Tomb Raider reboot delayed until 2013

The upcoming Tomb Raider reboot has been delayed until 2013, developer Crystal Dynamics has announced.

Tomb Raider will now launch during the first quarter of 2013 - sometime between January and March next year - instead of this autumn.

Crystal Dyanmics studio boss Darrell Gallagher explained that the extra time will be used to add polish to the game, which tells the tale of a young Lara Croft's adventuring origins.

"When Crystal Dynamics first set out to reboot the Tomb Raider franchise, there were two goals that we were extremely passionate about," Gallagher explained in a post on the official Eidos forums. "The first was to create a modern Tomb Raider game that would surprise and excite gamers. The second was to make this the best game of our careers, something we would be really proud to be a part of. We truly believe that we have something very special on our hands and we can't wait to share it with you.

"Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game.

"We're doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve."

A single new screenshot was released to accompany the news, showing a tree-swinging Lara encountering a long-dead island inhabitant.