When I asked straight up whether Tomb Raider was a timed exclusive or a full exclusive on Xbox One, Spencer said that it “has a duration”. “I didn’t buy the IP, so I don’t own Tomb Raider as a franchise. Our deal obviously has a duration,” he clarified. “If I owned the IP it would be forever, but I don’t own the IP and I don’t own development of Tomb Raider on any other platform. So if you ask me, is Tomb Raider going to ship on another platform, I actually can’t give you an answer because I’m not the developer of the game.
I can talk about Tomb Raider coming to Xbox in 2015 exclusively, right - that’s the deal I have on the game, but I don’t own the IP.”
So why not be up-front about it and say that it was coming first to Xbox, rather than throwing the word “exclusive” out there when it could be construed as misleading? Is it fair to say that there are no plans, currently, for Rise of the Tomb Raider to appear on other platforms? “I’m not trying to duck the question - it’s just really not my place to discuss what they’re going to do,” said Spencer.
Whatever the duration of the deal, it seems that Microsoft will very closely involved with Rise of the Tomb Raider for however long it has it. If you were wondering what Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics could be getting out of a deal that will potentially more than halve their sales, at least in the short term, then here are some answers.
“Right now we have a relationship with Square and Crystal on publishing the game,” Spencer confirmed. “The exact details of what publishing means and when it gets done are part of that deal - I’m not trying to be opaque about it. We will clearly spend money on marketing the game, there’s no doubt about that. And we do [that] on games where we have very little to do with development, and with games that we fully develop. And we will definitely be spending money on developing the game - I want to make sure that it’s as great as it can be.”
The impression I’m getting is that Square wants to build Tomb Raider to be as big as it can possibly be, and that Microsoft was the partner it chose in order to help make that a reality. This is a deal that has evidently been percolating ever since the Tomb Raider reboot was first revealed, in Microsoft’s conference at E3. Spencer believes that in the long-term, partnerships like this are good for franchises - even in the face of the immediate backlash from disappointed fans who own the wrong console.
Throughout our conversation, Phil draws parallels to games like Dead Rising, Titanfall and Ryse - games that Microsoft has invested in and supported, but which have appeared on other platforms. Only one of those franchises, though, has appeared on Microsoft’s direct rival platforms, and that was well after its Xbox debut. Will Rise of the Tomb Raider appear on PS4 within a few months of its Xbox release next year? It would be odd for Microsoft to invest so heavily in a game that didn’t have at least a long period of exclusivity, and especially odd for the company to make such a fuss about it in a press conference. The word "exclusive", in this context, has caused nothing but confusion.
because there's endless possibilities with this deal and Spencer only wants to talk about the XB1 release which is understandable. Right now they're getting free publicity by salty individuals who continue to talk about it so its good for them...but if this ends up on Sony hardware after they helped fund the game then its will go down as an L regardless of how well it sells on the XB1.