Crystal Dynamics rebooted Lara Croft because she was "losing relevance"

Crystal Dynamics brand director Karl Stewart has said that it needed to reboot Tomb Raider and, more specifically, Lara Croft because she was "losing relevance."

"I think Lara’s a beloved character and Crystal has really enjoyed their time they’ve been able to spend with her," Stewart told RPS, referring to the three previous games with the old Lara.

"We felt she was losing some relevance in the gaming world, that she was a little too hard and removed. We wanted to make her more approachable and relatable. I think this was a perfect time for us to reimagine the franchise, taking Lara back to her roots.

"I think it’s growing to be a great way for players to learn to reknow who Lara is, retell her story."

Stewart added that it wanted to show a Lara Croft that wasn't "perfect," adding there wasn't too many stories it could have told with the previous iteration.

"I think she became an icon. When you do, you remove yourself from relatability. We wanted to bring her to a place where she didn’t have all those skills, she wasn’t perfect. The modern gamer can relate to that, they want a complex hero," he said.

"I think Lara had done all the growing she could. We’d taken her to a great place, to somewhere she had some closure. There weren’t really many more stories we could have told. So we feel like with this new place we have fertile ground and there’s a lot of places we can go."

Tomb Raider launches in autumn 2012 for PS3, 360 and PC.