Lara Croft's Big Comeback

Next Generation has a piece talking to Eidos marketing chief Bob Lindsey about the restoration of Lara Croft's good name. From the article: "Lindsey says the negative associations surrounding Lara will be swept away with a single decent iteration, arguing that Lara, far from being a one-decade wonder, has legs. 'Eidos has learned in spades that just because we make it, does not means they will come,' he says. 'Users are very discerning about what is a good experience and what is not. If you create a big franchise like Tomb Raider, one that has sold more than 30 million units globally, you can't afford to burn it with something that does not deliver.'"

Comments

Shifting focus to her other attributes?

[Animaether]

Lindsey says the negative associations surrounding Lara will be swept away with a single decent iteration, arguing that Lara, far from being a one-decade wonder, has legs

Well, I suppose after all those Chest Reductions, somebody at Eidos was bound to notice eventually ;)

I'm Not Exactly Opposed...

[WeAzElMaN]

I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of bringing back Tomb Raider, but Eidos has to deliver. They spun a similar web before the release of the last Tomb Raider game - one that sucked horribly. I would hope that Eidos would have learned from that mistake, but I'm going to remain skeptical.

Additionally, I don't necissarily agree with their idea regarding canning huge franchises. Sometimes you just have to know when to put Ol' Yeller down - I would hope that Eidos realizes when that time comes for Tomb Raider and not just continue to spurn out crap games.

-WeAz

Re:Success of first

[AKAImBatman]

Having a female hero was also something new for the time, sure they overdid it quite a bit and turned her into a boob-monster, but still having a strong female lead isn't the worst thing you can do.

What's interesting is that the massive bosom was supposedly a complete accident. According to the Wikipedia article, character designer Toby Gard was, "fudging around with the model when he accidentally blew up Lara's bosom to 150% of what he intended it to be." While he was correcting his mistake, the other designers noticed and asked him to keep it as part of the character.

You just can't make this stuff up. :-)