art. It's worth pointing out that Eidos is apparently using Legend's 3 million sales to gauge its disappointment with Underworld. Key difference: Legend released with breathing room in April of 2006, not in the war zone of 2008's climax.

Tags: eidos, lara-croft, tomb-raider, tomb-raider-underworld

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Eric @ Jan 12th 2009 11:26AM

Loved legend, but underworld did nothing for me. I found it boring and for some reason it gave me motion sickness. Never had a game do that before. Anyone else had that problem.

LeadBoxx @ Jan 12th 2009 11:51AM

Geesh, if they have to make another one, make it her last for a very long time and make where she dies at the end, ex. Tomb Raider: Laura's Tomb.

Viridium @ Jan 12th 2009 11:58AM

LeadBoxx - who's Laura?

Zertoss @ Jan 12th 2009 12:28PM

Who's buried in Laura's Tomb?

SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt) @ Jan 12th 2009 12:32PM

is that sarcasm?

LeadBoxx @ Jan 12th 2009 12:56PM

SORRY, Lara not Laura.

Maverick Saturn @ Jan 12th 2009 1:07PM

Laura is Lara's fat sister :)

Levi @ Jan 12th 2009 2:14PM

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5351/karima20lara20croftjr7.png

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Jan 13th 2009 3:22AM

Fun obscure fact: in the beginning, Lara Croft the British archeologist was supposed to be an American named Laura Cruise.

Doug @ Jan 12th 2009 11:27AM

Yeesh, only 1.5 million sold? That's terrible sales. Those developers should be ashamed of themselves.

baby sea tuna @ Jan 12th 2009 11:33AM

Yeah, I think they severely overestimated their sales considering TR:U came out the *same week* as like 2 other AAA franchise titles.

Hyams @ Jan 12th 2009 11:35AM

The thing is, those 1.5 million was across 8 different platforms. (PS2, PS3, 360, Wii, PC, DS, N-Gage, and mobile phones.)

If it had just been 1 or 2 platforms, those sales would have been fine, as development costs would have been much, much lower. But as is, its possible that even 1.5 million sales wasn't enough to generate enough revenue to cover all the development costs.

They'd have been better off even making it either PS3/360 only, or Wii/PS2 only.

ryan @ Jan 12th 2009 11:44AM

Yeah, if it was exclusive to one console with 1.5 million sales then that would be awesome, but since it's stretched out across multiple plats, that's not so awesome.

SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt) @ Jan 12th 2009 12:35PM

yea Hyams beat me to it. across that many platforms, 1.5 million sales is a failure. if it was an exclusive or just on say 360 and PS3, those sales would have been fine.

Doug @ Jan 12th 2009 3:55PM

I guess so, but still, it's better than most games. It'll probably sell another half million, which won't be too bad. Some games release on all platforms and sell 300,000. Now that would suck.

Haggard @ Jan 12th 2009 11:35AM

1.5 million is very good for a game which stood distinctly average among the holiday slew.

Erluti @ Jan 12th 2009 11:36AM

"a good first step might be showing her eyes on the box art"

lol. Eidos knows us nerds can't make eye contact with beautiful women.

samfish @ Jan 12th 2009 11:38AM

Man, I can't TELL you how many times I've heard the words, "My eyes are up here!"

ryan @ Jan 12th 2009 11:41AM

Doh! I didn't see this post till after I sent mine! But yeah, 'good call' on this one Eidos!

samfish @ Jan 12th 2009 11:36AM

All they have to do is basically ape Zelda.
I generally buy the TR games even though I'm not a huge fan of the series because...well...I dunno why, really (ok, fine, it's the boobs). I didn't buy Underworld, though. I was so thoroughly turned off by the demo that I couldn't bring myself to plunk down on it.
There's still a chance that I will after a price drop, though, 'cus...y'know...the boobs.

It would really help if they:
1) Didn't consistently have a terrible camera in the TR games.
2) Didn't punish you by sending you back to the start of a level if you accidentally miss an jump or something...especially because the paths are never really clear and the terrible camera makes it even harder to find them.

I can never play Tomb Raider game for more than 20-25 minutes or so at a time mainly due to those two things.

