Those of us looking forward to a 2012 release for the next Tomb Raider game from Crystal Dynamics can all breathe a sigh of relief as the developer has revealed that the project has reached an ‘Alpha’ state, putting it on track for launch this year.

‘Alpha’ means different things to different software developers, but in this case we could assume that the term as it applies to Tomb Raider (and game development in general) means that the game is content complete and can be played (in some form or another) from start to finish.

In the coming months, development time on Tomb Raider will most likely be spent ironing out errors and bugs while ensuring the experience is as smooth as possible. Extra content may be improved and swapped in and out, but the developers will be feeling a lot more confident in the game as a whole right about now.

Also of interest to Tomb Raider fans is the fact that the developers are aiming for a simultaneous worldwide launch of the game this year, while a collector’s edition is also planned.

For more information, you can listen to the latest Crystal Dynamics podcast over here (‘cleverly’ named the Crystal Habit Podcast) and look over a list of Frequently Asked Questions on the official Tomb Raider site over here.

Also, don’t miss a video Q&A with Crystal Dynamics’ community manager Meagan Marie that we posted earlier today - get that over here - and El33tonline’s extensive previous coverage of the game (with screens and trailers) is through this link here.