Tomb Raider promises a lot of anniversary merch and maybe another remaster

You better start saving up because a lot of Tomb Raider merchandise is being teased in the run-up to this year’s remake of the first game.

While Lara Croft is finally set to return, with her first new mainline game since 2018’s Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, you’ll still have to wait until 2027 to play it.

But that doesn’t mean nothing is happening this year. Not only is Tomb Raider: Legacy Of Atlantis – a full remake of the very first game – launching before the end of the year, 2026 also marks Tomb Raider’s 30th anniversary.

As such, Embracer Group (which acquired the franchise from Square Enix in 2022) has big plans for other Tomb Raider products and has shared a lengthy list of partnerships; one of which could hint at another remaster.

You can see the list over on the official Tomb Raider website, which includes the above piece of commemorative artwork depicting Lara’s various designs throughout the years.

The one partnership that immediately leapt out to us was Aspyr, one of Embracer’s subsidiaries that specialises in ports and upscaled remasters of older games, such as Star Wars: Republic Commando and the upcoming Deux Ex remaster.

Most importantly, over the past two years Aspyr has released two collections of remastered Tomb Raider games, covering the original six games developed by Core Design, before the series was passed onto Crystal Dynamics.

If Aspyr is involved with the anniversary celebrations, it has to be something game related. The simplest theory is that it’s just for a special bundle that combines both sets of existing remasters.

Such a bundle is already available digitally across all platforms, but it doesn’t look like it was ever made available physically for diehard fans and collectors.

Aspyr could partner with Limited Run Games again, on a new bundle that adds extra goodies, assuming the poor reception to their Tomb Raider I-III Remastered special edition, specifically the low quality Lara Croft figures, hasn’t impacted their working relationship.

The alternative is that Aspyr plans on remastering more retro Tomb Raider games. If you go in chronological order of release, next in line is 2006’s Tomb Raider: Legend. A remaster of that is arguably unnecessary, though, since the original is available digitally across all major platforms, with the exception of the Nintendo Switch.

Maybe Aspyr could go backwards and re-release the two Tomb Raider Game Boy games? These were made by Core Design as well and were 2D platformers, with the first (simply titled Tomb Raider) releasing in 2000 and the second, Curse Of The Sword, in 2001.

There was a Game Boy Advance game too in 2002 called Tomb Raider: The Prophecy, though it was developed and published by Ubisoft for some reason.

The full list of partners allows for some much safer assumptions for new Tomb Raider products. Dark Horse, for example, points to a new Tomb Raider comic or anniversary book documenting the series’ history and it’s blatantly obvious what a Funko partnership is leading to.

Although the website doesn’t mention it, there’s also the Tomb Raider TV show that’s in production at Amazon. The show will have Sophie Turner in the lead role and just this week, it was reported that Keely Hawes, who has voiced Lara in a handful of the games, will be a cast member, with some fans theorising she’ll play Lara’s mum.

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.

To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.

For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

Comments


Add as preferred source