Shots were fired at Gamescom today as Microsoft and Crystal Dynamics' announced that Rise of the Tomb Raider is exclusive to the Xbox One come holiday 2015. This is a huge blow to Sony, and a big win for Microsoft as the company makes moves to regain lost ground.
Back at E3 2014, Rise of the Tomb Raider was one of the biggest surprises. Furthermore, the first game was the best Tomb Raider title since the versions on the original PlayStation. It had its problems, but boy, was it a blast to play.
Strangely enough, we are not certain what Microsoft means when it says "exclusive." The company did not make any mention of the game being timed or console exclusive, so we can't yet come to the conclusion that it might never come to the PlayStation 4 at a later date. Chances are, though, Rise of the Tomb Raider may very well come to PC.
Due to development costs, third-party titles going exclusive where consoles are concerned, is quite rare, so there is a high possibility in our mind that Rise of the Tomb Raider could show up on the PlayStation 4 a year or two after launching on the Xbox One. We doubt Microsoft would want to pay the amount of money required to keep the title completely exclusive to the Xbox One.
PlayStation fans need not worry, though, as Crystal Dynamics is not planning to abandon Sony's platform. After the announcement at Microsoft's Gamescom conference, the developer took to Tumblr in hopes to ease fears and mend broken hearts. Probably didn't do a good job from the comment section point of view
"This doesn't mean that we're walking away from our fans who only play on PlayStation or on PC. Those are great systems, with great partners, and amazing communities," says Crystal Dynamics. "We have Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris coming to those platforms this December, and Tomb Raider: The Definitive Edition is available on PS4."
It will be interesting to see how many gamers plan to go out and purchase an Xbox just for the sake of playing Rise of the Tomb Raider, or if this decision has already failed.
The only way this plan might work is if Microsoft cut the price of the Xbox One just in time for holiday 2015. The software company might have to make the console cheaper than the PlayStation 4 as well, because we also expect Sony to cut prices.
