The franchise focuses on the fictional British archaeologist Lara Croft, who travels around the world searching for lost artefacts and infiltrating dangerous tombs and ruins.

A month before release, Eidos finalised a deal with Sony Computer Entertainment to keep the console version of Tomb Raider II and future games exclusive to PlayStation until the year 2000.

The disc includes avatars for PlayStation Home, a Theme Pack, new Trophies, Developer's Diary videos for the three games, and trailers for Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light as bonus content.

[7][42] From 2010 to 2015, a subseries simply titled Lara Croft was in development at Crystal Dynamics, with different gameplay than the main series and existing in its own continuity.

Rummery objected on the grounds that splitting Tomb Raider out across multiple teams could lead to conflict between the projects, and has stated that it led him to "eventually throw in the towel."

A sequel titled The Lost Dominion was undergoing preliminary development that year, but the negative reception of The Angel of Darkness caused it and a wider trilogy to be scrapped.

[9][52] With Eidos's approval, Core Design then began development of an updated edition of the first game for the PSP called Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary in late 2005, with a projected release date of Christmas 2006.

[60][66][67][68] Lara Croft has been voiced by five actresses in the video game series: Shelley Blond, Judith Gibbins, Jonell Elliott, Keeley Hawes, and Camilla Luddington.

[73][74] In The Last Revelation, Lara was caught in a collapsing pyramid at the game's end, leaving her fate unknown: this was because the staff, exhausted from four years of non-stop development, wanted to move on from the character.

[61][64] The Lara Croft subseries take place within their own separate continuity, devoting itself to adventures similar to earlier games while the main series goes in a different stylistic direction.

[44] In the 2013 reboot continuity, Lara's mother vanished at an early age, and her father became obsessed with finding the secrets of immortality, eventually resulting in an apparent suicide.

The game's sequels portray Lara Croft in conflict with an ancient organization Trinity, in their quest to obtain supernatural items for their world domination.

The gameplay of Tomb Raider is primarily based around an action-adventure framework, with Lara navigating environments and solving mechanical and environmental puzzles, in addition to fighting enemies and avoiding traps.

Gard was no longer given creative control of the character, and it was stated by development staff that he was both saddened and disappointed by the use of Lara Croft's sex appeal in marketing.

Gard left Core Design in 1997, alongside Tomb Raider co-creator Paul Douglas, to found their own gaming company Confounding Factor.

[10][69][91] The remaining team members, alongside new arrivals, would work on the sequel Tomb Raider II which released a year after the original game and proved as big a commercial success.

[93] Eidos insisted that the series continue,[92] and so Chronicles was developed by the Tomb Raider team while an additional group made preparations for the transition to PlayStation 2 with The Angel of Darkness.

While Eidos had been averse to further Tomb Raider titles from the group, their recent purchase by SCi meant that the decision would now be made by the new parent company, and they were in favour.

[97][98] After the critical backlash against The Angel of Darkness, Eidos decided to take production of the Tomb Raider series out of Core Design's hands and give it to another subsidiary studio.

[92] One of the main priorities for both Eidos and Crystal Dynamics was to regain the fanbase's trust in the brand, along with helping the series reclaim the status and selling power it had before The Angel of Darkness' release.

[59][109] Another priority was presenting Lara as a more human character, putting her in vulnerable situations, and showing how she begins her journey to becoming a "tomb raider" through both narrative and gameplay.

[121] Embracer Group purchased a number of Square Enix Europe assets in May 2022 for $300 million, including Crystal Dynamics and the Tomb Raider franchise.

[122][123] The studio announced the next main Tomb Raider title in 2022 as a game that would "unify the timelines", and combine elements from all three series, including the work of Core Design.

[133] The music for The Angel of Darkness, composed by Connelly and Martin Iveson, was the one element of production that did not encounter problems, as recording was finished before the major content cuts happened.

[139] The music for Temple of Osiris was written by Will Roget II, who had originally worked on licensed video games including Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The game appeared in a list of British design icons which included Concorde, Mini, World Wide Web, Grand Theft Auto, K2 telephone box, London tube map, AEC Routemaster bus, and the Supermarine Spitfire.

[31][69][80][165][166][172] After her debut in 1996, Lara Croft was featured on the front cover of British culture magazine The Face, a position previously held by real-life celebrities.

[174][175] In an article for 1UP.com, Jeremy Parish said that Lara's sex appeal was the main draw for early fans, a facet Eidos exploited for marketing and attempted to emulate in other products.

He cited other writers' statements that her popularity stemmed from player empathy with her ability to survive tough situations, alongside contrasting against weaker female characters such as Princess Peach.

[166] However, alongside this praise, she has divided opinion as to her character design and consequent sexuality: she is both hailed as an empowering figure for women and a negative role model due to her hyper-sexualized and unrealistic appearance.