Turns out “Rise of the Tomb Raider” is only a timed exclusive for Xbox

Yesterday at Gamescom, Microsoft dropped the bomb that the highly anticipated follow up to the Tomb Raider reboot, entitled “Rise Of The Tomb Raider,” would be a Xbox exclusive.

The internet went into a rage over this. As cataloged by Kotaku, fans of the franchise were enraged by the move. Some felt betrayed, some started petitions to boycott, and some simply mocked the idea that Square Enix would side themselves with a console that is losing to its competitor, the PS4, on a 1 to 3 ratio.

But turns out, all the rage and answer may have just been a stunt. While its true that for almost 24hours both Square Enix and Microsoft kept repeating “this game is a Microsoft exclusive” and left it at that, we now know its only a timed exclusive.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Microsoft Xbox head Phil Spencer revealed that Rise of the Tomb Raider will only be exclusive to Xbox One as a “timed eclusive.”

“I have Tomb Raider shipping next holiday exclusively on Xbox. It is Xbox 360 and Xbox One. I’m not trying to fake anybody out in terms of where this thing is. What they do with the franchise in the long run is not mine. I don’t control it. So all I can talk about is the deal I have. I don’t know where else Tomb Raider goes.” 

“Obviously the deal does have a duration. I didn’t buy the IP in perpetuity.”

 

So was all of this for the press? Obviously the internet blew up about this news and just about everyone was talking about the “exclusive” nature of this game. If they were after press, they sure got it. But like many times before, Microsoft only seemed to anger fans and paint themselves in a bad light. While its good news to hear that the rest of the gaming community wont potentially be missing out on this game, many are still angered by the situation.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is currently set as a Xbox exclusive for Holiday 2015, and to be released later on other consoles at an undisclosed time.