Aspyr claims recent censorship in Tomb Raider: I – III Remastered was inadvertent, and will be amended in an upcoming patch.
Earlier this month, it was discovered that Aspyr had censored Tomb Raider: I – III Remastered with a post-launch update. A pair of Easter egg pin-ups featuring Lara Croft in Tomb Raider III: The Lost Artefact had been restored from their heavily pixilated origins.
This was until Title Update 2.0 on April 11th, where the posters were removed in the “remastered” graphics setting. They were left untouched in the “original” graphic settings, with pixels so large one would be hard pressed to work out what it was showing, let alone who. The patch notes also failed to make any mention of the changes.
After multiple users brought the matter up to Aspyr on X, and discussions on r/TombRaider, Aspyr has responded — as if they were somehow the last to realize they had censored their own game.
Drawing X user’s attention to their official website, Aspyr’s Daniel declared, “Thank you to the Tomb Raider community for your continued feedback and support for Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft.”
“In the recently released Patch 2, we made several texture and graphical updates to the HD version,” he explained. “As part of these updates, the posters in Sleeping With The Fishes (The Lost Artifact) were inadvertently removed in the HD version of the game.”
“This has been resolved and these textures will be restored in Patch 3,” the statement concluded.
Among those praising the fix, even those that doubted Aspyr’s ignorance couldn’t help but to be happy. “I have a hard time in this day and age believing that the change was inadvertent but it’s certainly possible,” @NEHWind relented.
“Thank you for restoring them, either way. My faith in Aspyr is restored. My only suggestion is to get the word out quicker should something like this happen again.”
“I don’t believe the change was ‘inadvertent,’ but good for you listening to fans and fixing the poor decision,” @FedUpMajority loathed to admit.
“Thank you for fixing this. I’d previously written off the remaster series due to patch censorship but will seriously reconsider. Good for you, Aspyr,” congratulated @bugensbooks.
Tomb Raider: I – III Remastered has suffered as many unexpected turns as one of Ms. Croft’s adventures. Months before the pin-ups caught gamers’ attention, it was promised the trilogy would be uncensored — barring a “harmful impact” disclaimer over “cultural depictions” that some individuals could deem either stereotypical or offensive.
However, it was later discovered that Pierre DuPont’s bomber jacket had been censored. The image of a nude woman on the back of the jacket had been given a bikini top.
In his reporting of the news, our own Editor-in-Chief noted the uncensored disclaimer may have only applied to the tribesman-style enemies — as opposed to a heavily pixilated texture of a naked woman becoming “too hot for general audiences” once it became more detailed.
At this time of writing, the release date for Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Patch 3’s launch date has not been announced.