Ian Livingstone

Ian Livingstone is the co-founder and CEO of Eidos Interactive (which has been bought by Square Enix in early 2009) and the Life President of Eidos.

For his work in the computer gaming industry, Ian Livingstone was appointed in 2006 Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and later in 2013 Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Ian Livingstone is also a fantasy author, who has co-written and created the single-player roleplay gamebook series called "Fighting Fantasy".

Quotes from Ian Livingstone

Below are various quotes from interviews with Ian Livingstone about various themes around the Tomb Raider franchise.

Lara Croft's Popularity

In 2006, on GameSpot's interview about Tomb Raider Anniversary, Ian Livingstone was asked what he thinks that makes Lara Croft so popular:

When they first came out, games were bought by children, but they didn't stop playing games when they got older. What would a teenager rather look at? A hedgehog, a plumber, or Lara Croft's butt?
There are other great characters, but they're all aimed at a younger audience--Zelda, Sonic, Mario--there have been none that have been aimed at the more mature consumer. If you think of other successful games, you don't always remember the characters.
Women don't object to Lara because she's strong, independent, intelligent, athletic, sexy, and essentially she doesn't need men. And of course, men wouldn't object to [her] for the same reasons... And, as she's virtual, she can be anything to anyone.

Ian Livingstone to GameSpot

Tomb Raider (2013)

Ian Livingstone was asked in an interview with Huffington Post on March 2013 whether he felt that the Tomb Raider Series has been "reborn", judging by the reaction to the newest Tomb Raider:

Lara Croft has survived the test of time. The first Tomb Raider appeared in 1996 and has there have been many sequels since. Crystal Dynamics has looked very closely at today's audience to make sure the franchise was relevant. At the same time we looked at the success of the reboots of Batman and James Bond and thought it might be an appropriate time to look at Tomb Raider in a similar manner.
At the same time many fans around the world were writing in requests to know more about the young Lara. Therefore it was a brave and bold decision I think to go for the origin story to make this Tomb Raider a prequel rather than a sequel while still playing to the three core components of a Tomb Raider game - exploration and adventure, coupled with puzzle solving albeit environmental puzzles in this instance, and combat.

Ian Livingstone to Huffington Post

Third Tomb Raider Movie

In an interview with Eurogamer in 2006, Ian Livingstone stated the following about a third Tomb Raider film:

We're also talking to Paramount about a third movie, although nothing's been signed yet and we still need to hire a script writer. The film's not been green lit yet, so for me it'd be ideal to tie in a movie script with a game script at the same time, to have them both in harmony rather than out of kilter - which has happened in the past.

Ian Livingstone to Eurogamer

This movie was never made. Instead the third movie was finally announced in early 2016, to be released in 2018, and it will probably feature a reboot storyline.

External Links

• Ian Livingstone on Wikipedia
• Ian Livingstone on Twitter