My thoughts on Eidos' silence surrounding Tomb Raider 7

[MissLara2U]

I’d like to share some thoughts on how I think Eidos are handling the PR surrounding “Tomb Raider 7” Personally, I think their silence is great. For a number of reasons. Firstly, The Angel Of Darkness was hugely over-hyped. Not to impugn the glitzy bash at London’s Pasha where Mike McGarvey first announced the anticipated title for the game, and also revealed Jill de Jong as the new face of Lara Croft – this was indeed great PR. But it began a trend. Eidos almost forced itself into a corner. The press were hungry for more info, so were the fans, and Eidos – having started so strongly – could only magnify the PR attached to The Angel Of Darkness. The net result was a product so over-hyped it was bound never to live up to expectations.

The silence surrounding Tomb Raider 7 – and operations at Crystal Dynamics as a whole – is excellent in my opinion. Fans are hungry, the gaming press re-regurgitates the same tired rumours that have been doing the rounds for months… and still Eidos remains quiet, sporting intelligent prowess. I suspect lessons have been learnt from the debacle surrounding TR:AOD. I’m confident Eidos’ new strategy is to promote a product once it’s good and ready. This in turn will boost confidence in the company, and one of its key franchises.

I truly hope Eidos gets it right this time, because all eyes aren’t on the developer anymore (they’ve taken the fall once before) – they’re rooted firmly on Eidos as a company, and as a prominent video-game publisher. Intelligent PR is the key ingredient to winning back the support of the fans, I suspect that might even carry more weight than the final product from Crystal Dynamics.

M.

www.tombraiderchronicles.com
www.tombraiderforums.com

[Blue Skies]

I am also glad that they are keeping quiet until they have something more substantial and are confident in their product.

RE: Angel Of Darkness

The net result was a product so over-hyped it was bound never to live up to expectations.

Looking back on AOD now reveals that it was a bit 'pants' compared to the early games. Having so much hype and then releasing a sub-standard product will always leave a sour taste.
At the end of the day a classic game is a classic game no matter what the levels of hype.

'Halo 2' (released over here -UK- yesterday) has received a crazy amount of hype over the last year.
However, the hype was well deserved...a classic game and I have only played the first three levels!!!...Awesome!!!

I just hope that the next TR is a classic and puts my favourite of all game franchises back on top (where it belongs).
The expectations are going to be pretty low with a lot of people, so it will be great if the gaming community receives a pleasant surprise.

[dhama]

If a company can come up with the goods, it shouldn't need to be shrouded in mystery. I suspect there is no news because there is no news.
I do respect your line of reasoning though.

[suzieq51]

Tend to agree with you, dhama. The fact that we've heard practically nothing about the new TR makes me suspect the makers are still too busy having "meetings" to actually get any work done (which seems to be the way of the world lately).
But I'm a patient soul so I'm quite happy to wait.

[Deckard]

I must admit, that I have never thought about this as a possible explanation for this very annoying silence. But thinking carefully about it, this explanation seems like a nice theoretical construct, but not a very realistic one.
If the "June 2005" rumour is right - which I don't think - then Eidos/CD would have 6 months net left to complete the game. At this point, they should have "something" ready to be shown. And I bet they would show it! My reasoning is: as a gaming company, they would have to spread the news that a new product is on its way. You have to "show" that it really is there, give hints about its plot, introduce characters, speak about the incredible new graphics and so on. In other words: they have to capture the attention of the potential audience! The more the better! It is not safe to assume, that there are and always will be millions of TR fans out there who will purchase the game anyway! I don't think Eidos/CD have that amount of self assurance .
Unfortunately, we are living in times where very prominent companies "present" products which won't be available to the market for months after they were "introduced". This has become the rule. Has Eidos/CD the guts to break this well established circle? Would they bear the risk to experiment with something so dramatically new?
A last comment concerning AOD: IMO, its problem was not, that it could not live up to the "hype". If it had been finished, it would have been an entirely different story. Would have - this is the problem .

[dhama]

To add to what Deckard said, what game ever comes out on time anyway. In some sense, the water has to be tested and Eidos need to collect as much feedback as possible; they are in business to make money afterall.

