Tomb Raider Turns 30, Returns to 1996 Origins

A Heroine Built at Core Design

The franchise began in 1996 at Core Design, a small studio in Derby, England. A tiny team of six primary developers, with additional art and audio support, built the original Tomb Raider and created one of gaming's most enduring icons. Franchise veteran Meagan Marie, a longtime member of the Tomb Raider team at Crystal Dynamics, author of 20 Years of Tomb Raider, and a fan who has cosplayed the character more than a dozen times, credits the original team with changing “the face of the industry” and “the face of what we expect from our protagonists.”

Lara was the vision of designer Toby Gard, conceived as a heroine defined by intelligence and athleticism. Her reach extended beyond the screen almost immediately. By the late nineties she was appearing in magazines dressed by Alexander McQueen and Gucci, effectively the first virtual model. Marie describes her as “an academic who values reason yet is willing to accept the seemingly impossible,” someone who is “effortlessly cool and witty but will geek out when unearthing history. Lara contains multitudes.”

Stewardship and the Reboot

Crystal Dynamics has carried the franchise for nearly two decades. Its central challenge was moving Lara into each new era without losing what made her Lara. Marie points to the core elements: “the passion for uncovering the unknown, the sense of wonder and discovery, her physical prowess, even her quippiness.”

That work took shape first across the Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld trilogy, which modernized Lara's movement and storytelling while protecting her core. In 2013, Crystal Dynamics went further and rebooted the character entirely with the Survivor trilogy. Marie has a personal stake in that reinvention. While working at Game Informer magazine, she wrote the cover story on the Survivor Series: “I was the first journalist in the world to be introduced to it,” she says. “I just saw the vision and I fell in love with it.”

The reboot also brought in a new audience. Marie says fans now tell the studio they “grew up playing the reboot games as children, that the 2013 game was their first introduction to the franchise.”

Back to the Beginning

Legacy of Atlantis returns the studio to where the series started. Marie calls it “a culmination of everybody's passion and thirty years of history,” designed to give longtime fans a chance “to relive the story” and newer players a chance “to finally see where the legend began.”

Marie sees a character with as much ahead as behind her: “She has a bright future ahead of her, just as bright as her legacy. We are just getting started.”

She has a bright future ahead of her, just as bright as her legacy. We are just getting started.

Key Features at a Glance

• Original reimagined: Built as the studio's reimagining of the 1996 Tomb Raider – the game where the legend began.
• Every Lara: Designed to represent every version of the iconic Lara Croft at once.
• Co-development: Developed in collaboration with Flying Wild Hog.
• Launch date: February 12, 2027, the start of “Lara Croft's greatest adventure.”
• Two editions: A Deluxe Edition and a Standard Edition are listed on the Xbox Store.
• Behind the scenes: A series of mini-documentaries on the game's making is available on the official Tomb Raider YouTube channel.

Availability

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is set to launch February 12, 2027. Pre-orders are live on the Xbox Store, and the source advises securing an edition before launch. The Deluxe and Standard Edition listings both credit Amazon Game Studios. The source does not state pricing.