• Posted July 18th, 2011 at 16:56 EDT by Mike Harradence
• 6 Comments

Tomb Raider had to be rebooted as heroine Lara Croft was ‘losing some relevance in the gaming world,’ says Karl Stewart, brand manager at Crystal Dynamics.

Speaking to RPS, Stewart said that the time was right to steer Miss Croft back to her roots, though admitted Crystal Dynamics had a swell time working with the series on the past three games.

“I think Lara’s a beloved character and Crystal has really enjoyed their time they’ve been able to spend with her,” he said.

“We felt she was losing some relevance in the gaming world, that she was a little too hard and removed. We wanted to make her more approachable and relatable. I think this was a perfect time for us to reimagine the franchise, taking Lara back to her roots.

“I think it’s growing to be a great way for players to learn to reknow who Lara is, retell her story.”

He also spoke of the development team’s ambitions for the new-look Croft, saying they wanted to create a character who gamers could relate to, and one who ‘wasn’t perfect.’

“I think she became an icon. When you do, you remove yourself from relatability. We wanted to bring her to a place where she didn’t have all those skills, she wasn’t perfect. The modern gamer can relate to that, they want a complex hero,” explained Stewart.

“I think Lara had done all the growing she could. We’d taken her to a great place, to somewhere she had some closure. There weren’t really many more stories we could have told. So we feel like with this new place we have fertile ground and there’s a lot of places we can go.”

Tomb Raider is pencilled in for release in fall 2012 for PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360.

via VG247