Last year, we spoke with Crystal Dynamics' global brand manager Karl Stewart, about the studio's new three team structure: the "pillar" team was hard at work on the new Tomb Raider reboot, one of the highlights of this year's E3; the experimental team was working on smaller games under the "Lara Croft" banner; and the brand team, which looks after the lucrative Tomb Raider brand and, ostensibly, oversees projects like the upcoming movie.
At that time, Stewart told us, "The experimental team is basically just looking at the IP going forward and how we can take Lara to new and exciting places." The first and, as it turns out likely the last, place they took her was last year's Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, an excellent isometric downloadable co-op game. So is Crystal Dynamics still looking to take Lara to new and exciting places? Outside of the reboot, it sounds like the answer to that question is in the negative.
"We're not making a second one," Stewart told me.
"Not yet, or just not?" I asked.
"Oh no, we're not making a second Lara. For us, that Lara Croft was, in a way, it was sort of the furthest possible extension of that iteration of Lara. Once we finished Guardian of Light, obviously we knew we were making this version of Tomb Raider," Stewart told us, referring to the reboot they were showing off during our interview.
