Tomb Raider has finally broken even

Square Enix’s Tomb Raider reboot has finally recouped its development costs.

The game arrived in March 2013 and debuted at No.1 in the UK charts, becoming the then most successful launch of the year in the process.

But despite sales of 3.4m copies in its first three weeks it fell short of Square’s forecasts, which were estimated to stand at just under double its actual sales.

However, producer Scot Amos has now told Eurogamer that by the end of last year Tomb Raider was in the black”, adding that the studio has crossed the line of profitability for the last-gen and PC versions”.

A lot of the coverage surrounding the news at the time accused Square of harbouring unrealistic expectations for the game – an accusation Amos understandably distances himself from.

"As a franchise, Square Enix is clearly invested in us," he added. "They already let us get kickstarted on a sequel and they backed us with the game’s upcoming Definitive Edition.

"I think that, as far as realistic or not, what the market can bear… it’s a very interesting time. How many people can sell games like Clash of Clans or Candy Crush and make that kind of money? Or Minecraft’s sales? Expectations can get shifted so quickly it’s difficult to know what realistic even means anymore.

"And, looking forward, clearly Square and Crystal are invested in the franchise. So, despite how it was said, what was said – we had a lot of people scratching their heads and asking about it – we’re very happy to say that from a partnership internally, we’re committed to it totally.

Square Enix talks about it as a key franchise, so we’re very happy with where we’re at."

Amos added that it was Crystal Dynamics that came up with the idea for the PS4 and Xbox One’s Definitive Edition version of the game, development of which has been farmed out as it continues work on the next instalment in the series.