Earlier this month, a company called Realtech VR announced remastered versions of Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider II, and Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft were coming to Steam.
The plan was for updates for all three games to come to those who already owned them on Steam for free, and they’d offer a dazzling new look at the classic games.
Publisher Square Enix has announced that the remasters have been canceled. The remasters weren’t actually given the go-ahead from Square Enix to exist in the first place, and now the project is dead in the water.
There’s no more YouTube footage of the work completed so far, and Realtech VR has confirmed via Twitter that work has halted on the projects.
Square Enix released an official statement on the matter, saying that the remasters were “initiated and advertised without seeking approval” in the first place. “As such, they were never officially sanctioned,” the statement concludes.
If you were looking for more great-looking Tomb Raider action for the future, you’ve still got the upcoming cap to the reboot trilogy, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, coming later this year. If you or a company you know of want to bring out remasters of games that you don’t own in the future, it may be a good idea to make sure they’re officially sanctioned first.