Tomb Raider exclusivity could last longer than expected.....

So after an awful lot of fuss, Kotaku got hold of Phil Spencer to try and get some answers.....here's some of what he had to say...


“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. We will definitely be spending money on development of 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.


I've highlighted what I would say are important statements here so let's put some perspective there, MS are going to spend money not just publishing the game but it seems also at least partly fund it's development, now frankly if I'm MS I'm not going to be spending money on something that won't give me a significant advantage over the competition, so a short deal probably won't cover that....

Secondly to this are a list of games MS has partly funded in the past...

Mass Effect
Dead Rising
Titanfall
Ryse

Not counting PC as it's still a mostly MS market two of those games have appeared on rival platforms but both did not appear on PS3 until long after the 360 release...

Frankly I can't see MS funding development of a game only to see that money on the PS4 months later..... Ergo this could be a significant duration exclusive....

queue internet meltdown part 2

I don't think they were expecting the backlash, another MS screw up. They've managed to upset alot of gamers from both camps, ps4 owners as they dont get play a game that they may well have been supporting for years, and xb1 owners as theyve wasted money on a game that theyd have got anyway, money that could have been put into thier own studios...proper exclusives not attempts at buying console sales.

Killswitchmad wrote:Secondly to this are a list of games MS has partly funded in the past...

Mass Effect
Dead Rising
Titanfall
Ryse

All new IP's at the time which is something that makes this move all the stranger, unless its as simple as MS wanting something exclusive on their platforms to compete against the Uncharted series.

Either way, I agree with Giz - no one seems to be emerging from this with any credit and regardless of how much MS have paid, I just don't see it making enough of a return to warrant the expenditure as I can't see it being to a massive console seller.

Personally, I can wait irrespective of how long the exclusivity deal is - I paid £3.74 for the last TR game on Steam and I would have done the same with this one.....

Whilst were on the M$ subject... Apparently the reason they didnt show any kinect games @ gamescom is cos 'people look silly playing them'.

Playing kinect makes you look like a toolbag

Nothing to do with there being no decent titles to show like. Presumably thats why they didnt announced any bundles that came with kinect either ?

Mmmm I still can't see Kinect games ever being good, I still like mine but only use it for voice control which suits me perfectly