[LaraAngelOfDarkness]

Originally posted by Deckard
I must admit, that I have never thought about this as a possible explanation for this very annoying silence. But thinking carefully about it, this explanation seems like a nice theoretical construct, but not a very realistic one.
If the "June 2005" rumour is right - which I don't think - then Eidos/CD would have 6 months net left to complete the game. At this point, they should have "something" ready to be shown. And I bet they would show it! My reasoning is: as a gaming company, they would have to spread the news that a new product is on its way. You have to "show" that it really is there, give hints about its plot, introduce characters, speak about the incredible new graphics and so on. In other words: they have to capture the attention of the potential audience! The more the better! It is not safe to assume, that there are and always will be millions of TR fans out there who will purchase the game anyway! I don't think Eidos/CD have that amount of self assurance .
Unfortunately, we are living in times where very prominent companies "present" products which won't be available to the market for months after they were "introduced". This has become the rule. Has Eidos/CD the guts to break this well established circle? Would they bear the risk to experiment with something so dramatically new?
A last comment concerning AOD: IMO, its problem was not, that it could not live up to the "hype". If it had been finished, it would have been an entirely different story. Would have - this is the problem .

Well, lets look at Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas shall we. The makers never showed really anything till like 3 months before the game's release.

[DKSM]

True about GTA, but they at least teased us for a while on the game's main page with the logo, and then with some of the pics with the "GTA-style". Eidos hasn't even given us the title, or a splash page saying "Raiding Soon in 2005!". It's like they are scrambling to make something because they spent so much time in the conceptual phase. (not that I don't want them to work hard on this)

[Deckard]

From a quick look at IGN I gathered the following information: the "official" confirmation of GTA4, along with a few additional details, was given on October 30th, 2003, i.e. 11-12 months before the game was published. 4-5 months before the publishing date the first "pictures" and lengthy articles came out. The devlopment of GTA4 took 2-3 years. There are articles in 2002 (!) anticipating GTA4 ! IOW, even before GTA3 was published, GTA4 was discussed by the "gaming revues"!

Admittedly, I did not follow that game, and therefore I am not able to judge the amount of anticipation the developers enjoyed. It is possible, that if a game is highly anticipated, a continuos tickling of the audience by a tight-fisted information policy might do the trick. I just don't think this applies to TR7.

The situation concerning official information regarding TR7 is very simple: there is none. Just rumours, interpretations, assumptions, conclusions. Not exactly helpful. But since I know to be curios to the extreme, at least a part of my annoyance has to be blamed on myself. I guess I'll shoulder that burden and ... keep waiting .

[yesrushdt]

Winter will be here in a little over a month. I suspect we'll see "something" before then (hopefully).

[andjelko]

Originally posted by yesrushdt
Winter will be here in a little over a month. I suspect we'll see "something" before then (hopefully).

This winter will be very cold without TR

[yesrushdt]

Metroid Prime 2 and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within will be more than enough to hold me over until TR7 is released.

[susan]

They're right to not put anything out there yet. Get the game right first, make sure everything is just how it should be and everyone on the project is happy with their bit of it, THEN set the release date.

THEN begin the PR campaign. It's pointless to do anything else (which I'm sure they've learnt from the AoD launch).

Apart from adding senseless pressure to themselves, they won't sell any more games by leaking info and building interest only to delay and delay, then build interest again only to delay and delay - sound familiar?? But they will run the risk of annoying everyone by doing this.

There's no need to get everyone's appetite going until the feast is ready to be served.

[DKSM]

Yes, they don't need to release anything, but possibly a name, or concept screens. Something. Many popular games come out with little pieces of information. We don't need an onslaught.

[9er_Fan]

Hopefully this is not considered a "slam post"

I just posted these 2 posts in the LCO forums...

So I just finished Half-life 2.

HL2 Graphics are stunning. Coastal levels looked like the original Myst. Better, actually. Could see pock marks and stubble on characters' faces.

