Square Enix took a necessary leap of faith with the 2013 release of Tomb Raider. Almost two decades old, gaming audiences were losing interest in the brunette bombshell and her crypt thievery - something drastic had to be done. Instead of trying move the story forward in some contrived way, Crystal Dynamics took us right back to the very beginning with a complete reboot of the Lara Croft narrative. It was a risk, and it paid off hansomely. In its first month on store shelves Tomb Raider sold 3.4 million copies. But while that sounds impressive to us, the man on the street, to Square Enix it wasn't nearly enough - the publisher had envisioned it would sell to the tune of 5-6 million copies in that same period, projecting almost double the actual sales. And that was a relatively conservative estimate, shaving off about 10-15% of what they hoped for in a best-case scenario. This points to a substantial production cost. To be struggling to make a profit after 3.4mill first-month sales, you just know that Square Enix threw big money into this project. Hard figures aren't bandied around openly, but analysts put a price tag of $100 million on this highly regarded, critically acclaimed adventure. On the plus side, by the end of 2013 the game had eventually started turning a profit, and was surely boosted when the next-gen Definitive Edition was released earlier this year.
Game-obsessed since the moment I could twiddle both thumbs independently. Equally enthralled by all the genres of music that your parents warned you about.
