160°

Rise of the Tomb Raider will be the first of many sudden exclusives for PS4 and Xbox One

GameZone: "Rise of the Tomb Raider is not some catalyst; it did not start the trend of console exclusivity. However, seeing such a prominent title play favorites will undoubtedly bolster that trend, pushing it further up the list of options developers confront with every new game. In part thanks to this, a few short years from now, the IP venn diagram which Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo so frequently recolor may look radically different from its current shape."

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gamezone.com
Cueil3536d ago

it's a cycle... we are moving back into big third parties taking money to offset financial instability in a new console market

Army_of_Darkness3536d ago

Last gen it was probably 95% MS paying for exclusive this and that from 3rd party developers as far as I can remember.

Cueil3536d ago

If you don't count Sony buying studios up I can partially agree... though it's no where near 95 percent

Army_of_Darkness3536d ago

Sony bought studios that mainly developed on Sony consoles such as Media molecules and sucker punch. That's a huge difference from buying a company like Capcom for example that has always done multiplatform development.

equal_youth3536d ago

micorsoft still runs in the wrong direction.

Wingsfan243536d ago

Yup, they certainly aren't bringing any good games to their console fanbase. Only Sony is delivering the games. /S

equal_youth3536d ago

haven't said they don't bring the games but clearly there are some things lacking at ms. i for myself look out for sunset overdrive and quantum break and maybe the halo collection + a few indie titles. but that is not the portfolio sony has and for me its not even near that. plus i have a bad history with ms all in all including their customer support and three years without nearly one exclusive or new ip. sony is stepping their game with share play and so on and microsoft still sits on their always online cloud based future games... they clearly are in for the money as much as sony but sony does one thing right and that is making a step towards the gamer and try to make us feel comfortable with our decision of picking up a ps4 where ms tries to bend me right over to **** me. sry for that last bit of blabla.

XStation3536d ago (Edited 3536d ago )

TGS next. I have a feeling that MS might try to get Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts timed next. I hope it doesn't happen, but it seems like they're branching out to Square Enix.

ssjkiet3536d ago

Wouldn't surprise me the least bit.

colonel1793536d ago (Edited 3536d ago )

After Tomb Raider, it definitely wouldn't be surprising at all, but it would get everyone angry. Imagine, after being announced PlayStation exclusive, then lie to all their fans for years, then announce it multiplatform, and then finally timed exclusive to Xbox? I don't even want to know what would happen.

With that said, it is going to be very hard, because Xbox has almost no presence at all in Japan, which is very likely that the games will launch there first.

vishmarx3536d ago

theyll try,
but SE has been in this business long enough to know it wont sell more than 15 copies in japan.
which houses more than a significant share of ff fansbase,
and ms can never pay them enough to counter a forced failure of a FF game.
tbh id be less surprised i FF xv released on pc,3ds and mobile than it be an xbox exclusive

iamnsuperman3536d ago (Edited 3536d ago )

That would be even more reckless than this move. I know the PS4 isn't so hot their right now but to back a brand that has never sold well in Japan/that market (what TGS is for) would be stupid. They could end up loosing a high amount of money (remember the PS4 isn't the only console there, the Wii U is doing quite well over there)

rainslacker3536d ago

Or they could make it timed exclusive for the western release. There are those as well. I believe Eternal Sonata had timed exclusivity like this, where in Japan it was released on both consoles at the same time.

Personally can't see it with their two biggest franchises actually developed by them. SE does publish TR, but they don't seem to have much faith in that franchise, whereas FF and KH are guaranteed sellers. FF didn't exactly sell that great on the 360 either, whereas it did half decent on the PS3.

It's possible if they were considering it, they may back down after the backlash of TR, because the backlash for FF or KH going exclusive like that would be far worse.

gamerfan09093536d ago

I highly, highly doubt that'll happen. I can't remember the last time Final Fantasy was a system seller in America and Kingdom Hearts won't move anything for MS. If they want to make a huge splash then getting battlefront or a KOTOR sequel would sell consoles.

jetlian3536d ago

Man if MS did get timed exclusive FF15 sony fans would riot. If I was MS I would do it. Also get some DLC.

MysticStrummer3536d ago

It's not really good to generalize. Every gamer I know is a Sony fan, and none of us care about FF at all.

jetlian3536d ago

If TR can create this much anger FF15 would be worse. No way sony fans waiting nearly a decade gonna stay calm.

Did I Say all sony fans? No I didnt and clearly you would if it happened

rainslacker3536d ago

Mystic,

The backlash would be massive actually. Going multi-plat pissed people off, going exclusive would be worse. There was backlash at the DS handheld KH releases, and they were just spin-offs.

