Next Tomb Raider to be origin story

The Tomb Raider franchise is one of the most recognizable in the industry. The series has spawned numerous titles since debuting in the mid 1990s. Also, it has graced the silver screen twice, with Hollywood heroine Angelina Jolie cast as series leading lady Lara Croft.

This year, the series went downloadable with the well-received Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. However, the franchise's console future has been in limbo, with the most recent release being 2008's underperforming Tomb Raider: Underworld.

Crystal Dynamics today sent word that the next Tomb Raider installment, simply titled Tomb Raider, will be an origin story. It will tell the tale of how Lara Croft came to be the crafty, nimble adventurer at the center of previous games. Details surrounding the title are still extremely few and far between, but developer Crystal Dynamics did offer the following teasing statement.

"After a brutal storm destroys the boat she was travelling on, a frightened young woman is left washed ashore on an unknown beach. On her own but not alone she has only one goal, to survive," reads the description. Crystal Dynamics studio head Darrell Gallagher went one step further, saying, "Forget everything you knew about Tomb Raider."

The new Tomb Raider game will be featured in January's Game Informer magazine, which is due out on newsstands on December 11. Publisher Square Enix has not released any date or platform information for the game thus far.

For more on the series' latest console installment, check out GameSpot's review of Tomb Raider Underworld.