Physics were unbelievable. I had an "Empire Strikes Back" moment where I, like Darth Vader, was ripping computer screens and consoles out of the wall and hurling them towards enemy. Earlier, I grabbed a ROLO container (55 foot ocean shipping container) with a crane, tossed it to kill some enemy, then picked another one up and swung it to knock over a drawbridge (so I could cross it). I dragged and stacked boxes, boards, doors, sofas to climb and cross things.

Enemy AI was amazing. They used cover, fire and maneuver, flanking. They retreated when they needed to. Wow!

Environments were huge. As big as the Delta Force/Joint Operations as well as the Battlefield series.

Story was good. Atmosphere gave you chills/vertigo/panic (all within 50m of each other).

Grand Theft Auto is just as revolutionary. A whole complex environment that is larger than the main character. Much more immersion-ary than the standard linear, scripted world. Sim-city meets a shooter game.

What do HL2 and GTA mean for TR7? Armageddon. Honestly, stick a fork in Lara because, absent a miracle, she is done. Half-life 2's effect on the video game industry will be the "nail in the coffin" for lagging franchises such as Tomb Raider (Eidos) and Allied Assault (EA Games).

HL2 and GTA "up the ante" way beyond what Eidos and Tomb Raider can deliver. Both of these games send every other game engine back to the drawing board.

You may not like the storyline, plot, or style of these games but they just buried everyone else. Sorry, but it is the truth.


(followup...)

I expected a hostile response.

Story? Please! AOD had a weak storyline. Twenty seconds spread between 2 cutscenes is all the effort spent on developing Kurtis as a character before he "feels up" Lara while disarming her in the Louvra. That wasn't simply creepy...it was a sex crime.

The fat-old man fed to Boaz...did AOD really show enough for us to conclude that he was useless and fit to be sacrificed? Did AOD show enough for us to conclude the same about Boaz?

Nope. The storyline argument doesn't work here. Search the archives for complaints about AOD's story.

As for graphics being important...four words: immersion and suspended disbelief. Standing on top of the underground Sphinx in TR1 gave me vertigo but no longer. Nothing in TR2 through TR6 environments was enough to do the same.

Some of you say you've been playing games since you were six (is that 5 years ago or 25?). I have been playing them for 20 years. I knew enough to know that TR1 (my 1st TR game) was revolutionary. But so was Atari's Pong. That doesn't mean that tomorrow we should go and pay Atari $50 for the same Pong game I played 20 years ago! No gamemaker deserves charity. They need to earn it.

And the TR series has not earned it at-all. AOD really had little that was new from a gameplay standpoint. The levers look different but that's all. TR has been passed by and Lara, at this point, is like a fading Hollywood starlet plastering her 50-year-old face with makeup in a vain effort to play a role suited for a 30-year-old.

Evolving the TR franchise is not enough since it is already far behind. They need a revolution and they should probably start by going, hat-in-hand, to Valve and license the source-code from HL2 to use in TR7.

[enoch]

I don't know Half-life apart from what I briefly (very briefly) have read in the magazines but isn't it a shooter? If yes, this game is hardly the one to compare with TR. To the best of my knowledge people who play shooters do not care much for third-person action/adventure games and vice versa.
True, it has been neglected to develop Lara's character but there is more potential in a person with her background and the kind of "work" that she does. Again, I don't really know HL but a shooter is usely about killing and good vs evil. Please point out and argue if I am wrong.

Anyway, I don't understand why it is (seems) important to you to kill off TR. If it sucks let it be so. It's not like they are using tax payers money to develop the game. Strange with all these crusades to make people turn their backs on certain games. I see it in other forums too.

Hmm...speaking of; I believe GTA is all about freedom. Free to do what ever you want whenever you want...and not giving a sh.. about the consequences - or anybody else. The post modern dream so to speak. Very commendable and recommendable...

[John Carter]

Hmm...speaking of; I believe GTA is all about freedom. Free to do what ever you want whenever you want...and not giving a sh.. about the consequences - or anybody else. The post modern dream so to speak. Very commendable and recommendable...

Ah yes, what we call anarchy , or chaos, or barbarism. Where the strong devour the weak until they are devoured by someone stronger, what Hobbes was referring to when remarking that life in a state of nature was "Nasty, brutish, and short".

