Crispy Gamer News

Could the folks at Warner Bros. soon have Lara Croft as their exclusive spokesperson?

Last week, rumors started to circulate that Warner Bros. was looking to acquire a controlling interest in SCi Entertainment, which owns Tomb Raider publisher Eidos. The rumors began when Warner, who already had a minority stake in SCi, bulked up on its SCi stock, increasing its ownership in the company to about 16 percent.
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In an interview with Edge Magazine, Deus Ex 3 lead game designer Jean-Francois Dugas said that that he does not know what platforms the game will be developed for beyond the PC version. He also noted his team does not want to dumb down the PC version to make it work on other platforms.

“At this point we don’t know exactly which platforms we’re going to be out on. The PC, we’ll be there for sure,” Dugas said in an Edge Magazine interview hitting news stands on Oct. 23. “But for us, console-isation isn’t about dumbing down features. If we’re to go console we will want to keep the complexity alive. We want the menu interface and controller to feel simple without risking any of their potential.”

Eidos Montreal is developing the PC version.

 Source: Edge

Who says exclusives don’t mean anything these days? Certainly not Eidos or Microsoft, as the two companies announced today that they’ve entered into an agreement to release two exclusive downloadable chapters to the 360 version of Lara Croft’s upcoming adventure, Tomb Raider: Underworld. Tomb Raider: Underworld is currently scheduled for release on the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and PC next month. According to the announcement, the first of the 360 exclusive chapters, “Beneath the Ashes” will be available for download in late December, while the second episode, “Lara’s Shadow” will follow suit in early 2009. (more…)

As part of its “Preliminary Announcement of Results for the 12 months to June 30, 2008″ SCi revealed that it plans to rebrand itself as Eidos Interactive, the company’s wholly owned subsidiary. In the section of that document full of doom and gloom entitled “A consistent identity,” SCi’s management said that it is “focusing on cornerstone franchises, which are predominantly associated with the Eidos brand.” Since Eidos is the key focus and real money maker of the company it apparently makes sense to change the name to Eidos plc. Read the entire statement after the jump:

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Eidos and EA Mobile are teaming to bring some of its popular franchises to mobile devices, starting with the irrepressible Lara Croft and some casual game properties. The initial result of this agreement will be four titles Tomb Raider Underworld, Just Cause 2, California Games X and Minesweeper, with an option to create more games for up to a three year period.

EA Mobile did not disclose when these games will be released, but we will keep you posted, as always.

According to a reveal of the upcoming Game Informer Magazine (hitting stands August 18) cover, Eidos and developer Rocksteady Studios are working on a Batman game unrelated to the Batman Dark Knight film. The game, which is called Batman: Arkham Asylum, features a storyline revolving around the institution that houses Gotham’s most diabolical criminals.

The story begins when The Joker manages to escape Arkham after a simple prison transfer goes terribly awry.. The story will be co-written by Paul Dini, a veteran comic writer and who credits include work on Batman: The Animated Series.

The million dollar question is why Eidos? Well, Warner Bros. has made an investment in SCi Entertainment, parent company of Eidos, so giving them this wonderful license is a good way to get a return on that investment. Of course, Eidos hasn’t had the best track record in the last couple of years, but that’s another story. We wish them all the luck in the world with this one..

Source: Game Informer

Angelina Jolie? Who the hell is that? Meet the new face of Lara Croft: world-class gymnast Alison Carroll. Alison will not be starring in any half-assed movies though, thank god. She will serve as the real world face of protagonist Lara Croft in a worldwide promotional tour for the upcoming game Tomb Raider Underworld.

Eidos says that Alison captures the essential characteristics at the core of Lara Croft’s personality — brawn, brains and beauty. Eidos feels that she also captures the athleticism of Lara in the latest game, which makes sense given her own ultra awesome skills as a gymnast.

Tomb Raider: Underworld launches November 2008 and is co-published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in North America.