Now that the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo is behind us, Crystal Dynamics has the chance to catch its collective breath and refocus, myself included. Who am I, exactly? My name is Meagan Marie, and I’m the newly appointed Community Manager at Crystal Dynamics. That’s me to the left. Nice to meet you.

Moving forward, I’ll be your tour guide to all things Crystal Dynamics – the veteran game studio currently focused on reimagining the Tomb Raider franchise. It’s my job to keep you apprised of breaking news, fresh media, and community initiatives, in addition to keeping the team human by providing a porthole into office pizza parties and ping-pong tournaments. This monthly newsletter is a proactive step in that direction.

Since this marks Crystal’s first “fix,” let’s start with the basics. In case you missed it, take a moment and check out the epic Tomb Raider “Turning Point” trailer, as debuted exclusively on Spike’s GT.TV with Geoff Keighley. The powerful trailer establishes Tomb Raider’s premise, fleshing out the extraordinary circumstances that catalyze young Lara Croft’s first adventure.

The Turning Point trailer took over a year to develop, and required collaborative efforts from multiple studios and entertainment entities. Game Informer debuted an exclusive “Making of the Trailer” feature early this month, illustrating just how massive an endeavour it was to create three minutes of footage.

Take a look for never-before-seen clips, animatics, interviews, and insight from the individuals that brought the trailer to life.

If you’re looking for slightly more casual discourse, pop by the Official Tomb Raider Blog. Like our other social media outlets, this portal will keep you up-to-date of the latest news and media, but also offers up fan tributes, Q&A, random musings from the Crystal Dynamics campus, and a chance to connect with the Tomb Raider team on a more personal level.

On the subject of E3, the show exceeded our wildest expectations, as this year was intended to be our “quiet show” – a calm before the storm of 2012. We kicked off E3 in a big way with an impressive stage demo at the Microsoft press conference, which you can watch here courtesy of our friends at GameTrailers. Studio Head Darrell Gallagher and Game Director Dan Neuburger were calm and cool while presenting Tomb Raider to an auditorium filled with influential industry figures. Later on in the show, Art Director Brian Horton and Brand Director Karl Stewart debuted an extended version of the demo live at the GameSpot booth.

Behind-closed-doors presentations yielded a slew of coverage from the blogosphere, including stellar previews from Kotaku: Tomb Raider Hopes to Recreate a Gaming Icon, IGN: Female Game Characters Get Real, VG24/7: Crystal’s Tomb Raider vies for Game of the Show, and Venture Beat: Tomb Raider’s Reboot looks like a Winner.

Tomb Raider also garnered attention from many mainstream outlets, amassing mentions by Rolling Stone, The Guardian, E! Online, CNN, USA Today, The Daily, and more.

Over the course of E3, Tomb Raider was nominated for more than 60 awards, and walked away with a notable number of wins. Highlights include taking IGN’s “Best Action Game” and “Best Trailer” awards, “Best Action Game” from Digital Trends, “Most Valuable Game Award” from both PlayStation: The Official Magazine and GamesRadar, “Best Trailer” from GameSpy, and “Game of Show” from VideoGamer.com. However, the biggest honor of E3 was nabbing three Game Critics Awards nominations – accolades from a pool of 35 publications comprised of top-tier industry professionals. Tomb Raider was recognized in the “Best Console Game” and “Best Action/Adventure” categories. Scoring a nomination alongside heavy hitters such as Batman, BioShock, Skyrim, and Uncharted for the “Best of Show” category was the real icing on the cake. I’d say everyone at Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics considers the E3 a massive success.

Tomb Raider © Square Enix Ltd. Enix and the Square Enix logo are registered trademarks of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamics, the Crystal Dynamics logo, Eidos, and the Eidos logo are trademarks of Square Enix Ltd.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

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