Square Enix said tonight it is delaying the release of Tomb Raider until the first quarter of 2013. The game was previously set for release this fall.

Darrell Gallagher, studio head at developer Crystal Dynamics, posted a messaged on the game's official blog explaining the delay and noted Tomb Raider will be shown at E3 next month. Below is his message in full:

When Crystal Dynamics first set out to reboot the Tomb Raider franchise, there were two goals that we were extremely passionate about. The first was to create a modern Tomb Raider game that would surprise and excite gamers.

The second was to make this the best game of our careers, something we would be really proud to be a part of. We truly believe that we have something very special on our hands and we can’t wait to share it with you.Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game. In order to do this, we have decided to move the game’s release date by a few months, from Fall 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.

We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait.

The game is looking amazing and we can’t wait to show it to everyone at E3 in a few weeks.

Darrell Gallagher

As an apology for the delay, Crystal Dynamics posted the above screenshot, which apparently hints at what we can expect to see from the game at E3.

[Source: Tomb Raider Blog]