Tomb Raider Release Date Pushed Back Into Early 2013

Crystal Dynamics’ Tomb Raider reboot was originally expected to be released at some point in the neighborhood of fall 2012, but the developer confirmed over the weekend that Tomb Raider has been delayed into next year.

In a note posted on the game’s official forums via Crystal Dynamics community manager Meagan Marie, studio head Darrell Gallagher broke the bad news of the Tomb Raider delay, citing extra time to polish the game up to their standards as the reason for the delay.

“Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game,” Gallagher said in the statement posted on the forums. “In order to do this, we have decided to move the game’s release date by a few months, from Fall 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.

“We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. The game is looking amazing and we can’t wait to show it to everyone at E3 in a few weeks.”

To “take a bit of the edge off” the Tomb Raider delay, the developer decided to show off a new screenshot of the game, which you can see for yourself above. We’ll likely see more of this particular scene come E3 next month.