Hope it was worth shitting on so many potential customers.
Dom Carey is with UK Xbox PR.
Wow. Quite the move by MS.
TR was very near the top of my favourite games list for last year. I’ll be there day one for the sequel. I’m also hoping it means the Xbox One engine will be properly optimised and look great.
I can’t wait to play it. But I can certainly understand PS4 owners not being pleased.
Wendelius
It probably was. The way these work is that you can gamble on sales being X over a certain period of time on all platforms, or you take the check from one platform-maker now for the immediate revenue, and gamble on sales being Y on the one platform. Additionally, you get help with marketing (sometimes quite a bit) and you get exclusive support from the platform-holders tech people. It’s not like they’re going to ignore your pleas for assistance if you can’t get a feature working correctly. That can be a pretty good deal, especially if you’re dealing with a well-known franchise that maybe didn’t have such cowabunga sales. The last game sold 6 million units over all platforms by year-end 2013, which was less than what Square Enix wanted.
They paid to cancel the PC version too.
But they are going exclusive to the platform that has half the install base world wide (maybe even less), and on which TR DE sold half as many copies. There has to be a crazy check attached to this.
It’s probably not as much as people think. I’ve seen speculation on these types of deals in which outsiders believe the buyer gave the creator a check covering the full revenue or profit of the projected lost sales, and that almost never happens. What’s usually driving the seller in these deals is the need for immediate cash. They want money now instead of waiting on X sales down the road.
Look, I’m sure the game will be great, and I wish it the best but… Okay, I gotta say it. “Rise of the Tomb Raider”? I totally hate the word “rise” in that title. It just feels weird to me. Am I crazy here? Maybe I’m crazy.
As Telefrog says, I doubt MS are paying as much as we might assume. Tomb Raider didn’t do that well financially it seems. I suspect a deal that keeps the brand active while transferring some of the risk to MS was actually quite attractive.
I think something to be disappointed/angry/frustrated about is that once again MS aren’t really investing in their platform or in gaming in general. The game was already being made, all they’ve done is stop it being made on other platforms for some unspecified time period.
It could be worse. It could be Arkham Tomb Raider.
TR sold over six million units. SE just had stupid expectations.
An individual “rises” to a throne, or to some position of being above others. Seems awkward to rise to being a… raider of tombs?
Right? And you’re making this game, this multi million dollar game, and nobody says this? Nobody says anything?
This is exactly how I felt when I looked at the cover of The Killers’ “Battle Born” and was all like, yeah… That is definitely an SS lightning bolt.
They wanted to make it exclusively in 720p, maybe.
ZING!
This game will come to PC. PS4 is also probable. Their wording is too careful for this not to happen.
Still, MS just confirmed, for a hundredth time, what a scummy company it is.
You are not crazy. Metal Gear gets grandfathered in, but outside of the that “Rise” should be the exclusive property of strategy games and is best paired with nouns like Caesar, Rome, or Nations.
-Todd
I think it’s pretty fucking genius, personally. MS can see the Xbone is in a slump and they need to find an advantage. There’s a bunch of people out there, myself included, who haven’t yet decided which way the wind will blow them to pick up a new system. Between this and Crackdown 3, I’m starting to lean Xbox. If Witcher 3 turns out to be a PS4 exclusive I am boned.
But they are going exclusive to the platform that has half the install base world wide (maybe even less), and on which TR DE sold half as many copies. .
And, like I say, almost certainly 360 as well. Which has a very large install base.
I bet MS is just paying the developer for each forum comment of “PS4 here won’t buy!”.