The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.

HP Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

[enoch]

Originally posted by John Carter
Ah yes, what we call anarchy , or chaos, or barbarism. Where the strong devour the weak until they are devoured by someone stronger, what Hobbes was referring to when remarking that life in a state of nature was "Nasty, brutish, and short".





HP Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Yes I get it...I am wright

[Trinity34]

Originally posted by yesrushdt
Winter will be here in a little over a month. I suspect we'll see "something" before then (hopefully).

I could have sworn I read in one of the game sites that TR7 media is coming out December 1st. I just can't remember which one said it.

[9er_Fan]

I am not trying to kill-off TR but I think it needs radical change and improvements before it become even a "B" game. It's probably the weakest of the multimillion dollar franchises.

I am not sure that Eidos is the company to do it. In fact, if I read their annual report correctly, Eidos may be bleeding cash in a manner not to last through their Q1 of FY2006 meaning they will go bankrupt in September or October 2005.

It's hard to tell because their losses seem to be less than last year but they had a huge 1-time charge when they bought the "Hitman" development studio (stupidly) for cash. Eidos will likely need a cash infusion to bring any TR7 to market and a serious "chunk of change" to make the radical improvements needed.

Absent that cash, they will not be able to commit the, say, 65 people that Valve committed to Half-Life 2. And Valve was already at the top. Eidos needs to put in extra effort to catch up to the pack.

Because they cannot commit the resources that a multi-million dollar franchise needs, we are likely to get a rushed and incomplete game so Eidos can milk the cow one more time and just in time to stay the the wolves might at their door. Even a 3 month delay in TR7 might spin the Eidos into bankruptcy.

For TR fans, it might be better for Eidos to sell the TR franchise to a company that can commit the necessary resources.

[enoch]

It's hard to tell because their losses seem to be less than last year but they had a huge 1-time charge when they bought the "Hitman" development studio (stupidly) for cash.



Hey, are you saying IO Interactive sucks??? There might be something rotten in Denmark but it certainly isn't caused by them!
Hmpf!
But I do think you are right about their situation, it looks a little frightening on TR's behalf. I keep my hopes hight though.

And I am not playing Semi Life (in his face)

[9er_Fan]

Nope...I am saying that Eidos was stupid to burn half their cash buying a company (any company) instead of buying them in some sort of stock swap that would preserve cash.

[enoch]

Sorry, my mistake then.

[Piega]

It is said that the game must feel like the Prince of Persia. This game smashes Tomb Raider in the corner in my opinion.

Dont get me wrong, I love Lara Croft and her games but AOD had not the impact I expected. Now I think they are gonna be infuenced by this game to create the next Tomb Raider. Not that it is bad but I hope they keep the new game original and not create copied sceneries or ideas from Prince of Persia.

I'm not interested in the story of AOD or how it will continue. Lara to an African trybe after getting out of the pyramid? Rubbish, it's not Lara. Lara is a strong woman. She does not need a trybe to recover. I think it makes the character weak while she should be the strongest woman in mind.

Well, I think the Soul Reaver engine is capable enough for the graphics. They can adjust the engine to spice things up like they did for Prince of Persia (Jade engine).

It does not matter if a game is hyped or not. The result is what matters. Prince of Persia WW is hyped but I'm playing it right now and the outcome is even better than I expected. I dont think Tomb Raider will come this far.

There is even a discussion if Tomb Raider is dead or not. I think that is very personal. If you go for the hype than you may not be a true fan after some time. If you go for the character and the adventures she has then you are a fan. I aint doing it for the boobs. How can anyone like some polygonated things, it's far from real.

Prince of Persia had also a bad title in the form of Prince of Persia 3D. Now it has reborn and I hope it will count for Lara too. Silence or not, I would love to see the first new screens...

[enoch]

I disagree. To make her receive help from a local tribe only makes her look more human. She is not superwoman but a person of flesh and boob...blood. Having experienced highly unpleasant things and then being helped by someone alien to her, only gives her character and story more layer. And that is, in my opinion exactly what the series needs.