Tomb Raider fans received a welcomed surprise yesterday when Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics officially confirmed that a new game was in development. Details on Lara's next adventure are pretty scarce save for the fact that this next game is set to be her defining adventure. While the Tweet itself appears pretty light on information on the surface, fans have started to discover that the announcement is hiding a bit more than people realize.

Highlighted by video game historian Liam Robertson on Twitter, Crystal Dynamics managed to hide a fairly big piece of Tomb Raider information in plain sight in its official announcement letter. Taking the first letter of each sentence, the studio cleverly managed to hide the word Shadow. For many fans, this revelation essentially confirms the next game to be the long-rumored title, Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Earlier this year, leaked information hit the internet all pertaining to documents and concept art for an unannounced game called Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The logo for the game was actually captured by a subway rider, who candidly snapped a picture of it after seeing it on the laptop of another rider in Montreal. While ethically questionable, the image quickly made the rounds on the internet setting social media on fire and causing journalists to rush to try and verify the leaked photo.

Months later, more leaked content arrived to seemingly back up the claims that Shadow of the Tomb Raider is actually real and in development. This time around, leaked concept art was spotted from TAKEOFF Creative, a company who is well known to collaborate with Square Enix on various projects. The artwork in question depicted the logo in various different styles and Lara Croft is many different poses and environments. With an official confirmation of more Tomb Raider coming, fans should certainly expect to hear more about this upcoming game in 2018.

Square Enix’s next Tomb Raider game has yet to be confirmed for launch on any platforms, and does not currently have a release date.

Source: Twitter