‘It’s a huge, huge task’ – Amazon Games boss claims next Tomb Raider is ‘going well’

Amazon Games boss Christoph Hartmann has reassured fans that the next Tomb Raider is progressing well, despite recent turbulence at Crystal Dynamics parent Embracer.

It was announced back in December 2022 that Amazon would be publishing the next Tomb Raider game, which is being developed by its modern creator Crystal Dynamics.

Crystal Dynamics was one of numerous studios hit with layoffs last year, following a “restructuring program” which its owner Embracer Group said would lead to some studios being closed and some projects being cancelled.

Speaking to IGN in a new interview, Amazon Games boss Hartmann claimed that Crystal Dynamics had been “fairly sheltered” from the turbulence at Embracer, and said that development on the next Tomb Raider was “progressing”.

“The studio, from what I can tell, is fairly sheltered from everything going on with Embracer,” he said. “I mean, it has to because Embracer never was one company. It was just an accumulation of an incredibly large amount of independent businesses; and it’s not just games development, they’re like books and games and this and that.

“And they always were very sheltered. People obviously look at what the parent company is doing, but it never impacted on resources, never led to any changes on management for them, so they’re fine.”

On Tomb Radier, Hartmann acknowledged the expectation for the next game, which has now been in development for many years.

“I mean, doing a new Tomb Raider, the bar is so high. The longer you go, the expectation goes higher, so it’s a huge, huge task, but things are progressing,” he said. “I mean, there’s some really great ideas here. Obviously, we’re not going to share any with you even if we would love to, but things are going well, things are moving forward.”

He added: “And from what I could tell, Crystal was pretty sheltered.. the studio went through a couple of ownership changes anyway before, it’s not brand-new for them. They kind of were doing games with moving around anyway. And like, okay, new sheriff… you know what I mean, new owner in town. Let’s just keep on doing what we do and make games.”

This Summer, it was re-confirmed that Amazon’s Prime Video division had placed a series order for a Tomb Raider adaptation from Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

The British actress, screenwriter and producer, who won Emmy, Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for her work on Fleabag, will serve as writer and executive producer on the TV show.