Cutty @ Jan 12th 2009 11:39AM

Sending you back to the start of the level? That never happened in Anniversary.

samfish @ Jan 12th 2009 11:47AM

Of course it did. It may not always be the start, obviously, but the point is that oftentimes if you make one stupid little mistake you find yourself sent way back in the level.
The worst part is that, to me at least, if usually feels more like the game's mechanics had more to do with the screwup than I did!

Snowblind @ Jan 12th 2009 11:51AM

Legend and Underworld both have rather forgiven check point systems. It's not quite Prince of Persia, but you never go particularly far back, it basically saves everytime you land on solid ground.

But yeah, the camera was a pain, again, Eidos rushed the game out when it clearly wasn't finished.

AJ @ Jan 12th 2009 11:38AM

If this would have come out in July or August, it would have done 3Mil by now worldwide, easy. This was a publisher mistake, not a developer one. As was the clipped ending, which hurt them even more once word got around.

ryan @ Jan 12th 2009 11:39AM

"a good first step might be showing her eyes on the box art"

Hahaha, she can't even say "Hey ya perve, my eyes are up here!"

Jason @ Jan 12th 2009 11:40AM

Typical corporate number-crunching fools thinking that 1.5 mil isn't good enough compared to Legends. Although I think the story and gameplay could have been a little longer with a more satisfying ending...

And does the game actually turn off female gamers? I doubt it is as bad as Eidos imagines it to be. They shouldn't be assessing the developer, they should be evaluating whoever is in charge of marketing the title. Try shifting the focus off her sexual appeal, so that more female gamers - AND also guys that just want to play the game without all the gratuitous T&A shots - will want to pick up the game.

samfish @ Jan 12th 2009 11:49AM

I would prefer more gratuitous TnA shots, actually. It's stupid of them trying to act like Lara isn't a blatant sex symbol. Just play it up instead of down.

Haggard @ Jan 12th 2009 12:50PM

Gratuitous sex appeal = the ending of Tomb Raider 2

"Don't you think you've seen enough?"

Maverick Saturn @ Jan 12th 2009 1:13PM

Lara has actually gotten boring because of her popularity, before she was very much the sex symbol of gaming, the one and only. Sexy english accent, the body etc etc, literally the virtual dream of many. Then there was the model photos of a virtual character and the half cut dresses etc.

Now shes just another heroine with nothing much going for her other then the tombs she raids as there are many other sex symbol females in gaming. She is covered up these days as all the younguns are playing. The shower scene in TR2 would be deemed outrageous if it had been done in Underworld methinks.

Haggard @ Jan 12th 2009 5:35PM

Upper class english accent might be sexy to you, but over here it's the sound of bourgeois oppression.

Maverick Saturn @ Jan 12th 2009 5:58PM

Whats wrong with a posh English accent? As long as its not overly posh, but I think Lara's accent is partially what made her so attractive and at the same time unique, how many other female characters can you mention have a different accent that appeals to many. Far and few.

Zertoss @ Jan 12th 2009 11:49AM

So next we're going to have The Adventures of Loli Croft to get that flat-chested appearance while staying canon?

J.Goodwin @ Jan 12th 2009 11:49AM

I see what you did there, you're just showing Lara's tits and not her face. Cute.

Vandell @ Jan 12th 2009 11:52AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s0lzbCK9f8

Dangerously relevant.

(No seriously, watch this. Hilarious stuff here. =P)

Erluti @ Jan 12th 2009 12:13PM

LOL! I wish it didn't have those dudes commentary, the video they are showing is so funny!

Zertoss @ Jan 12th 2009 12:16PM

Goddammit, I have a sore throat, you bastard!

I'm guffawing here.

Erluti @ Jan 12th 2009 12:19PM

Okay, here's the video without those tools talking over the genius reviewer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQUws4pNhNE

SunKing @ Jan 12th 2009 12:34PM

I've seen a couple of those 'games in the Clinton years' reviews and they are hilarious but this is the best by a million miles, I am actually laughing so hard tears are coming out of my eyes.

mynk @ Jan 17th 2009 5:42PM

i think the commentary was the icing on the cake. did you hear everything after the video was over? i propose... a C section!

dantebk @ Jan 12th 2009 11:54AM

"Eidos would also like to make Lara more female-friendly, which is understandable -- a good first step might be showing her eyes on the box art." -- Hilarious point!

