Amazon is publishing the next Tomb Raider game, but many fans aren't sold on the idea.
Yesterday, Tomb Raider fans were given the news that the next instalment in the popular treasure-hunting series will be published by Amazon Games. A joint press release from the company and Crystal Dynamic certainly talked the talk, promising a "confident and multidimensional hero Lara Croft in an environment that rewards exploration and creative pathfinding" alongside "mind-bending puzzles to solve, and a wide variety of enemies to face and overcome". Yet Amazon's involvement in the series has fans divided.
Reacting to the announcement on the Tomb Raider subreddit, some fans think having the backing for such a huge company can only be a good thing for the series, "It's so exciting!" says user MaggieEsmeralda. An equally thrilled xdeltax97 comments, "It's definitely a very impressive announcement, I cannot wait for whatever they have in store!"
Others are less enthused, like bobthepetferret, who says the company's track record makes them "wary of Amazon as the publisher". Having published the 2019 MMO Lost Ark, make by South Korean developer Smilegate, and Amazon's own MMO New World, with Bandai Namco's free-to-play multiplayer title Blue Protocol coming in 2023, the upcoming Tomb Raider game will be Amazon's first foray into single-player narrative games. "Maybe they'll do better at publishing a non live service game? We can hope? But right now, it's not exactly an exciting thing to hear."
Others also admit to being "hesitant" about the Amazon publishing partnership, including user _MaZ_, who writes, "Just hope they don't lay a finger on where the game should go and let Crystal do their job."
As for what to expect from the next Tomb Raider, last year, Crystal Dynamics teased that the upcoming game would "unify" the reboot trilogy with the classic games, so we could see Lara's past exploits have more of an influence on her future adventures. But whether or not she'll be donning her classic braid and reuniting with her iconic dual pistols remains a mystery for now.
See which of Lara's adventures are true gems in our pick of the best Tomb Raider games.
