Tomb Raider team to join Shiny?
3/10/97 -- Shiny Entertainment's outspoken frontman Dave Perry has dropped an industry bombshell -- but perhaps a premature one -- by announcing one of the more significant talent transfers of 1997. According to a statement made by him on the Internet Monday morning, the two lead members of the Tomb Raider development team are leaving Core Design to join Shiny, makers of the eye-popping MDK.
Toby Gard, the man responsible for Tomb Raider's original concept and also the game's lead graphic artist, and Tomb Raider lead programmer Paul Douglas, are both reportedly quitting Core Design's headquarters in the north of England for the sunnier climes of Laguna Beach, CA, where Shiny Entertainment is based. Perry also hinted that more members of the Tomb Raider team could be making the transatlantic trip, but that further information could not be revealed until details are finalized in a few weeks.
However -- and this is where it gets interesting -- senior sources inside Eidos Interactive (which owns Core Design) and within Core Design itself have strenuously denied the story, issuing a 100 per cent guarantee that neither Gard nor Douglas are leaving. Instead, Core claims, the talented duo will stay right where they are and will continue to work on their new, non-Tomb Raider related project. The upcoming Tomb Raider sequel remains in production at the hands of remaining members of the original TR team.
"Believe me, they're leaving," countered Perry, claiming that both Gard and Douglas have already handed in their notice, and that he's currently fielding calls from other Core employees anxious to join Shiny. However, he also conceded that Gard and Douglas have yet to sign anything with Shiny, and that the whole deal is based on a "verbal agreement" made when the duo visited the Shiny offices recently.
So who's right and who's wrong? Perry is obviously confident enough of his new acquisition to name names in his very public (and heavily hyped) statement on the web, but Core and Eidos steadfastly insist that Perry simply got carried away and jumped the gun with his announcement after conducting informal (but ultimately inconclusive) negotiations with Douglas and Gard. This one could run and run. Stay tuned for an update tomorrow.
Cropped from the PC Gamer website
Cheers
Bill |
