Next Tomb Raider game in development with Unreal Engine 5

By Samuel Tolbert
published

Lara Croft's next journey will be using Epic Games' technology.

Rise Of The Tomb Raider Art
Rise Of The Tomb Raider Art (Image credit: Square Enix)

What you need to know

  • Epic Games held a State of Unreal stream to talk about Unreal Engine 5.
  • Epic Game shared that Unreal Engine 5 is now available for all developers, not just select partners in early access.
  • Crystal Dynamics closed out the stream by announcing that the next Tomb Raider game is in development using Unreal Engine 5.

Accompanying the news that Unreal Engine 5 is now available for all developers, Epic Games closed a State of Unreal stream by having Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics make a special announcement.

The next Tomb Raider game is in development with Unreal Engine 5, Crystal Dynamics has confirmed. This follows a recent industry trend of games being announced fairly early on in order to recruit for the project's development cycle. You can watch the full State of Unreal developer showcase below:

Epic Games recently announced a partnership with CD Projekt RED, confirming that the next Witcher game will also be using Unreal Engine 5, eschewing CD Projekt RED's proprietary REDEngine technology.

The last Tomb Raider game released was Shadow of the Tomb Raider in 2018, with development led by Crystal Dynamics western sister studio, Eidos Montreal. Crystal Dynamics led the development of the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, as well as the 2015 Rise of the Tomb Raider.

In 2020, Crystal Dynamics released Marvel's Avengers to mixed commercial and critical success. The team is also currently aiding Xbox studio The Initiative in the development of a Perfect Dark reboot, which will also use Unreal Engine.

Multiple other Xbox teams are using Unreal Engine 5 as well, including State of Decay developer Undead Labs, Gears dev The Coalition and San Francisco-based Double Fine Productions. Some PlayStation Studios teams are also using Unreal Engine 5, including Sony's recently-acquired Haven Studios.

You can watch The Coalition's full Unreal Engine 5 demo below, though note that it is a technical test and not indicative of a game in development:

Samuel Tolbert
Samuel Tolbert

Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Twitter @SamuelTolbert.

8 Comments
  • Yeessss!!! And that's all I really want to say, sorry for not adding anything else to discussion haha
  • I concur. I just decided to finish Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Man, what a great looking game still today.
  • That's fair, haha. (Also it'll likely be a while before we HAVE anything else to discuss for this game)
  • *Pretends to be shocked in gaming industry monopoly*
  • That is just incredible. I watched the presentation video. Love how ray tracing is just a natural part of it now (I assume that's how the lighting and reflections work, they didn't actually say that). Amazing stuff. Looks very easy to work with too. Question for any game devs here, how does this compare to Unreal Engine 4? I seem to recall being quite impressed with that too, but don't remember it very well (and I may be confusing it with demos from AMD or Nvidia). Is this just a natural progression from Unreal 4 or is this a massive lead forward?
  • But the real question is: Will Lara finally get her snark back?
  • I hope so. I enjoyed Tomb Raider 2013 and ROTTR, but honestly, I'm done with the whole "she's finding herself" thing. It can still be gritty and more mature than the OG games but let Lara have fun!
  • Awesome I love the tomb raider reboot can't wait!