tl;dr

Rise of the Tomb Raider is supposedly a timed exclusive (but no one is saying for how long).

Also, not enough is being made of the fact that this will be available on the xbox 360 as well. Rise of the Tomb Raider is not an xbox one exclusive (see this xbox.com ROTTR page for proof).

Ergo, my take is that if you really really want to play it before the exclusivity deal expires, just pick up a 360 as cheap as you can and play it on that.

my rant

Given that so much of what I stream is Tomb Raider 2013, I figured I should weigh in on Rise of the Tomb Raider being an xbox exclusive.

Simply put, it sucks.

I’m at least happy to hear that it’s apparently now being made public that it is a timed exclusive instead of being in perpetuity. In other words, I should be able to play Tomb Raider on my platform of choice at some point, but it still sucks.

My biggest gripe is that you don’t take a formerly “open” game and move it into an exclusive. You won’t hear me complaining about the next Halo being exclusive to Microsoft systems, because it’s to be expected. If Tomb Raider 2013 had been an xbox exclusive, I wouldn’t have a problem with its sequel being an exclusive as well. Hell, if 2013 had been a timed exclusive to xbox, I would still think the situation sucked, but I wouldn’t have been surprised to see RotTR being a timed exclusive as well.

But to me, this is a dangerous move by Crystal Dynamics. They’re taking a cash grab with this exclusivity deal in exchange for potentially serious long lasting ill effects.

See, one would think that they’d simply just be sacrificing the ability to sell to owners of the PC/PS4/PS3, but to me it’s more than that. They’re risking jilting people to the extent that those jilted people entirely boycott the game and future games in the franchise. Furthermore, they risk tarnishing any game they make, because hey, why should I become invested in a game series of theirs when they may very well pull a Tomb Raider and make that game an xbox exclusive in the future.

And to me, this situation basically screams one thing: Microsoft is doing their typical thing of “winning” with their cash reserves rather than the merit of their product.

Take the example of the original xbox. It was superior to the playstation, so it deserved its sudden success. But even then, that was Microsoft throwing their massive cash reserves at a problem by doing things such as selling the xbox at such a massive loss per unit, that no competitor would be able to match their hardware for the same price.

But at least in that case, we as consumers “won” with that arrangement.

Here, this move is completely anti-consumer and serves as a big “fuck you” to all the non-xbox fans of the 2013 reboot.

This move has personally made me far less likely to buy an xbox one. To be fair, it was already probably unlikely since I already own the PS4 and I don’t see a need for me to own both consoles. Still, I wasn’t against the idea. Had a compelling reason presented itself (frankly one example being an exclusive title that I was dying to play), I might’ve saved up my pennies until I could buy one.

But now I’m far more likely to simply boycott the Xbox One for the entire generation.

And the gut-reaction part of me even wants to outright boycott Rise of the Tomb Raider as well, regardless of whether it turns up on my platform of choice in the future or not.

will I boycott Rise of the Tomb Raider

Holiday 2015 is a long time away, but as of right now, I feel that the most likely scenario is that I’ll just wait for the game to come out for other platforms. And if for some reason I can’t stand the wait (3 months? a year? no one’s saying how long the exclusivity lasts), I’m far more likely to look for a cheap, used xbox 360, than I am to ever consider buying an xbox one now.

I have to admit that I did have some reservations about the sequel anyhow. For one, I’ve never been interested in the Tomb Raider series until the 2013 reboot. I think a huge appeal for me was the fact that this was her origin story. It’s the idea of a normal girl thrown into extraordinary circumstances. And that somehow this normal girl transforms herself into someone capable of being the hero and saving everyone.

But starting with this next game, the rebooted Lara Croft will no longer be a normal girl. I’m not sure how they’re going to handle the story, but given the history of the series in general, I can make a guess that she’ll now be the one going out looking for trouble. Which I fear will make her less empathetic and less compelling for me to play.

All that said, I was still more excited for the release of Rise of the Tomb Raider than I was for Uncharted 4 (for comparison, Uncharted 3 was probably my most anticipated game ever).

This whole thing though just really sours me on the Tomb Raider franchise and gives me yet another reason to renew my multi-decade hatred of Microsoft.

So good job Crystal Dynamics. Way to alienate 2/3 of your potential market.