Development and Announcement

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis was revealed at The Game Awards on December 11, 2025. The reveal came alongside a second, separate Tomb Raider title, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, planned for 2027. The two games were announced together but are distinct projects; Catalyst is not the same game as Legacy of Atlantis.

Development Team

Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog co-develop Legacy of Atlantis. In interviews tied to the reveal, leadership at Crystal Dynamics has framed the two announced Tomb Raider titles as developed in parallel, and official materials describe Legacy of Atlantis as developed in partnership between the two studios. The named creative, game, design, experience, and narrative direction roles on this project sit at Crystal Dynamics, with Flying Wild Hog co-developing alongside them and holding art direction. The studios share technology, story oversight, and lore consistency across the two projects. Amazon Game Studios publishes the title. The game is built from scratch in Unreal Engine 5.

Scott Amos serves as Head of Studio at Crystal Dynamics on the project. Will Kerslake was credited as Game Director in the reveal-cycle press conversations and set out the design philosophy publicly. At the June 2026 developer deep dive the project's leadership was detailed further, crediting Raul Siqueira as Game Director and Jeff Adams as Experience Director at Crystal Dynamics, with Arek Tomaszewski as Art Director at Flying Wild Hog. The team has publicly discussed the studio's goals for Legacy of Atlantis across the reveal and the summer showcase.

Later first-party material has credited a wider slate of leads. The table below lists everyone the studios have named publicly on this project.

Flying Wild Hog is a Polish company. It runs studios in Warsaw, Kraków and Rzeszów alongside a wider international team, and is registered in Warsaw. Crystal Dynamics is in the process of being spun out of Embracer Group into Fellowship Entertainment, which oversees both announced Tomb Raider projects.

Reimagining, Not Remake

The development team has publicly stated that they would not use the term "remake" to describe Legacy of Atlantis. Their preferred framing is "reimagining". Scott Amos has described the project as a "love letter by fans, for fans," intended to honor Core Design's original DNA and intent while delivering a modern action-adventure built on Unreal Engine 5. Will Kerslake has summarized the design philosophy as making the original "feel like 1996, but play in 2026."

In practice this means the core premise, the four classic regions, and the signature moments (including the Tyrannosaurus rex encounter, rolling boulder traps, and the wolves encounter) are retained, while combat, exploration, traversal, camera, and difficulty have all been re-tuned from the ground up for modern controllers and player expectations.

Release Date

Legacy of Atlantis launches on February 12, 2027, three decades after the original 1996 Tomb Raider, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026. The date was confirmed during a State of Play presentation on June 2, 2026, which also revealed a Nintendo Switch 2 version alongside the previously announced PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam releases. An earlier corporate update from Embracer Group had pointed to a 2026 window; the State of Play presentation set the firm February 2027 date. The team has positioned the game as a celebration of where the series began, lining up with the franchise’s 30th anniversary.

Pre-Orders and Editions

Pre-orders opened following the June 2, 2026 State of Play, available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam, with Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders to follow and physical retail pre-orders at select retailers. The game ships in three editions.

A Nintendo Switch 2 version was confirmed for release day, described as fully optimized for the hybrid system while keeping the same cinematic scale and gameplay.

Future Games Show Deep Dive

Following the State of Play reveal, the game received a dedicated developer deep dive at the Future Games Show Summer Showcase on June 6, 2026. The presentation focused on the world, the rebuilt puzzles, and the reimagined 3D exploration, and it reaffirmed the studio's framing that this is a reimagining rather than a remake, going further than a straight retelling while keeping the original's soul intact. The deep dive showed environments built on a larger scale than the 1996 original and presented Lara's encounter with the Tyrannosaurus rex as a cinematic gameplay set piece.

The Game Awards 2025 Reveal

Both Legacy of Atlantis and Catalyst were unveiled at The Game Awards ceremony on December 11, 2025. Legacy of Atlantis is the reimagining of the first game, while Catalyst is a separate, all-new entry set after 2008's Underworld and featuring an older Lara. The project traces back to the 2022 partnership between Amazon and Crystal Dynamics and was teased in the ending of the 2018 entry in the series.

Localization

The game ships in twelve languages. Seven have full audio as well as text: English, French, German, Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Polish and Simplified Chinese. Five are text-only: Italian, Spanish (Spain), Japanese, Korean and Traditional Chinese.

Polish full voice-over was not in the original December 2025 announcement, and the co-developer's home audience reacted strongly to the omission. The studio confirmed the addition alongside the pre-order announcement, describing it as personal for a Polish company whose players would otherwise have been unable to hear the game in their own language.

Mini-Documentary Series

Since June 2026 the studios have run an episodic behind-the-scenes series, each episode paired with a written companion piece. Six episodes have been published so far.

A separate video captured the first public hands-on session at the June 2026 summer showcase, where voice actors Troy Baker, Nick Apostolides and Ashleigh Morghan played the demo. That demo sent players into the Lost Valley to uncover the entrance to the Tomb of Qualopec, solving puzzles and facing the Tyrannosaurus rex along the way.

What Has Not Been Announced

A full content roadmap beyond the announced Post-Launch DLC Story Pack has not been detailed. Specific gameplay systems such as the complete weapon roster, the full enemy lineup, level structure, and the collectible and upgrade systems have not been fully laid out ahead of launch.

Development Tools Disclosure

The Steam store page carries a disclosure that AI-assisted tools were used during development to support some early exploration and temporary development content, and that any AI-assisted assets were either replaced or refined by the team to maintain the creative and artistic vision. Crystal Dynamics Experience Director Jeff Adams has said the team used generative AI mainly to visualize a possible in-game object quickly during early level design, then rebuilt anything worth keeping through its standard art pipeline, and that Lara Croft herself was 100% human-crafted.