Square Enix: 'We Knew Rise of the Tomb Raider Exclusive on Xbox Would Disappoint Fans' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 29 July 2015 / 4,011 ViewsSquare Enix has revealed that it wasn't an easy decision to partner with Microsoft to make Rise of the Tomb Raider an Xbox timed exclusive, and that the company knew doing so would disappoint some fans.
"I hope fans know that it wasn’t an easy decision. I think any sort of partnership at this level is a decision that took a longtime for us to get to," Square Enix CEO of the Americas and Europe, Phil Rogers, told the Examiner. "The decision at a studio level, we took very, very seriously. We knew it would, in the short-term, disappoint fans."
The reason Square Enix agreed to the partnership is the passion Microsoft showed for the Tomb Raider franchise:
"Having been working with us on previous games in a lesser sense, they’ve been supportive," said Rogers. "[However], for Rise of the Tomb Raider, they’ve just brought this passion and belief that has really enabled us to blow people away. People should feel that about Microsoft. Their commitment to Tomb Raider is just amazing for us."
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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"...they’ve just brought this passion and belief that has really enabled us to blow people away."
What a laugh. I don't really mind that much that they did this since business is business but they really should keep their mouths shut instead of insulting their fans' intelligence.
What do you mean? Are you trying to tell me that Microsoft's passion wasn't a key element in the development of the game? What will you say next, that the easter bunny is not what easter is for?
humm yeah it always hard to make a decision without envelope full of $$$
The reason Square Enix agreed to the partnership is the passion Microsoft showed for the Tomb Raider franchise:
Money.
On the paper, this was not a bad call. They didn't want to put their child in a cage up against Uncharted. Lets be honest, if both games released on the same period wouldn't %80 of PS4 users (or maybe even more) pick Nathan's last chapter over Lara's reboot?
Square Enix had the plan of releasing the PS4 version with the PC version. But then Uncharted got moved to the first half of 2016 and Square Enix felt against the ropes again.
Tomb Raider is now going against FallOut 4 that also has a partnership with XB1 this year, and will face a game that also has tremendous similarities: Horizon Zero Dawn on PS4 next holidays 2016.
Such bad timing.
Translation, They threw so many pounds of cash on us that we just couldn't say no to their passion to beat PlayStation 4.
Y'know, people would have been upset, but not nearly as much if they would have come out from the very start and clearly said "timed exclusive" or "it will be first on XB1" rather than the way it was addressed.
Wasn't it $10 million for the year long exclusivity deal? $10 MILLION? For a console that isn't even selling that well and to compete against a console that the goddamn franchise STARTED on. It's sad and pathetic, and they're probably not making that all back. Oh well, it's Microsoft, it's all a big dick swinging competition to them.
I don't think that a console that is selling better than its successful predecessor is selling poor. that's like saying that ff7 had poor sales cause bo2 sold a lot of copies more.
The reason Square Enix agreed to the partnership is the Briefcase Full of $$$ Microsoft showed for the Tomb Raider franchise.
or maybe Spencer went to a bar and bought drinks,cigs and payed the visit to a strip club to all the devs on the tr team. XD
Ya, no shit. xD
Fans need to get over this. As a long term TR fan who has been playing TR since the original days on PC, it doesn't bother me the slightest if its coming to X1 first. I don't base a games quality on its systems release. If its a good game then its a good game. I will happily pick it on X1 if its worth it.
The internet is full of cry babies who care too much for a branded console then the games itself.
Good on MS for jumping on this first because judging by Sony's tactics they might have money hatted the game so it will never release on any other platform which is a lot worse to do to its fans.
Well said, sadly this comment won't be seen for long as the cry babies you speak of will jump on the thumbs down bandwagon.