20 Years Later, Square Enix Releasing Original Tomb Raider Music in New Album

A new Tomb Raider music collection is coming out. Today during a PAX East panel, original Tomb Raider composer Nathan McCree announced that a package called "Tomb Raider Suite," featuring new recordings of the music from the first three games, will be released later this year.

In a blog post, Crystal Dynamics said the album will come with not only the classic songs, but also "extensions and variations of original tracks" from the aforementioned first three games.

Additionally, McCree estimated that the album will be about 60-80 minutes long. He added that it will be performed by a "famous orchestra" at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in England.

McCree teased that a live performance of the music will be held at one of the "biggest venues in London" later this year as well. Additionally, the entire process of recording the music will be filmed for a documentary to air on TV and presumably through video-on-demand sources.

Also during the panel, McCree shared a few stories about writing the music for the original Tomb Raider games and how their success affected the original developer, Core Design. He said the success of Tomb Raider ultimately "ruined the company." This is because after Tomb Raider launched, Core split into two teams, one working on Tomb Raider and the other one on other projects.

The Tomb Raider team enjoyed many perks, including bonuses and getting their faces on TV for interviews, McCree said. The other division became jealous and things spiraled downward from there, he claimed.

In 2003, Eidos announced that Core would not develop the next Tomb Raider game, instead shifting development to Crystal Dynamics, which has worked on the franchise ever since. The last game in the Tomb Raider series that Core worked on was Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.

Core closed its doors in 2006.

It was also announced today that a new book titled "20 Years of Tomb Raider" is also in production. It will include previously unpublished images and assets from throughout the franchise's history. The book will also include interviews with developers at Core Design and Crystal Dynamics, as well as voice actors and composers.

Disclosure: GameSpot's Alexa Ray Corriea also appeared on this panel.

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