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Lara Croft: the original geocacher

by: Nathaniel -
More On: Tomb Raider
Geocaching.com is going to collaborate with Crystal Dynamics on a series of Tomb Raider-themed urban treasure hunts.  Geocaching is, of course, the worlds largest "location-based real-world treasure hunting experience" with a community of over five million and growing.  Over the next year, Crystal Dynamics and Geocaching.com will create a series of worldwide Geocaching challenges designed to embody the spirit of Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider series using traditional Geochaching.com treasure hunts and Groundspeak's (Geocaching.com's parent company) more advanced photo-based Geocaching Challenges.  
 
So these challenges want to be like the Tomb Raider series, eh?  Does that mean they'll start out strong, get progressively weaker, then get rebooted as an origin story? For more details, you can follow the jump.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
CRYSTAL DYNAMICS AND GEOCACHING.COM FORM EXCLUSIVE GAMING COLLABORATION FOR THE UPCOMING RELEASE OF TOMB RAIDER

REDWOOD CITY, CA (Jan. 11, 2012) — Crystal Dynamics™, a Square Enix® studio, announces today that it’s working with Geocaching.com, a Groundspeak® project, as part of its campaign for the upcoming release of TOMB RAIDER®. 

Geocaching represents a rapidly growing community of over five million participants seeking over 1.6 million active geocaches hidden globally in locations such as Times Square, the Berlin Wall, and Great Wall of China. Over the past 11 years, the team at Geocaching.com has been busy creating the world’s largest location-based real-world treasure hunting experience. Millions of avid geocachers download Geocaching.com’s mobile app or use a traditional GPS device to hunt for caches every month, documenting an average of over 180,000 geocaching experiences each day.

Through several initiatives over the coming year, Crystal Dynamics and Geocaching.com will team up to create a series of unique location-based adventures embodying the spirit of TOMB RAIDER and Lara Croft™’s drive to become an explorer. To develop these adventures, Crystal Dynamics will use both the traditional Geocaching.com treasure hunting format as well as Groundspeak’s latest photo-based adventure project, Geocaching Challenges.

“We are truly excited to be working on a series of exclusive gaming initiatives with Groundspeak,” said Karl Stewart, global brand director for TOMB RAIDER and Crystal Dynamics. “As a longtime fan of Geocaching, it’s the perfect fit for TOMB RAIDER and to be able to create a series of worldwide Geocaching treasure hunts for TOMB RAIDER is going to be a lot of fun.”

”Many of us have been playing TOMB RAIDER since the first game launched in 1996, and we are excited that Geocaching.com is partnering with Crystal Dynamics on this project” said Jeremy Irish, CEO of Groundspeak. “TOMB RAIDER is all about exploration and discovery. It inspires the adventurer in all of us, much like geocaching does, and we are excited about the opportunities that this project presents for both geocachers and TOMB RAIDER fans worldwide.”
 
About Groundspeak
Groundspeak Inc. develops and publishes tools to enable the creation and sharing of unique location-based adventures in the real world. Groundspeak owns and operates Geocaching.com, the world's largest location-based outdoor recreation portal; Waymarking.com, a toolset for identifying interesting and useful locations; and Wherigo.com, a toolset for creating and sharing location-based multimedia adventures in the real world.

More information on Groundspeak Inc. can be found at http://groundspeak.com.

About Square Enix, Inc.
Square Enix, Inc. develops, publishes, distributes and licenses SQUARE ENIX®, EIDOS® and TAITO® branded entertainment content throughout the Americas as part of the Square Enix Group. The Square Enix Group operates a global network of leading development studios and boasts a valuable portfolio of intellectual property, including: FINAL FANTASY®, which has sold over 100 million units worldwide; DRAGON QUEST®, which has sold over 59 million units worldwide; TOMB RAIDER®, which has sold over 35 million units worldwide; and the legendary SPACE INVADERS®. Square Enix, Inc. is a U.S.-based, wholly-owned subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.

More information on Square Enix, Inc. can be found at http://www.square-enix.com/na/.

TOMB RAIDER, CRYSTAL DYNAMICS, DRAGON QUEST, EIDOS, FINAL FANTASY, LARA CROFT, SPACE INVADERS, SQUARE ENIX, the SQUARE ENIX logo, and TAITO are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Square Enix Group. Groundspeak is a registered trademark of Groundspeak, Inc.