For most people who have played to the end of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, they won't be aware of the rather huge hint about a potential return in the next title in the series, although for those dedicated few who managed to do so before getting the day one patch, there's a surprising hint of things to come that is no longer there...
Suffice to say, before you read any further: SPOILERS AHEAD...
The ending which has been altered in the patch originally made reference to Jacqueline Natla, a character from the original 1996 Tomb Raider game. Lara originally found a letter at the end of the game, implying she may return in the next game as the villain of the piece.
It caused a lot of confusion online, with the few users who had seen the pre-patch ending confused as to why nobody seemed to be talking about this pretty big bombshell of a reveal, only for other users to tell them they're making it up or getting confused...
It wasn't until one user, Tombstone, determined to prove his innocence, went to the trouble of replaying the ending and recording it for all to see, leading to even more confusion among the community.
Finally, Square Enix came clean about the whole affair, confirming that the ending was indeed real, and that the inclusion of the scene was cut content that was accidently left in the final, shipping version of the game.
During the course of development on Shadow of the Tomb Raider, multiple post-credits scenes were explored. Unfortunately one of the directions that was considered, but not chosen, was mistakenly included in the game. The Day One patch fixes this error, along with many other improvements. As always, we highly recommend that our players install the patch to enjoy the complete and most up-to-date experience.
So while it seems the content was unfortunately cut and released by mistake, it does not preclude entirely the possibility that Natla will be back for the next title in the Tomb Raider series. We certainly hope that is the case, and will no doubt be a huge service to fans of the original titles.
Do you know of any other games that shipped with the wrong ending? Or is this a first? Let us know below!