Ex-Core Staff Form New Studio

Former Core Design executives Jeremy Heath-Smith and Adrian Smith have formed a new UK development house named Circle Studio. The two, who are rather disingenuously described in their press release as the “creators of Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider series of games” (credit for the creation of the series is usually attributed to Paul Douglas and Toby Gard), are joined by thirty-five other ex-Core employees. Many of these will have left Core after Eidos Interactive executives transferred development chores on the Tomb Raider series to US-based Crystal Dynamics. The new company is already working on two prototype PS2 / Xbox games, while also preparing for PS3 and Xbox 2 titles.