Rise Of The Tomb Raider will come to Xbox One 6 months before it reaches PC and a whole year before it comes to PS4. That news disappointed fans last year when Square Enix announced its exclusivity deal with Microsoft at E3 2014. Now, Square’s CEO Phil Rogers has spoken about the reasons for the decision to make a deal with Microsoft on Xbox One exclusivity for Rise Of The Tomb Raider.
“I hope fans know that it wasn’t an easy decision,” Rogers told Examiner. “I think any sort of partnership at this level is a decision that took a long time for us to get to. The decision at a studio level, we took very, very seriously. We knew it would, in the short-term, disappoint fans.”
The decision certainly disappointed fans of the series. The Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 came to all platforms at the same time, so the announcement that Rise Of The Tomb Raider would be an Xbox One exclusive seemed to come out of nowhere.
“What we saw in Microsoft, which is probably not as well known, is that Microsoft’s passion for Tomb Raider is amazing.” Rogers goes on for a while about Microsoft’s passion for Rise Of The Tomb Raider, but it’s no secret the true reason for the decision. Despite all the talk about how much Microsoft loves the series, any exclusivity deal is only done because of money.
“We’re about growing our IP, this is a long-term decision. We’re going to take Tomb Raider up to the next level.” So Square Enix has a plan for the future of Tomb Raider, but it needs Microsoft’s funding to make it happen. The sad truth is that third-party exclusivity deals with console makers aren’t uncommon. These deals bring a lot of money and exposure to developers who want to grow their games. But it’d be nice if they could just be straight with us and say they need the funding.
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