It 
took a while, but Lara Croft’s rebirth is finally paying off.
Publisher Square Enix has announced that cumulative sales of last year’s acclaimed reboot of the iconic series are closing in on 6 million units. The company says that puts the game on track to become the best-selling Lara Croft game of all time.
The 
most formidable protagonist in videogames is a 21-year-old woman who must protect her friends and fight off well-armed enemies hell-bent on dispatching her.
The game is “Tomb Raider,” launched March 5, and critics are already singing its praises as a masterful reboot of the 17-year-old franchise. In the relatively short history of videogames, that series, perhaps more than any other, has shown that players are more than willing to accept a female lead character in a fantasy action game.
But when it comes to games that are set in more realistic scenarios, women are rare — and they’re never cast as the primary hero.
With 
retail brick-and-mortar sales of new video games down 30 percent year to date, few analysts — and even fewer investors — have much faith that things will rebound into positive territory this year.
Even with heavyweights like “Halo 4” and “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” hitting stores this holiday season — and the launch of a new Nintendo console system — the hole seems too big to escape. But when it comes to 2013, things are a bit more optimistic.
Lara Croft is on her way back to 
the big screen.
GK Films, the Hollywood production studio behind “Rango” and the Angelina Jolie vehicle “The Tourist,” has acquired the film rights to the short-shorts-wearing, butt-kicking heroine from publisher Square Enix. The company is aiming for a 2013 release.
Lara Croft is, in some ways, 
the gaming equivalent of the Mustang. At her core, she rarely changes, but that doesn’t stop fans from getting all worked up when she gets a new look.
Square-Enix is hoping to shake things up in a more dramatic fashion with the series’ next installment, dubbed simply “Tomb Raider.”
Chris Morris: Journalist 