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In a statement released today, Eidos revealed that the next installment of the Tomb Raider franchise will not be created by Core Design, the company which has created every title in the series so far.

The company recently revealed news that Jeremy Heath-Smith had stepped down from both development director at Eidos and managing director of Core Design. In a new statement from Eidos, "Since then, the Board has been conducting a review of the Tomb Raider franchise and the studio operations of Core Design. In recognition of the Company’s need continually to enhance the value and maximise the commercial opportunity of one of its key franchises, for which all intellectual property rights belong to Eidos, the Board has concluded that it will transfer development of the franchise to its Crystal Dynamics studio in the US."

Eidos has recently been criticised by Paramount Pictures because of the film company recording less-than-expected box office sales in the US for the launch of the latest Tomb Raider movie, The Cradle Of Life.

"The only thing we can attribute that to is that the gamers were not happy with the latest version of the 'Tomb Raider' video game, which is our core audience," distribution president of Paramount Wayne Lewellen commented in a Reuters report.

Eidos shares jumped by over 4% when the company revealed that despite the delays of the new Tomb Raider, the company expects to meet its profit forecasts. An Eidos statement said, "The Company believes it will now meet the original market expectation for operating profit pre goodwill for the financial year to 30 June 2003 that prevailed prior to [previous] its announcement."

The next Tomb Raider title is expected to be released during the financial year to 30 June 2005.