Square Enix’s trademarks have been the subject of much discussion of late, first there was Deus Ex: Human Defiance, which turned out to be the title of the upcoming film of the game, then there was Deus Ex: The Fall, something we still know little about and, so, fingers crossed it’s a new game in the works, and now we’ve got news that Square have gone and registered a possible Tomb Raider title, Lara Croft: Reflections.
With the success of their recent Tomb Raider reboot, Square Enix are likely riding high on the possibilities of deep temple Crofting. This could explain a recent trademark filing discovered by Siliconera. The filing doesn’t give away many details, only that it is a game project titled Lara Croft: Reflections and it is registered to Square Enix. This may not seem like much but considering Deus Ex: Human Defiance was registered through a brand protection agency and covered everything from a game project to pencil case branding knowing that Lara Croft: Reflections is definitively a tentative game from Square Enix is at least something halfway substantial.
Clearly it is too early to draw any conclusions from the scant information we have. It does raise a couple of questions though: why title the game Lara Croft: Reflections rather than, say, Tomb Raider: Reflections? Yes, most people will know the name Lara Croft if they know the name Tomb Raider but why would Square Enix not capitalise on the franchise option of continuing their reboot? It could be that, much as Activision divvied the Call of Duty series between Infinity Ward and Treyarch, that Square Enix have another studio outside of Crystal Dynamics working on a Tomb Raider project, something of a different style.
We’re contacting Square Enix to try and get some answers.