Posts circulating within the Tomb Raider community on X were sending complaints to the development team of the third game’s remastered edition regarding a graphical change that had occurred in the game’s most recent update… the removal of the suggestive pictures of the franchise’s main character, Lara Croft, had seemingly disappeared from the infamous “Sleeping With The Fishes” level of the game.
As the user, SmashJT, pointed out, the before and after photos were taken comparing the wall in the first room from the original 2000 game to the updated wall after the 2nd update released on April 11. In light of the images being gone, fans of the series addressed their concerns of censorship to the remaster’s development team, Aspyr.
Released on February 14, Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered received average reviews from fans and critics. Fans found the HD remastering of the game’s graphics nostalgic but criticized their appearance as being “too retro” compared to other game remasters. Some critics found the controls to be “clunky” with modern controllers, but fans found them comparable to the original games from the late 90s.
Upon seeing the rising controversy regarding the poster’s removal, Daniel from Aspyr posted an article on the studio’s website stating that the images were “inadvertently removed” during the “texture and graphical updates.” He then stated that the issue had been “resolved,” confirming that the posters would return in the game’s third update.
After buying the franchise from Square Enix Europe, the Embracer Group assigned Aspyr to release the games to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S. The studio previously ported the first six games to the MacOS system in the early 2000s with the franchise’s original studio, Crystal Dynamics.