I think the problem with Tomb Raider is that it exists in a post-Uncharted world. Grand Theft Auto is a huge, great series, but when Saints Row came along and did a great job with its GPS, then GTA wasn't ashamed to take that same system for their next game. Now we've got Uncharted with a great combat system, including taking cover, and a vastly more interesting collectible system, with unique baubles you can admire instead of Tomb Raider's little glowing balls, but Underworld is essentially the same game as Legend with different levels. They really need to steal some ideas from Uncharted if they want to continue to grow as a franchise.

Maverick Saturn @ Jan 12th 2009 1:19PM

I think the fact of the matter is that, people are simply bored of exploring the same old tombs, seeing the same woman who should be hitting 60 by now, lol, plus the fact shes more covered up these days then she used to be, bored of doing the same flips and jumping from here to there like a spider monkey, bored of the predictable and conveniently placed ledges and objects to solve problems, bored of flipping over lions and shooting other endangered species, bored of hearing her go on about ancient this, ancient that and a whole load of other mumble jumble, bored of not having any new experience.

Tomb Raider is missing its innovation, it changes very slowly and people are moving on, the games of yesterday need to change to please the gamers of today.

The Dark Wayne @ Jan 12th 2009 12:19PM

Hey come on, how could I not be sad to be in those movies?

Alien Lord @ Jan 12th 2009 12:23PM

To answer Lara's Question: cause Eidos doesn't have any good franchises and needs big sales just to stay afloat.

Trev @ Jan 12th 2009 12:23PM

I blame the game's poor performance on her forearms looking exceptionally hairy in that picture.

Sidebuster @ Jan 12th 2009 12:31PM

After all the Tomb Raiders that have come out, I'm sure they are grasping for what little origional ideas they can think of.

The best route would be to introduce a new player. Or maybe a character creater with lara as a cameo. That way you free up ideas. That or a new franchise all together.

Maverick Saturn @ Jan 12th 2009 1:22PM

They've tried that, and failed, Lara is just too much the main focus of Tomb Raider, without her it isn't much of a Tomb Raider game, unfortunatly that very same issue is what is hurting the brand. Tomb Raiders are becoming like sports games, there has to be one for each year or something, when games come out so often, change is minimal and innovation is lacking, so it looses its spark.

I think Tomb Raider will come to an end if this keeps up.

ducttapeBigSexy @ Jan 12th 2009 1:16PM

It's funny, TR is going down the same path it went down once before. Legend really reminded me of TR2 - awesome in every way. And, like TR3, I was really looking forward to Underworld (Anniversary doesn't count since it was a remake). But once I got the next game, I realized it was basically a less awesome version of the previous game but with some new moves.

Ah well, at least I have Uncharted 2 to look forward to :)

emirabal @ Jan 12th 2009 1:35PM

Yes a reinvention needs to be done but in what direction, either you like the idea of raiding tombs or you dont, i played Drakes and i have to say the big difference is the combat. The story telling is a bit different and i have to say i like Drake as a character more, Lara is just not believable anymore and i think thats what people are saying.

Maybe she needs to be more like Faith (from mirrors edge), i mean realistically speaking, those things would just get in the way with all the rock climbing, and flipping and swimming and gun play and...sorry, i was envisionng the actions, but thats besides the point.

Drake sold 2.5 million on the ps3 and its a great game. TR is a great game but it should have never been releaased in Novemeber with all the blockbuster hits, really, it doesnt have those legs to stand on, most games dont and its a risk to do so.

This goes into the argument about why games dont spread their release schedules out. Bt i think i hve said enough.

Douche Bigalow @ Jan 12th 2009 1:50PM

Funny how it never seems to occur to them that 'female friendly' and other idiotic ideas are what kills the games. Try making an artistic statement you believe in, not trying to appeal to everyone and satisfy every PC-nervous-nelly's complaints. Ass, tits, and shooting made this game.