The sequel to 2013’s Tomb Raider, the fairly well received multiplatform reboot to the Tomb Raider franchise, is set to go exclusive as it heads solely to the Xbox. Or Xboxes, plural, both Microsoft and Crystal Dynamics weren’t exactly clear whether it’d be on the 360, Xbox One or both consoles. The Xbox exclusive has a very vague release date of Holiday 2015, so I’ll risk the conjecture that it will solely be for Xbox One. That release date also seems to coincide with the same vague release date for the Playstation exclusive Uncharted 4, which I’m sure has nothing to do with anything.
The Rise of the Tomb Raider exclusivity announcement comes from the Xbox Gamescom press conference where Crystal Dynamic’s head of Product Development Darrell Gallagher dropped the bomb. He later followed up the news with a statement on tumblr. In the short essay Gallagher outlines how partnering with Microsoft is the best possible move for Tomb Raider, however fans of the franchise who are on Playstation or PC shouldn’t feel cheated because in Darrel’s words:
This doesn’t mean that we’re walking away from our fans who only play on PlayStation or on PC. Those are great systems, with great partners, and amazing communities. We have Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris coming to those platforms this December, and Tomb Raider: The Definitive Edition is available on PS4.
Now for those not paying attention Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is the sequel to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, which is an isometric arcade style multiplayer action game. So that’s basically the exact same thing as the open environment action adventure platforming game the central franchise is known for. Now look, I’m not knocking Guardian of Light or Temple of Osiris, but telling Playstation and PC fans this is their runner up prize is like telling school children “Well you can’t have candy but we did get you bubblegum flavored toothpaste.”
For the time being however Crystal Dynamics seems convinced, or is at least trying to convince us, this will allow them to make the best Tomb Raider possible. Exclusivity off multiplatform franchises also seems to mean less and less as the years go by, since down the line there appear to be special editions or breaks in contracts that allow for ports on other consoles. Though for the forseeable future, Rise of the Tomb Raider is going to the Xbox, and if you have yet to choose one of the next gen consoles and are a hard up Tomb Raider fan, the decision may have just been made for you.
You can check out the first Rise of The Tomb Raider announcement Trailer here:
And you can check out the Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris here, which is basically the exact same thing:
UPDATE: So it turns out that Rise of the Tomb Raider is a “timed” exclusive. We did call it, we just didn’t think it would happen that fast. So why the news it’s exclusive when really, you’re just going to wait a little longer for the Sony and PC releases? Well because as Microsoft’s Xbox division head told Eurogamer:
“When people want me to say, can you tell us when or if it’s coming to other platforms, it’s not my job,”
Yep. It’s not his job. It’s just his job to hype it for his company. He also explained that he can’t divulge the details of how long Tomb Raider’s contract will last with Microsoft before it’s allowed to launch on other platforms, because that’s for Microsoft and Square Enix ears only. In addition to softly confirming we’ll see this on other consoles, there was also hard confirmation the game will be coming to Xbox 360 and Xbox One (Hey, I can’t nail all my predictions).
You can go here for the Eurogamer interview with Phil Spencer on the subject.
