The new re-imagination Tomb Raider that is in development for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC for release later this year will not be making an appearance on the Wii U. Developer Crystal Dynamics is handling the development of the franchise for publisher Eidos.

The reason apparently is that the title was in development long before the Wii U was announced; and one of the goals for this release is to make a conscious effort to take advantage of the strengths of each platform and build a title that is specific to that platform. A port to the Wii U could not be the right thing to do.

A Wii U version of the new Tomb Raider would want to take advantage of the unique features of the Wii U; and in order to do this, the game would need to be built from the ground up like the other versions that they have done so far.

One interesting thing, however, is that Eidos has apparently been talking about the possibility of a Mac version. While the Mac version would not likely be released at the same time as the initial three platforms, it still could be a possibility.

While it seems that a Wii U version is out of scope for the moment, if the title is successful don’t think that Eidos will not consider investing the resources in developing a Wii U version. It is more likely that if the franchise reboot is successful the Wii U will get the next chapter in the franchise while skipping this release. We will just have to wait and see how it plays out.