After the controversial news of Square Enix inking a deal with Microsoft to make their anticipated upcoming reboot follow-up, Rise of the Tomb Raider exclusive to Xbox platforms for an undefined amount of time, fans of the series on competing platforms began to worry about missing out on the game for quite a while. Fortunately, that’s not the case, as Square Enix has just confirmed that the exclusivity deal with Microsoft actually doesn’t last that long at all.
Square Enix announced that Rise of the Tomb Raider may initially be launching solely on Xbox platforms this year, but the game will come to competing platforms as soon as next year. A PC version will be released in “early 2016”, likely placing it some time next Spring, and a PlayStation 4 version will follow in time for next year’s Holiday season, likely around October or November 2016. A PlayStation 3 version wasn’t announced unfortunately, despite the existence of an Xbox 360 port, albeit one that’s being outsourced by developer, Crystal Dynamics to a different studio, Nixxes Software.
This should come as a relief to PlayStation gamers especially, particularly considering that Tomb Raider as a franchise has always been at its most popular and lucrative on PlayStation platforms, which was likely the key catalyst for the timed Xbox exclusivity deal for Rise of the Tomb Raider. Despite the game’s predecessor, the 2013 reboot simply titled Tomb Raider, being marketed primarily for Xbox 360, the game still sold the most on PlayStation 3 overall, and sold twice as many copies on Sony’s console compared to Microsoft’s worldwide, even if the Xbox 360 version did end up being the top-selling port in North America. This major PlayStation preference proved to be true again with the release of the enhanced Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which sold almost three times more on PlayStation 4 than it did on Xbox One worldwide, and even sold less on Xbox One in North America this time, though this may also be the result of the Xbox One version of the game having well-publicized issues that weren’t present in the PlayStation 4 build.
Rise of the Tomb Raider continues the storyline started in the 2013 reboot game, with Lara escaping the harrowing island of horrors from the 2013 game, but being discredited as part of a worldwide cover-up. Undeterred in her quest for validation however, she travels to the remote regions of Siberia to race a villainous organization to the apparent secret of immortality.
Look for Rise of the Tomb Raider this year on Xbox platforms, when it comes to Xbox One and Xbox 360 on November 10th, before the PC and PlayStation 4 builds follow next year.
Keep braving Eggplante for all news and updates on the Tomb Raider games.