Tomb Raider Anniversary Remaster Has Allegedly Been Cancelled

A Tomb Raider Anniversary remaster was reportedly in development and set for release alongside the 25th anniversary of the series. However, the project has allegedly been cancelled recently.

Based on reports from a Chinese source that were looked into by Tomb Raider fan site Raider, a remastered version of Tomb Raider Anniversary had been in development by Virtuous Studios, and originally set for release sometime in the year 2021 in order to coincide with the franchise’s 25th anniversary.

This report comes from a Chinese source. I’ve reached out to the #TombRaider community team for an official word. No response has been received yet. pic.twitter.com/c6qEYoOvCF

— RAIDER (@TheRaiderOrg) August 7, 2022

The game was said to be running on the Rise of the Tomb Raider engine, and had the PS4 and Xbox One as its target platforms. It incorporated new survival gameplay systems not found in the original.

Ultimately, however, Square Enix decided to pull the plug on the project, and any references made to the remaster in Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s ending were cut via its day 1 patch. A remastered version of Tomb Raider Anniversary was previously spotted on the Nvidia GeForce leak, where nearly all of the publisher’s listed titles have been confirmed as legitimate. However, there are a few inconsistencies here, such as the aforementioned leak referencing Crystal Dynamics as the developer instead of Virtuous. As with all such rumors, we advise our readers to take this one with a grain of salt.

The original Tomb Raider: Anniversary was a third-person action-adventure game featuring the series‘ protagonist, Lara Croft, which took players through fourteen levels set across four regions of the world. The story takes place before the events of Tomb Raider: Legend from 2006, and focuses on Croft’s search for the Scion of Atlantis. The gameplay involves Lara finding her way through linear levels, fighting enemies and solving puzzles. The Wii version includes support for motion controls, while the mobile version features side-scrolling gameplay similar to that of earlier mobile Tomb Raider titles.