Tomb Raider developers uncensor content, claim it was removed by accident: 'This has been resolved'

Almost two weeks after fans noticed that a portion of a Tomb Raider video game was removed, developers have since reinstated the content but claimed it was removed by accident.

Aspyr Media Inc., a subsidiary of gaming giant Embracer Group, admitted to fans of the series that it was behind the removal of images in Tomb Raider III: The Lost Artefact.

Previously, gamers noticed that developers had removed polygonal photos of its main character, Lara Croft, lying in provocative poses from the background of one of its environments. The original game's graphics made the images barely discernable, but in the remastered version, the animated posters were clear. This came more than two months after the release of Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, which came out on February 14, 2024.

Fans were doubly mad at the fact that the remastered games were supposed to be presented in their original form, or so a disclaimer at the beginning of the games said.

"The games in this collection contain offensive depictions of people and cultures rooted in racial and ethnic prejudices. These stereotypes are deeply harmful, inexcusable, and do not align with our values at Crystal Dynamics," a prompt in the game read.

Aspyr Media chalked the removal of the images up to textural and graphical updates which caused an error.

"Thank you to the Tomb Raider community for your continued feedback and support for Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft," an employee named Daniel wrote.

"In the recently released Patch 2, we made several texture and graphical updates to the HD version. As part of these updates, the posters in Sleeping With The Fishes (The Lost Artifact) were inadvertently removed in the HD version of the game. This has been resolved and these textures will be restored in Patch 3," he added.

Many fans were thankful for the decision, but some called the believability of Aspyr's claim into question.

"I have a hard time in this day and age believing that the change was inadvertent but it's certainly possible. Thank you for restoring them, either way. My faith in Aspyr is restored. My only suggestion is to get the word out quicker should something like this happen again," one fan stated on X.

"I don't believe the change was 'inadvertent,' but good for you listening to fans and fixing the poor decision," another user wrote.

Yet another user pointed out that there remained another change in the game that has mostly gone ignored. A enemy character in the game who had a topless woman on the back of his jacket was shown to have it covered with a bikini in the new version.

Credibility of the franchise has wavered among fans as Tomb Raider has suffered from horrible PR in early 2024. In addition to the alleged censorship and content warnings, a licensed board game for Tomb Raider also faced huge criticisms for saying that the series' main character, Lara Croft, was a "colonialist" while the games consisted of out-of-date and offensive themes related to stealing.

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