Amazon Games is branching out and announces it will release the next Tomb Raider

Enlarge / A screenshot of the latest Tomb Raider main series title, 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider< /em>

Amazon's gaming division will release the next big sequel to Tomb Raider, a press release revealed today.

The game will be developed by Crystal Dynamics, the same studio that made the reboot trilogy which included 2013's Tomb Raider, 2015's Rise of the Tomb Raider and 2018. em>Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Crystal Dynamics lived under the umbrella of major Japan-based international publisher Square-Enix, but the parent company sold Crystal Dynamics and the Tomb Raider intellectual property to Swedish holding company Embracer Group earlier this year. This sale also included the Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain franchises and associated studios - in other words, most Western from Square-Enix studios and properties.

It's a surprise to see Amazon releasing the next Tomb Raider game because Embracer has its own game publishers. But Crystal Dynamics studio head Scot Amos said in a statement that Amazon Games is "in a unique position to rewrite what publishing and development collaborations are" and that they share "the vision, the ambitions and values ​​of the Tomb Raider team." To be clear, however: Amazon is not acquiring Tomb Raider or Crystal Dynamics, it is simply releasing the next game of the franchise.

Amazon Games has been making waves over the past couple of years, but a lot of it has been in the multiplayer space. Amazon has either developed multiplayer titles in-house (like the MMO New World) or published multiplayer games from other studios. The company's previous successes, like the wildly successful localization of South Korean title Lost Ark, have targeted the same types of gamers who spend their time connecting with multiplayer communities on Twitch.

Given this history, this is the first solo title announced by Amazon Games. Given that previous Amazon entries have focused so much on synergy with Twitch, Tomb Raider is a clear departure. There are popular streamers who play a variety of single-player games (they're often called "variety streamers"), but they're far from dominant; Twitch's most-watched channels are dominated by gamers who focus on one or two online games, like World of Warcraft or Call of Duty: Warzone. p>

The press release outlines some of what we can expect from the upcoming Tomb Raider game, and it looks like Amazon Games and Crystal Dynamics are looking to give fans of the recent reboot trilogy more of the same. It won't be another reboot, and it will put players "in control of the confident, multi-dimensional heroine Lara Croft in an environment that rewards exploration and creative discovery, with mind-bending puzzles to solve and a wide variety of enemies to face and overcome."

The game will be developed in Unreal Engine 5 and is believed to be in early development, which suggests we won't see a release in the next two years.