Tomb Raider Creators Split From Core News
Chris Leyton
19/01/2004
Jeremy Heath-Smith and Adrian Smith announce a new development studio and enlist 35 former Core members...
Since Eidos took the Tomb Raider franchise off the hands of Core Interactive, itās been a hotly heated debate as to what the Derby based developer would end up doing next ā“ with no Lara it seemed like there was no hope.
Sadly that appears to be the case as founders of the UK developer - wholly owned by Eidos Interactive - Jeremy Heath-Smith and Adrian Smith announced the formation of a new development studio, Circle Studio.
The company has recruited 35 former Core employees, who have already begun preliminary work on two prototypes; claiming that work has commenced on PS2 and Xbox titles, whilst also preparing for Playstation3 and Xbox2.
However the news certainly comes at a hard time for small independent developers; having seen the closure of 23 UK development studios in 2003, Heath-Smith and Smith will be hoping that they can buck this recent trend. Commenting on the new studio, Heat-Smith commented 'Adrian and I are still passionate about games and have the experience and skills in-house to continue producing original and successful titles.' He continued, 'We've enjoyed working with Lara these past seven years but are looking forward to creating something or someone new.'
Weāll have more information soon.