Tomb Raider Developer and Fans Welcome New Community Manager

It's official. Meagan Marie, currently Associate Editor at Game Informer magazine, will soon become Tomb Raider Community Manager at Crystal Dynamics. Meagan will be relocating from Minneapolis to Redwood City, California, during the next several weeks and is due to start at Crystal in mid May. She announced the news in a blog post earlier today, bidding a fond farewell to GI and expressing enthusiasm for the new job.

"As community manager I'll be involved in many facets of social media and act as a liaison between the studio and various communities throughout the world. I'll be a public face at the studio and will be attending events worldwide, giving demos, helping to execute short and long-term media strategies, and more. I'm stoked for the challenge and very excited to join the Crystal Dynamics team."

Meagan is an avid gamer and a long-time Tomb Raider fan, as well as a great writer. If you read Game Informer, you're probably familiar with her work. In her 3 years at the magazine, she's penned numerous articles and features, including the exciting Tomb Raider coverage in the January 2011 issue. She's also an artist, photographer, collector, model and cosplayer. We'll be seeing more of Meagan in an official capacity very soon, but in the mean time, I encourage fans to give her a warm welcome. Meagan's Blog: meagan-marie Twitter: @_MeaganMarie_

Meagan Marie as Lara Croft in Tokyo. Photo by LJinto. Used with permission. For more pix and info on this photo shoot, visit Meagan's blog.

Signed Lara Croft Arcade Unit to be Auctioned for Japan Disaster Relief

Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics is auctioning an awesome, limited edition Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Xbox 360 promotional Arcade unit to raise money for the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.

According to the eBay auction listing, this unit is one of only four ever made. They were originally used to promote Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light at E3 2010. The specially built arcade cabinet contains an Xbox 360 (with a copy of LCGOL installed of course!), an HD monitor and surround sound system. It is also signed by the Guardian of Light development team.

This is just one of many gaming-related auctions organized in conjunction with Play for Japan in support of earthquake/tsunami relief. To learn more about this organization and find out how you can help, visit playforjapan.org.

Tomb Raider's Global Brand Manager, Karl Stewart, announced the start of this auction in a recent Twitter update. It runs for the next 10 days, finishing at Apr 13, at 14:50 PDT.

UPDATE: The auction is closed now and the arcade cabinet sold for a whopping $4,550! Congratulations to the lucky collector and best wishes to everyone involved in the recovery efforts in Japan.