Eidos' Ian Livingstone On The Future of Tomb Raider

SPOnG had the pleasure of catching up with Eidos’ Ian Livingstone at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival earlier this week - one of those games industry ‘luminaries’ we often hear so much about – who told us a little more about the future plans for Tomb Raider games and movies.

“The next Tomb Raider is well in development now. It was a very bold move for us to move the development from [developer] Core over to Crystal Dynamics in the US. It was a difficult decision, but we had to do it, because of Angel of Darkness not meeting our expectations,” Livingstone told us.

And what about the movies, what are the latest plans there?

”Well we’re talking to Paramount, who have an option to do a third one - as has Angelina Jolie. But it hasn’t been green lit yet. They’re talking at the moment about who to get in as a scriptwriter, so it’s a fair way from the green light stage. I think they are also watching how well the latest two games are doing – Legend and Anniversary – which prove the fact that there is still this huge fanbase for Lara Croft. So, hopefully, ultimately, that will trigger their commitment to green light the next movie.”

On meeting Angelina, Livingstone admitted that, “I’m still recovering from that first experience of meeting her. You just turn into a gibbering wreck in her presence! We’d been up to Pinewood studios to watch her doing a few moves and being filmed. She walked over and said, “Hi, I’m Angelina.” I said, “Hi, I’m Ian” and after that I was lost for words. It was all over!

If you haven’t had the joy of revisiting Lara in the surprisingly good Tomb Raider: Anniversary earlier this year, then you are going to need to check out the forthcoming Wii version of the game, which has a few new interesting control tweaks, as you would expect.

Check out the two-and-a-half minute video footage below where the game’s senior producer Morgan Gray walks you through the Wii version of the game and boasts that they have “actually been able to add more tomb raider to Tomb Raider" with this version.

Which is some boast, SPOnG is sure you will agree!

Check the video below and, for more on the future of Tomb Raider, Hitman, Kane and Lynch and on what gives videogame characters that much-sought-after 'X factor' check our recent interview from this month’s Edinburgh Interactive Festival with Ian Livingstone.