After its golden age, the Tomb Raider license is experiencing reversals and other handovers which tend to put it in difficulty. However, Lara Croft hangs on, again and again.
Hard blow for Embracer. After a devouring ambition, the man nicknamed “the Swedish ogre” finds himself forced to face current economic realities. In the movement that has plagued the video game industry for more than a year, the publisher has had to make mass layoffs. However, it has some of the most important licenses in video games, like tomb Raider.
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These last years, Embrace was formed into a conglomerate bringing together dozens of companies specializing in the publishing and development of video games, but also board games and comics. But the group finds itself obliged to completely reorganize itself, consequently redistributing its intellectual properties…
What future for Tomb Raider after Embracer?
Embracer announced the news yesterday, in press conference. The group will split into three distinct entities, including Lars Wingefors, its founder, will remain one of the shareholders. Each company will thus have its own field of activity:
- Asmodee : The board game leader regains his independence;
- Coffee Stain & Friends : Company which will deal with small or medium budget video games as well as free-to-play, on PC, mobiles and consoles;
- Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends : Company that will support big budget (AAA) games from Embracer and several studios, for PC and consoles, including top-tier licenses like Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider.
Formerly Tolkien Enterprises, Middle-earth Companies was acquired by Embracer in 2022. With this shakeup, the company is now preparing to expand its catalog beyond the Lord of the Rings universe. Thus, it will be in charge of flagship licenses such as Dead Islance or METRO, but also Kingdom Come Delivrance, which has just announced its second opus, or the cult Tomb Raider.
The latter has experienced a lot of turnarounds since the 1990s. Despite a rather popular reboot in 2013, the franchise recounting the adventures of Lara Croft struggling to regain its former glory. A new one is currently being developed, still by Crystal Dynamics. The studio announced last year that the situation at Embracer would not impact the project, but can we say the same with this change of publisher?
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We can perhaps be reassured by seeing Phil Rogers be placed at the head of Middle-earth. Most recently head of Embracer strategy, he was also CEO of the Crystal Dynamics-Eidos group. As a result, it is a man who has the Tomb Raider file firmly in mind – Lara Croft who takes the helm, hopefully for the better.