Tomb Raider coming to next Xbox, PSP

Last week, much ado was made of the poor financial report of Eidos, which was made public in its six-month earnings statements. But between the finance-speak and delay announcements--which saw Hitman: Blood Money, 25 to Life, and the next Tomb Raider pushed back--was an even juicer bit of information.

In the "Outlook" section of the report was a justification for the delays. "Consequently, the Board has decided to move the scheduled next iteration release of Lara Croft Tomb Raider (name to be shortly announced) and Hitman: Blood Money, together with 25 to Life and Just Cause (both new IP), out of the last quarter of this financial year and into the financial year to June 2006," it read. Then came the following bombshell, "This [delay] will enable further development work to be undertaken on these titles (including additional versions of Lara Croft Tomb Raider for the next generation PSP and Xbox 2 platforms) and allow the Company to take advantage of more favorable release windows." (Emphasis added.)

Unfortunately, that's all the earnings report said regarding the PSP and Xbox 2 versions of the seventh Tomb Raider game, which are the only platforms for which it has been officially confirmed. The game is set for release in Eidos' next fiscal year, which begins July 1, which would be the earliest possible launch date for the PSP version. But with industry expectations pointing toward a Q4 2005 launch for Microsoft's next-gen console, a holiday release looks more likely if all versions of Tomb Raider VII ship simultaneously.