Trivia / Tomb Raider: Anniversary

• Crippling the Competition: Whether intentionally or not, the cancellation of Core Design's initial anniversary project is what became their death knell, through Crystal Dynamics' intervention. Ex-Core programmer and later studio manager Gavin Rummery later claimed that it was his and the rest of the studio's last hope to get back on their feet, and without it - it was only a matter of time before they shut down as a company. Which did eventually happen when they were sold to Rebellion Developments and finally dissolved in 2010.
• Executive Meddling: Core Design was the one who came up with the idea of a remake of the first game. The project was initially backed by their former publisher Eidos without actually being greenlit. They ended up having to present their pitch against current franchise owner Crystal Dynamics after they found out about Core's project. Not only did Eidos terminate and cancel Core's version after being more impressed with what Crystal came up with, but they also ordered them to destroy any assets related to their own project since Crystal ended up working on a from the ground up reimagining of the first game rather than Core's version, which was more of a graphical update and more faithful to original. The thing is, while it didn't sit well with the fandom and was generally considered a dick move for Eidos to do to Core, they had every right to do so as the legal owner of the franchise.
• Milestone Celebration: Even if it did miss the 10th anniversary of Tomb Raider I by a year due to the Troubled Production.
• Money, Dear Boy:
  • The whole project from Eidos' perspective was calculated as an easy cash-grab to capitalise on the series once again. It backfired spectacularly due to being a year late for the anniversary of the series and extremely minimal marketing. To the point where it was actually the lowest-selling entry in the franchise.
  • Toby Gard, the mastermind behind the original game, was again hired by Crystal Dynamics as a consultant to help them, but limited his influence to the bare minimum and as a voice-over for developer commentary. He later openly admitted he took the job only because he needed the money. He also was quite vocal about while working with Crystal Dynamics was enjoyable (he was part of the creative team of all their initial games and later won a few awards for his script for Underworld), the sole concept of remakes simply doesn't appeal to him at all and he would rather not talk about it.
• Troubled Production:
  • The project was initially conceptualized and started by Core Design. After the commercial failure of The Angel of Darkness, they were looking for a way to get back on their feet and gain some reputation as a respected developer again. The idea came about to create a remake of the first game, bringing it up-to-date graphically and releasing it for the franchise's 10th anniversary in 2006 - with the intent to initially release it on the PSP and possibly later the PS2 and PC. They brought the concept to Eidos, who actually loved the idea at first and allowed them to begin developing it - but without officially greenlighting the project itself, unbeknownst to Core. Going by the working title Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary Edition, Core began working tirelessly on the project. After Crystal Dynamics, the current developers of Tomb Raider, finished up development on Tomb Raider: Legend, they caught wind of Core's internal project. Apprehensive at the idea of the former developers of the series working on a remake of their most beloved game, Crystal went to Eidos' upper management in protest. They presented the idea that it was better to keep the franchise and development under one roof. While they'd initially been completely uninterested in working on an Anniversary-themed game - they started working on their own pitch of the idea to bring forward. Both developers presented their work to Eidos after having enough material to present, with them ultimately being more impressed with Crystal Dynamics' version and the one which was approved for production. Eidos then ordered the immediate cancellation of Core's version, having been never actually greenlit for production in the first place. They also demanded that Core destroy all assets and code related to the project - which was reported by a former Core employee to be at around 80% completion before being cancelled^note A leak of the code over a decade later proved this claim was not only true, but even more was finished - the leaked alpha build is for the most part a fully playable, if obviously rough around the edges game. Crystal at this time was also concurrently working on the direct sequel to Legend, Tomb Raider: Underworld. Because of this, they were only able to devote a small section of their team to Anniversary's development. They required the aid of an outside developer, Buzz Monkey Software (having previously ported Legend to the PSP), to get the game's development going. Even with the combined effort of both companies they still lacked manpower, which caused development to drag along for an entire year - all the way into 2007 where it finally released as Tomb Raider: Anniversary. While this wouldn't have been a huge deal normally, this meant they ended up completely missing the 10th anniversary of the series. The very reason why the project began production in the first place.
  • To make things worse, few weeks prior the game's eventual premiere, the preview build send to gaming magazines leaked online. That's bad, but what made it worse was the security feature for it turning out to be non-functional, allowing to freely play the game from basic installation, without any further cracking or workarounds. The retail version of the game also leaked a whole 3 days prior to the premiere, most likely uploaded by any given gaming store employee.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Both the concept for the project and its initial production were conceived by Core Design in a bid to either get the franchise back or at least deliver a remake of the first game. Core’s version of the project was known as Lara Croft Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary Edition and slated to release on PSP and PC. Leaked materials reveal a game that resembles a genuine remaster of the original, updating its assets but keeping Core's trademark complexity of levels and not touching the plot, gameplay, or characters that much. This is in stark contrast with the Broad Strokes approach of Crystal Dynamics, with all of the game's content rebuilt and re-imagined from the ground up, making a lot of changes that didn't sit well with fans of the original, tying the story with their overarching narrative and, which alienated the fandom the most, greatly shortening and simplifying all the Marathon Levels. After Core’s pitch was shot down, they hastily retooled the game into an Indiana Jones title, before being scrapped. The engine from that game ultimately was used as a basis for Free Running, a sport game about parkour. Assets from Core’s project have slowly leaked on the internet over the years, culminating in the release of a playable alpha build of the PSP version in December 2020.
  • There was going to be blood shown on Lara's hands in the cutscene where she kills Larson, but it was removed in the final version. However, people found out that certain unlockable outfits would have the blood show up on Lara's hands and in the final cutscene, they would be gone to signify that Lara has come to terms with what she did to save the world. This is likely what the developers had intended for Lara's default outfit before they disabled the blood textures and it's also likely they forgot to disable the blood toggle on the other outfits.

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