[Rumour] Rise of the Tomb Raider was originally a 6 month timed exclusive.

[madbuk]

http://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/comments/3eum97/rise_of_the_tomb_raider_fingers_being_pointed/

 

 

 

Rise of the Tomb Raider was going to see the PC and PS4 iterations launch simultaneously in Q1/Q2 of 2016, but Microsoft wanted a longer exclusivity window. They felt the lack of pre-orders could have been because people were thinking they'd get it a few months later on the PS4.

 

This sounds reasonable to be honest - it would explain why the random announcement of the PS4/PC release occurred (that could've been part of the re-negotiation).

 

This whole deal has been one big mess from the start imo. Microsoft blew it when they announced the deal was timed - it just doesn't make sense for them to do that, since obviously most people would just wait. I love Tomb Raider, but it's hardly a console seller unless it's fully exclusive.

And then you have the Xbox 360 port, so if this is the only game someone wanted, they wouldn't get an Xbone, they'd get a Xbox 360.

And then Phil Spencer said they wanted an Uncharted competitor, and Uncharted got delayed, which made that whole motive redundant.

And then the release date of Fallout 4 was announced - and Rise of the Tomb Raider will need to compete with that while only being available on one console.

 

I am really interested to see how this all plays out. I've seen fans on Tomb Raider forums - with 9 years of membership and 30K+ posts - who are actually hoping this kills off the series. And the fact that they thought the reboot had poor sales is making me a little worried about how they'll react to RotTR sales. I've seen a lot of people say they're boycotting/buying used. It really feels like a lose/lose scenario here:

 

1. Buy new and support the series on PS4, but make Square Enix think that screwing the majority of the fanbase is OK, and possibly do the deal again.

2. Buy it used and make Square Enix think there's no support for it on PC/PS4 and do the deal again because they don't expect sales anyway, or just kill the series/sell it off.

 

It's rather sad seeing the fanbase split into factions and so much negativity being thrown around tbh. Nobody is talking about the game from what I've seen - not that they've really been promoting it at all - they're all talking about the deal.

 

EDIT: This guy is also a somewhat credible source - he knew about the Rare collection on Xbone and leaked it before E3 (even though nobody believed him).

 

Bonus:

 

http://www.videogamer.com/xboxone/rise_of_the_tomb_raider/news/square_enix_knew_rise_of_the_tomb_raiders_xbox_exclusivity_would_disappoint_fans.html

 

 

 

Square Enix knew Rise of the Tomb Raider's Xbox exclusivity 'would disappoint fans'

lol. "Short term". It has been a year and people are still annoyed with you, some are stating it's tainted the series for them forever.

Edited July 29, 2015 by madbuk

[Happy]

I'm still trying to understand how Phil Spencer thought the best way to compete with Uncharted 4 was to release a very similar game around the same timeframe.

[damon8r351]

Great thing about the one year wait time is that it gives you one year to decide if the game is worth the one year wait time.

[StrickenBiged]

 

 

1. Buy new and support the series on PS4, but make Square Enix think that screwing the majority of the fanbase is OK, and possibly do the deal again.

2. Buy it used and make Square Enix think there's no support for it on PC/PS4 and do the deal again because they don't expect sales anyway, or just kill the series/sell it off.

 

 

 

3. Wait, and buy it new when the price on PS4 has achieved parity with whatever it's being sold for on XBone.

 

That's what I'm currently planning to do anyway. Sqeenix can sing for it if they think they can make me wait a year then expect me to pay full whack. A year old game is a year old game, and I won't pay more than £25 for the pleasure.

 

Although, if they do something that makes it worth paying more £ than whatever they want from XBone players, e.g. DLC is bundled, or some other bonus, I may consider paying slightly more. 

 

In case anyone cares about Squeenix's attempts to justify the deal, there was this piece in the Examiner. [Edit: Ah, you already linked to this story in your Bonus section, but this link is to the full article by the original interviewer.]

 

Apparently Microsoft had lots of money passion for the game...

Edited July 29, 2015 by StrickenBiged

[PREDRAG-K]

This is really all on Square Enix. If they weren't so money hungry, none of this would've happened. If the game gets poor sales, that's their problem. They made a stupid choice, and now they have to deal with it.

I loved the Tomb Raider reboot. I'll buy this next one on it's PS4 launch day. Will this hurt their sales? Yes. But maybe, Square Enix, when you say that the first game didn't meet your sales expectations; maybe you shouldn't make the sequel a timed exclusive on the console with less players. Idiots.

[Willstown]

Exclusive Deal on console with fewer units sold

Prediction - Square Enix will tag this Tomb raider a failure after six months (again) for not selling enough copies.

 

Agreed that this is really not a console seller, I guess the truck full of cash from MS was big enough to turn heads here.

[Condemned09]

I still wait on price drop on the ps4 i wasn't a huge fan on the.first one

[zorry777]

Still going to buy and play the PS4 version - don't mind the waiting

[Undead Wolf]

This is probably why Microsoft where being so tight lipped about the terms of the deal for so long. They didn't even know themselves until recently. I don't see this deal working out well for either Microsoft or Square to be honest.

 

I would be very surprised if this game wasn't delayed anyway since it releases on the same day as Fallout 4. They would be crazy to go up against a juggernaut like that. What I'm curious about is that if they do delay it, will the future PS4 version also get delayed? Or will it eat into the exclusivity window time? Who knows...