Despite Being Considered A Commercial Failure, 'Tomb Raider' Reboot Pushes Record-Breaking 8.5M Units

IN PHOTO: Lara Croft stalks her prey in “Rise of the Tomb Raider.” Xbox - http://news.xbox.com

The Crystal Dynamics developed 2013 "Tomb Raider" reboot has surpassed all other games in the franchise, including the path-breaking original from 1996. The reimagining of the series chronicling the maiden and formative adventure of a younger Lara Croft trapped in an island off the coast of Japan has sold well over 8.5 million copies just a little more than two years since its 2013 release.

This figure sees a 1.5 million unit increase since the February sales total, which was recorded at 7 million units, according to Gamespot. This feat not only makes it the bestselling game in the series, but it has also bagged the record for the most day one and first month sales for "Tomb Raider" games. Incredibly, these impressive figures don't even include the sales generated by the 2014 "Definitive Edition" of the game that was released exclusively for the PS4 and Xbox One consoles. This is a considerable landmark for developer Crystal Dynamics, which took over the reins of the franchise after the critically and commercially disappointing "Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness."

The developer is credited with rebooting series with "Tomb Raider: Legend" in 2006, which received the strongest positive critical response since the original and was lauded for reviving the franchise. The developer followed it up with the equally successful "Tomb Raider: Underworld" in 2008. Between those two games, it had also released "Tomb Raider: Anniversary," which was a remastered version of the original game faithfully recreated with the involvement with the series founder Toby Gard. Building up substantially over the original, it is considered as one of the best HD remasters to date.

Ironically, the 2013 "Tomb Raider" reboot isn't considered a commercial success despite its record-breaking sales success. PC Gamer notes that despite garnering favourable reviews and bagging 3.4 million units within the first month, the publisher Square Enix expressed disappointment because it expected the game to push a lot more copies. In fact, it was one of the games in the 2013 line-up that prompted the company to forecast losses for that year, which culminated in the resignation of the CEO Yoichi Wada.

A large part of the "Tomb Raider" reboot's problem was its rather lavish development cost. A VG247 report points out that games that cost $100 million to make need to push 5-10 million copies to reach profitability. While Square Enix hasn't revealed the development budget for the "Tomb Raider" reboot, that could explain why it was considered a commercial failure despite pushing 3.4 million units within the first month.

That also explains why Square Enix may have chosen to sign a timed exclusivity deal with Microsoft for the "Rise of the Tomb Raider." The move may have alienated and angered millions of fans on the PlayStation, PC and host of other platforms, but it has assured Square Enix a relatively risk-free access to development budget thanks to a timed exclusivity agreement for the Xbox One console.

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