30 Years of Crystal Dynamics Documentary

[Ellioft]

Originally Posted by dg1995

I don't think their relationship with Core was good at all. They didn't even bother to mention that they ended up getting Core's TRAE cancelled with their Anniversary game.
I also remember reading here that Lara's LAU games voice actress wrote a book about TR and Crystal forced her to remove some stuff where she described the relationship between Core and Crystal.(Which obviously wasn't a good relationship)

The thing is Core already have lost TR since AOD they tried with Anniversary Edition to get back in the game but Eidos wasn't interested. It's not their fault at all If Eidos wanted to have Crystal on Anniversary rather than Core it's simply business and frankly even after I've played and see the build I can understand their decision to do it.

It's not an actress who have written a book it was Meagan Marie the actual senior community manager at Crystal.
I don't know If it's true but I've heard only rumors.

[jajay119]

Originally Posted by Ellioft

The thing is Core already have lost TR since AOD they tried with Anniversary Edition to get back in the game but Eidos wasn't interested.

That's not quite true, if Core are to be believed. Eidos were initially happy with their pitch for the game and let them work on it - that's why it was so well developed at the point it was canned. Don't forget, the versions there are various builds floating about and some are further in development than others. There are even Core employees who attest to the fact that they were doing an update presentation to Eidos and CD employees were in the room for it - that's where the suggestion of rivalry and stolen projects have come from.

I think it was the transition from Eidos to Sci that was the real turning point with all of this- When Sci acquired Eidos in 2005 Legend became very successful and AOD wasn't. It just made financial sense, for a newly acquired company, to stick with the financial success studio.

I do think it had a negative impact on TRU and was the wrong decision though, but I guess they learned that the hard way considering Sci was bought out by SE just after 2008 lasting only three years.

Personally, I think they could have had two studios working on TR. Core with more traditional style games and Crystal with modernised ones. Had that situation happened today, I guarantee that both studios would have been kept on in dual roles to make as much money as possible. But, gaming today is much more broad than it was in 2005, it's more lucrative, more collaborative and less niche than it was in 2005. It's a shame really, but it's all history at this point.

[Moon-Safari]

Wow that makes sense why Anniversary was so well polished and Underworld really suffered. It could've been great, but the level design was already simplistic. It need A LOT more time probably. But maybe most of it was just engine complications.

[CheshireBitch]

Originally Posted by dg1995

I also remember reading here that Lara's LAU games voice actress wrote a book about TR and Crystal forced her to remove some stuff where she described the relationship between Core and Crystal.(Which obviously wasn't a good relationship)

That's news to me, what's the name of the book?

[TR1249]

Originally Posted by CheshireBitch

That's news to me, what's the name of the book?

They're talking about that 20th Anniversary Book, which was written by Maegan (not a Voice Actress)

[CheshireBitch]

Originally Posted by TR1249

They're talking about that 20th Anniversary Book, which was written by Maegan (not a Voice Actress)

Oh okay, I did read that one ! Thanks for clarifying the confusion !

[reborninshadow]

Originally Posted by Ellioft

The thing is Core already have lost TR since AOD they tried with Anniversary Edition to get back in the game but Eidos wasn't interested. It's not their fault at all If Eidos wanted to have Crystal on Anniversary rather than Core it's simply business and frankly even after I've played and see the build I can understand their decision to do it.

It's not an actress who have written a book it was Meagan Marie the actual senior community manager at Crystal.
I don't know If it's true but I've heard only rumors.

Eidos/SCI approved Core's version first, it's the only reason Crystal's version exists in the first place since Core came up with the idea to remake the game. The game wouldn't have been in development for around a year if Eidos wasn't interested in it in the first place.

We'll probably never know exactly what went down but Crystal basically lied about the development of this game for a long time by claiming they were developing it at the same time and had no about Core's version or whatever, that stuff is complete BS.

[CheshireBitch]

Originally Posted by reborninshadow

Eidos/SCI approved Core's version first, it's the only reason Crystal's version exists in the first place since Core came up with the idea to remake the game. The game wouldn't have been in development for around a year if Eidos wasn't interested in it in the first place.

We'll probably never know exactly what went down but Crystal basically lied about the development of this game for a long time by claiming they were developing it at the same time and had no about Core's version or whatever, that stuff is complete BS.

but it's possible that Eidos asked both studio to pitch a version of the game, right ?

[dg1995]

Originally Posted by CheshireBitch

but it's possible that Eidos asked both studio to pitch a version of the game, right ?

But Core already worked on it for about 1 year. A pitch is more like a prototype and game design document that developers make in few weeks to present what they want to make to the publisher.

When Crystal showed their pitch to Eidos/SCI(Which was just a prototype in Legend engine) Core already was well ahead of them in development.

Unless this articles turn out to be lies.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/...f-core-design/
https://www.eurogamer.net/20-years-o...who-were-there

"They had a lot riding on that, and it was a year late," Rummery says. "We were making the Tomb Raider remake, and they suddenly put forward their own demo. It was a basic demo, using a bit of the beginning of the opening scene of Legends running on PSP. I didn't think it was a big deal. I thought, come on, look how much we've got! We've nearly finished on this! I didn't foresee it as a particularly serious threat, and it didn't seem to make a lot of sense because they were going to have to outsource it.

"But politically it made more sense for them to build it. Their trump card was, hey, we can do 10th anniversary across Xbox 360 and things like that, which we couldn't do at all because we didn't have that kind of capability.

"So I was told, no, we've decided to go with their version, which obviously went down like a cup of cold sick at our place. And they didn't hit the 10th anniversary. So they had to call it just anniversary. It came out on the 11th anniversary. The only bit I proposed that came to fruition was the idea of doing it in the bloody first place. It was gutting."

[CheshireBitch]

@dg1995: Oh okay, I tend to forget about the chronology in this story, it's all a mess...

What they could have done is let Crystal create a PS/Xbox version of their own and let Core release the PSP one. But I guess it would have cost a lot more of money.