Tomb Raider, also known as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an action-adventure video game series created by British gaming company Core Design. Formerly owned by Eidos Interactive, then by Square Enix Europe after Square Enix's acquisition of Eidos in 2009, 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. Gameplay generally focuses on exploration of environments, solving puzzles, navigating hostile environments filled with traps, and fighting enemies. Additional media has been developed for the franchise in the form of film adaptations, comics and novels.
Xbox Game Studios is an American video game publisher and part of Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, for the development and publishing of video games for Microsoft Windows. It has since expanded to include games and other interactive entertainment for the namesake Xbox platforms, Windows Mobile and other mobile platforms, and web-based portals.
Platinum Hits is a term used to refer to a line of select Xbox games that were considered by Microsoft to have sold considerable units on the platform in the nine months after release, and have dropped in price from their original MSRP to a newer, lower price, generally that of $19.99, although multi-game packs may sell for more. A similar budget range in PAL markets is known as Xbox Classics for £19.99 and Best of Classics for £9.99. In Japan, they are known as Platinum Collection games and generally cost ¥2,800, with a number of games such as Grand Theft Auto IV and Dynasty Warriors 6 at a higher price point of ¥3,800. Sales requirements may vary by region.
Games for Windows – Live or GFWL was an online gaming service used by Games for Windows–branded PC titles that enables Windows PCs to connect to Microsoft's Live service. Users, each with a unique Gamertag, are able to play online, keep track of their friends' status, send and receive messages, gain and keep track of Achievements and associated Gamerscore, voice chat across platforms, and more. Some games allow for cross-platform play, such as Shadowrun, putting Windows players against Xbox 360 players.
The Xbox 360 controller is the primary game controller for Microsoft's Xbox 360 home video game console that was introduced at E3 2005. The Xbox 360 controller comes in both wired and wireless versions. The Xbox controller is not compatible with the Xbox 360. The wired and wireless versions are also compatible with Microsoft PC operating systems, such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
Cory Barlog is an American video game designer, director, and writer who is the current creative director of video game development at Santa Monica Studio. He is best known for his work on God of War (2005), God of War II (2007), and God of War (2018).
Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain additional revenue from a title after it has been purchased, often using some type of microtransaction system.
Capcom Game Studio Vancouver, Inc., more commonly known as Capcom Vancouver, was a Canadian video game developer owned by Capcom with minority stake partnership by Microsoft Studios. As Blue Castle Games, the company was the creator of several successful baseball sports video games, including The Bigs, MLB Front Office Manager and The Bigs 2. They have also developed the Dead Rising series. Blue Castle Games was acquired by Capcom after the release of Dead Rising 2, and renamed Capcom Vancouver, where they continued to work on the Dead Rising series. Capcom announced the closure of the studio in September 2018, cancelling Dead Rising titles in the works and moving other development to their Japan-based studios.
Halo Wars is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 video game console. It was released in Australia on February 26, 2009; in Europe on February 27; and in North America on March 3. The game is set in the science fiction universe of the Halo series in the year 2531, 21 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. The player leads human soldiers aboard the warship Spirit of Fire in an effort to stop an ancient fleet of ships from falling into the hands of the genocidal alien Covenant.
343 Industries is an American video game developer located in Redmond, Washington, part of Xbox Game Studios. Headed by Pierre Hintze, the studio is responsible for the Halo series of military science fiction games, originally created and produced by Bungie, and is the developer of the Slipspace Engine. Named after the Halo character 343 Guilty Spark, the studio was established in 2007 after the departure of Bungie.
True Crime is a series of open world action-adventure video games told from the perspective of law enforcement. There are two games in the series, True Crime: Streets of LA, released in 2003, and True Crime: New York City, released in 2005. Each game features GPS-accurate open world recreations of parts of Los Angeles and New York City, respectively. Streets of LA was developed by Luxoflux for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, and ported to Microsoft Windows by LTI Gray Matter, to mobile by MFORMA and to macOS by Aspyr. It was published on all systems by Activision, except the Mac version, which was published by Aspyr. New York City was developed by Luxoflux for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, and ported to Windows by Aspyr and to mobile by Hands-On Mobile. It was published on all systems by Activision.
Sleeping Dogs is an action-adventure video game developed by United Front Games and published by Square Enix. It was released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows in 2012. Set in contemporary Hong Kong, the story follows martial artist and undercover police officer Wei Shen who infiltrates the Sun On Yee Triad organization. Gameplay focuses on Wei Shen's martial arts moves, fighting, shooting and parkour abilities, and on gadgets that can be used for combat and exploration. Players must complete missions to unlock content and continue the story, but they may instead freely roam the game's open world environment and engage in both legal and criminal activities. The latter may incite a police response, the intensity of which is controlled by a "heat" system. Actions such as fighting, driving and racing grant Shen statistical rewards and earn the player achievements.
Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington. It is a studio owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones after publishing Jones' game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. Originally based in Chicago, Illinois, the company concentrated on Macintosh games during its early years and created two successful video game franchises called Marathon and Myth. An offshoot studio, Bungie West, produced Oni, published in 2001 and owned by Take-Two Interactive, which held a 19.9% ownership stake at the time.
Tomb Raider is a 2013 action-adventure video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix's European subsidiary. It is the tenth main game in the Tomb Raider franchise and a reboot of the series, acting as the first instalment in the Survivor trilogy that reconstructs the origins of Lara Croft. Tomb Raider was released on 5 March 2013 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Gameplay focus is on survival, with exploration when traversing the island and visiting various optional tombs. It is the first game in the main series to have multiplayer, the first game in the series to be published by Square Enix, after the latter's acquisition of Eidos Interactive in 2009.
The Coalition is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Vancouver. The Coalition is best known for developing games in the Gears of War series after the franchise's acquisition by Xbox Game Studios from Epic Games.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a 2015 action-adventure video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Microsoft Studios and Square Enix's European subsidiary. The game is the eleventh main entry in the Tomb Raider series, the sequel to the 2013's Tomb Raider, and is the second instalment in the Survivor trilogy. Its story follows Lara Croft as she ventures into Siberia in search of the legendary city of Kitezh while battling the paramilitary organization Trinity, which intends to uncover the city's promise of immortality. Lara must traverse the environment and combat enemies with firearms and stealth as she explores semi-open hubs. In these hubs she can raid challenge tombs to unlock new rewards, complete side missions, and scavenge for resources which can be used to craft useful materials.
Bonnie Ross is an American video game developer. She served as Corporate Vice President at Xbox Game Studios, and was the head of 343 Industries, the subsidiary studio that manages the Halo video game franchise. Ross studied technical writing and computer science in college, and worked at IBM before getting a job at Microsoft. She worked on a number of PC and Xbox games, becoming a general manager at Xbox Game Studios.
SkyBox Labs Inc. is a Canadian independent video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. Founded in 2011 by Derek MacNeil, Shyang Kong and Steven Silvester formerly from EA Vancouver, they are mostly known for their work with Xbox Game Studios on the Halo, Age of Empires and Minecraft franchises.
