Five years on from the last mainline game, the Tomb Raider series was rebooted in 2013 and it helped breathe some much-needed life back into the iconic series. Since then two more entries were released to make the reboot trilogy, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
The final piece of DLC for Shadow of the Tomb Raider was released in 2019 and since then the game hasn't received any updates except a small patch due to a Windows 10 update. This makes a recent update to the game very interesting and it could point to the series moving to Epic Games Store, which could also hint at the possibility of an Epic Games Store exclusivity deal for future titles that may be released.
An update for was released on October 18 for both Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, with it adding Nvidia's DLSS support to the games, as well as improving ray-tracing capabilities and fixing compatibility issues with Intel GPU hardware. However, one part of the update stands out from the rest: "Updates to multiplayer infrastructure to use Epic Online Services."
Taking a look on the Epic Games website at the Epic Online Services, it explains what it is saying, "Epic Online Services are free, cross-platform services that make it easier and faster for developers to successfully launch, operate, and scale high-quality games." Some of the services include adding cross-platform multiplayer, cross-progression between platforms, as well as game analytics and the use of anti-cheat software.
It is possible that the game's developer Eidos is just making use of the services that Epic Games offer, but it is worth noting that the publisher of the series, Square Enix, recently began a partnership with Epic Games to bring some of their games to PC. Four Kingdom Hearts games were added to the Epic Games Store earlier this year as part of an exclusivity deal, and files relating to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake have been found in the past, which indicates that the game could be coming to the store once its timed exclusivity deal with Sony expires.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.