The next Tomb Raider under Unreal Engine 5 is in the heart of the news because of a big leak that has pissed off some fans. Square Enix may have confirmed the authenticity of the information.
We don’t know anything about the future Tomb Raider game, except that it should be magnificent, and yet it is already controversial! A leak has caused an outcry, and judging by Square Enix’s reaction, the information might just be real.
Square Enix intervenes to remove the leak of the next Tomb Raider
If players rage on the future Tomb Raider, in development at Crystal Dynamics with the director of Days Gone, it is because of the alleged sexuality of Lara Croft. According to the script, the adventurer would have a homosexual relationship with another woman. “Romantic sequences with another female character” specifies the document.
A problem ? For some, yes, but not for the same reasons. Some people refuse from the outset that Lara has a homosexual relationship. Proof that mentalities must change. For others, it’s just the romantic relationship that gets stuck. Thus, the latter would not care to have details of Lara’s antics, whether with a man or a woman, and would prefer that the studio first concentrate on producing a good game that reconnects with the explorer DNA of the franchise.
The heated discussions will continue because Square Enix ordered the removal of the script circulating on Patreon citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a US law that acts against copyright infringement. And the Japanese publisher certainly didn’t do that for nothing. Whether the document is old or recent, its contents seem authentic.
A change to expect?
Will the developers give in to web pressure and abandon this aspect of Lara? Wait & see… but since the reboot, the studio would have already hinted that Miss Croft was a lesbian. A point that screenwriter Rhianna Pratchett has neither confirmed nor denied.