the biggest news of the first day of Gamescom (bar one Silent Hill play with Norman Reedus) was that Rise of the Tomb Raider, the next big part of Lara Croft’s adventures for the consoles, will be released exclusively for the Xboxes. And a lot of people get very upset about that.
To be honest, it is currently not clear whether Rise of the Tomb Raider will remain an Xbox exclusive title in the long run, as video game publishers like Microsoft and Sony are notorious for using ambiguous language (“console exclusive!”) that obscures the truth and leaves fans confused.
journalist Geoff Keighleywho flew to Germany for the show, tried in vain to get the whole truth out of Microsoft:
Spoke to many people here at Xbox press conference on Tomb Raider. Official line is that the game is “exclusive on Xbox for holiday 2015.”
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) August 12, 2014
“For holidays 2015.” Whatever that means. Maybe the game will be released for PlayStation and PC a few months later, maybe not. (Currently, none of the parties involved can elicit a clear statement.)
Still, PlayStation fans are (understandably?) furious Microsoft and Tomb Raider Publisher Square Enixbecause they’re potentially depriving them of a game that looks pretty darn cool. Tomb Raiderwas traditionally a series that focused primarily on the PlayStation, even though the last title to date appeared for the first time on both next-gen consoles – but it ran better on the PS4 than on the Xbox One.
Many video game journalists are of the opinion that this exclusivity a very bad idea is:
There’s a reason why these deals are increasingly rare: they’re generally a bad idea. Whatever benefits Rise of the Tomb Raider and its publisher will gain from an exclusive partnership, players are the ones losing out.
Fans are venting their anger about the situation online. In the comments to one Tumblr entry which explains why developers Crystal Dynamics made the decision to go down this path, many gamers express their anger sometimes quite humorously:
People are also complaining on Twitter:
A huge thread in the Tomb Raider Forums are full of comments from people strongly criticizing Square’s decision, writing things like “RIP Tomb Raider” and “if this is true I’m done with Tomb Raider forever.”
And lots of stuff like this:
Is there sometimes an overreaction here? For sure. But it’s clear that many people are outraged for good reason: everyone who doesn’t own an Xbox has now had to find out that the next Tomb Raider will be very expensive for them.
Of course, there are also plenty of jokes about the situation:
Rise of the Tomb Raider is now exclusive to Xbox One. Square Enix clearly wants the game to be uncharted: as in, not entering the charts.
— CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) August 12, 2014
For those still interested, the Tomb Raider comics are available on one format – paper. Ok, pixels too. My first co-issue is #7, out Aug 27.
— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) August 12, 2014
So Tomb Raider sells under expectations and Square Enix makes Rise of the Tomb Raider an XBO exclusive. This industry.
— Jim Sterling (@JimSterling) August 12, 2014
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