Crystal Dynamics issues takedown notice following Tomb Raider leak
Something, something, in ruins.
Over the weekend, a leak with potential details of the next Tomb Raider game made its way around the internet. These details came from an audition script for a role in the game, and told of Lara Croft leading a team of younger tomb raiders as she deals with the isolation of success.
Now, Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics has issued a DMCA takedown notice to the Sacred Symbols Patreon, which leaked the audition script in question - and in doing so pretty much verified the details as accurate.
Sacred Symbols has since released a video about this takedown, saying the company had "[forced] our hand" on the matter.
In this video, host Colin Moriarty stated: "They DMCA'd Patreon, to have them ask us to take down the offending audio of us talking about the new Tomb Raider game... I was acting on the notion that this is fair use, this is general interest, this is of huge general interest."
Moriarty added, "I didn't break into Crystal Dynamics to steal it." So that's good to know.
In April, it was announced that the next installment in the Tomb Raider series was being made in Unreal Engine 5. This will be the first outing for Lara since Crystal Dynamics was bought by Embracer as part of a huge deal with Square Enix.
Since then, Days Gone director Jeff Ross has joined the studio, although it has not been confirmed he is working specifically on that game.
In addition to Ross, former Call of Duty developer Belinda Garcia has confirmed she is working on "the future of Tomb Raider" as a narrative designer.
Meanwhile, the Tomb Raider film franchise has taken a bit of a stumble. Following its buyout by Amazon, MGM has lost the rights to make Tomb Raider movies.
This has resulted in a bidding war for the rights, with former Lara Croft actress Alicia Vikander no longer attached to the project.