We now know who to blame for that awful mobile Tomb Raider reboot that was announced last year. Square Enix has just revealed Square Enix London Mobile, a new London-based studio that's focusing on "high-quality, free-to-play mobile games," which includes both Tomb Raider Reloaded and an unannounced mobile title based on Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender.
For those of you who already scrubbed the memory from your brain, allow me to dredge up the least exciting new Tomb Raider game in recent memory. Tomb Raider Reloaded will be a free-to-play arcade adventure that "will feature classic elements from the original Tomb Raider trilogy." This includes solving puzzles, escaping traps, collecting relics, and presumably shooting some of those cartoonish-looking wolves in the face.
Developed in partnership with Crystal Dynamics, the folks making Marvel's Avengers and previously made Rise of the Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider Reloaded will hit both iOS and Android devices sometime in 2022.
As for the new Avatar game, we know next to nothing about it. We know it'll feature Aang, and it'll be developed in collaboration with Vancouver-based Navigator Games. And they seem pretty happy to be working with Square Enix.
“It has been an incredible privilege to partner with Square Enix London Mobile on the creation of a game with such an iconic IP,” said Will Moore, CEO at Navigator Games. “The Avatar: The Last Airbender universe has so many layers and complex storylines to explore and we look forward to fully unveiling it and sharing it with all the incredibly passionate and loyal Avatar fans in the future.”
In other Square Enix news, the Japanese publisher is currently in "positive" talks with Microsoft to bring Final Fantasy 14 to Xbox. That's according to game director Naoki Yoshida, who said that he's "sure the time will come, so if you could kindly stand by, that'd be great."