If you were circling 2027 on your calendar for both new Tomb Raider games, go ahead and erase one of those circles. Tomb Raider: Catalyst is now targeting a 2028 release, a full year later than fans had been expecting.
How the delay came out
The news didn't arrive through a formal announcement or a studio blog post. Jeffrey Gattis, Amazon's head of gaming, mentioned the 2028 window almost in passing during a conversation about Amazon Luna and the platform's content strategy. While discussing Luna's ambitions to build a recognizable library of original games, Gattis noted that Legacy of Atlantis arrives February 12, 2027, with Catalyst following in 2028. That casual mention was the first time a concrete year had been attached to Catalyst's launch.
Here's the thing: Catalyst never had a specific release date to begin with. When both Tomb Raider titles were announced at The Game Awards in 2025, Legacy of Atlantis was slated for 2026 and Catalyst for 2027. Legacy of Atlantis already slipped to early 2027. Now Catalyst has moved to 2028, which means the original two-year plan for both games has stretched to at least three.
The pattern forming across both titles
This isn't an isolated stumble. Legacy of Atlantis missed its 2026 window before landing a February 2027 date. Catalyst has now followed the same trajectory, sliding from 2027 to 2028 without a formal delay announcement, just a quiet calendar update buried in a platform strategy conversation.
Gattis framed the Tomb Raider titles as central to Luna's identity, the kind of flagship content that gives a platform a reason to exist. His comments suggest Amazon views both games as long-term investments rather than titles that need to ship on any particular schedule. That's a reasonable position for a platform still building its audience, but it doesn't make the wait any shorter for players who have been following Lara Croft's return since the 2025 announcement.
What this means for the wait ahead
The practical reality is that Catalyst is now at least two and a half years away. Legacy of Atlantis lands in February 2027, and assuming Catalyst follows sometime in 2028, there's a reasonable buffer between the two releases. That spacing might actually work in the franchise's favor. Rushing a second major entry out the door within months of the first rarely ends well, and the extra development time gives Crystal Dynamics room to respond to whatever feedback Legacy of Atlantis generates.
The community reaction has been measured. Most players seem to prefer a finished game over a rushed one, especially given how high the stakes are for a franchise revival of this scale. The key here is that Catalyst is positioned as an original adventure, not a remake, which means the development complexity is considerably higher than Legacy of Atlantis.
For now, the focus shifts entirely to Legacy of Atlantis and its February 2027 release. You'll want to check out the Tomb Raider: Catalyst guides hub as more details emerge closer to launch, and keep an eye on our broader gaming guides for coverage across both titles as the release windows approach.
