Tomb Raider, the next game in the Tomb Raider franchise has been delayed until an undetermined date in early 2013. The game, which will “reboot” the Tomb Raider series was originally set to be released sometime this fall. In it, the origin story of a redesigned Lara Croft is told as she explores a “forgotten” island.

The announcement came on the Eidos forums for the game, where it was explained that the extra development time is needed to provide a better game experience. Darrell Gallagher, the head of Crystal Dynamics, the development studio in charge of Tomb Raider and the developer of the previous three major Tomb Raider titles, released a statement explaining the delay:

When Crystal Dynamics first set out to reboot the Tomb Raider franchise, there were two goals that we were extremely passionate about. The first was to create a modern Tomb Raider game that would surprise and excite gamers. The second was to make this the best game of our careers, something we would be really proud to be a part of. We truly believe that we have something very special on our hands and we can’t wait to share it with you.

Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game. In order to do this, we have decided to move the game’s release date by a few months, from Fall 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.

We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. The game is looking amazing and we can’t wait to show it to everyone at E3 in a few weeks.

This comes as quite a disappointment for those anticipating the reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise. Many of those disappointed fans used Twitter to vent their frustrations. Some fan tweets are understanding, but others are skeptical of the reasons behind the delay: