It’s a tough year for Tomb Raider fans. The recently revealed Tomb Raider: Catalyst is the second Lara Croft game this year to get hit with a major delay.
tomb raider: catalyst has been delayed into 2028
Back in December, Tomb Raider fans were treated to perhaps the greatest Game Awards they could possibly imagine when two new action-packed Lara Croft games were announced. The first one, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, is a ground-up remake of the first-ever Tomb Raider game that kicked off the beloved franchise in 1996. Its announcement was immediately followed by the reveal of the next new Tomb Raider game, donning the subtitle Catalyst and taking place in northern India. Both games were stamped with 2026 and 2027 release windows, respectively.
Earlier this year, a bit of bad news hit Tomb Raider fans who were getting hyped for the Tomb Raider remake in 2026, when Crystal Dynamics and Amazon Game Studios announced that Legacy of Atlantis had been delayed into 2027. Several more months later, at Summer Game Fest, Legacy of Atlantis nailed down a February 12, 2027 release date, with Tomb Raider: Catalyst still slated to drop sometime later in 2027. When that first delay hit, many began to question whether Catalyst would also be delayed as a result.
Why was the decision to delay catalyst made?
Fans who’ve been questioning the status of Tomb Raider: Catalyst‘s 2027 release now have their answer. In a recent episode of Christopher Dring’s The Game Business, head of Amazon Games Jeffrey Gattis quickly and subtly mentioned that “the next one” after Legacy of Atlantis, meaning Tomb Raider: Catalyst, is coming in 2028 instead of its initial release year of 2027.
It’s worth noting that both Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Catalyst are being made by different teams. The former is being developed in tandem by Flying Wild Hog and Crystal Dynamics, while the latter is being worked on by a different team within Crystal. Knowing this, Legacy of Atlantis‘ delay earlier this year shouldn’t have made much of an impact on Catalyst‘s production schedule in theory. This raises the question of whether Catalyst‘s delay was a move made to avoid having to release two Tomb Raider games in one year. Legacy of Atlantis dropping in February next year would’ve given more than enough time for Catalyst to find a landing spot later in 2027 around the fall or holiday window, but perhaps Crystal and Amazon Games want even more time between them.
Regardless of why the move was made, Catalyst having more time in the oven at Crystal Dynamics can only be a good thing. Tomb Raider fans still have the remake to look forward to early on next year, and for those who’ve never played the original Tomb Raider, Legacy of Atlantis will surely feel like an all-new entry.
Tomb Raider: Catalyst is coming to Xbox, PlayStation, and PC in 2028.
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