And there are still plenty of Sony fans that like FF(I'm one of them). FF13 still sold on the PS3, whereas it didn't do that great on the 360.

equal_youth3536d ago

that would really hurt my digital feelings :(

MRMagoo1233536d ago

ooo right in the digital feels

OpieWinston3536d ago

MS is building on their EA and Square Enix partnerships this gen. Phil Spencer is pretty confident with Xbox in Japan (Which is unusual)...So perhaps aside from Scalebound MS has something else up their sleeve.

OrangePowerz3536d ago

MS was also confident with the original Xbox and the 360. You expect them to say the truth that they expect to tank again in Japan? They only release in Japan to have the support of Japanese comoanies to get their games released in the west on the console.

medman3536d ago

@opiewinston
The only thing Microsoft has up it's sleeves is more deception and subterfuge...buy up 3rd party exclusive so the fan base doesn't realize their 1st party studios haven't produced anything outside of a shooter in a decade. Good luck with that mess.

ger23963536d ago

Why don't they just buy square enix and be done with it.

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OrangePowerz3536d ago

Not gonna happen in a million years. They couldn't even get Square to release the FF13 games in Japan for the 360. FF and KH are very strong brands in Japan and they know like everybody else that the Xbone wil fail in Japan. Tomb Raider is a western franchise with a rather small fanbase in Japan and the console does ok here.

If you think TB stirred up a shitstorm that would be nothing compared to FF or KH being time exclusive for the X1. It would most likely be the last announcement the current CEO of Square would make.

funkybudda3536d ago

Riot over FF being time exclusive? Highly unlikely, because the series hasnt been good for a while. KH is a different story.

Muzikguy3536d ago

If by some miracle they snag the KH or FF game to be exclusive to MS, then I'm just going to stop buying Squeenix games. They've pissed off enough customers with the trash they've put out lately, I feel like that would be the final nail for Square. Third party games shouldn't be exclusive. Unless of course certain consoles are better suited (or handhelds). Even in that respect though, it's a tough situation to be in

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gamerfan09093536d ago

I have no problem with this. If companies want to buy third party exclusives or timed exclusives then so be it. It won't effect me in the slightest because I'll eventually own a PS4 to go along with my XB1. If you want to game on one system an entire gen well be prepared to lose out on great games. Same could be said about any previous gen also.

colonel1793536d ago

Dude, the majority of the people can only have one console, so they decide upon first party exclusives to choose what console to buy. People that can have more than one console is really the minority.

There is nothing wrong about third party exclusives. The PS2 had lots of them, and games like Ninja Gaiden started on Xbox. Actually, I would love if there were more third party exclusives for both consoles. However, Tomb Raider is different, because they re-released the game on PS4, why would they make PS4 gamers play the game, if they won't be able to play the sequel?

If Tomb Raider (the first one) was released only on Xbox, it's fine. It's the first of the franchise, and Microsoft grabbed it, but don't make millions of people pay for the game and support, only to deny them access to the sequels.

OrangePowerz3536d ago

I would have somewhat agreed.with that a week ago when I still planned on getting an X1 at some point. Since they decided now it's necessary to pay for TR timed exclusivity, a long standing multiplatform series, they will never ever see my money again. I have a original Xbox and had the 360 and enjoyed them for the most time, but with that move I see no reason to give them any of money.

Creating studios and making their own games? Awesome

Paying for new IPs from 3rd party? I can somewhat deal with that.

Paying for long standing IPs that have never been popular on their system but on the system of the competition to undermine them and in a cheap attempt to get them to switch? No dice and they will never again get any sales from me for those cheap tactics.

They have been already unpopular and that makes them even less popular. The last TR sold below 5 million so it's not a system seller. It's just a cheap attempt to get PS users to buy an X1. MS is using the same tactics they used in the OS market in the past. If you can't defeat them fair and square throw money around to either buy the competition or undermine them in the hopes they can't spend that much money to compete with you anymore. Their shady tactics worked perfectly fine in the PC market, but they will never win that way in the games market.

Their popularity is going down since a few years and not only amongst gamers.

gamerfan09093536d ago

Then don't buy it, then? I don't see any difference in seeing how this IP is different from any other third party IP. If you were going to buy an xbox before this announcement and suddenly this game is exclusive to the platform and you don't want to buy one then I don't see your logic. If you want to have some moral victory, then have it. I'll never shit on a company for providing value to their consumer base and future consumer base. MS's obligations are not to Sony fans, and Sony's obligations are not to MS fans. Their obligations are to the user base and providing them content. If wanna be mad over a third party exclusive that's in a long line of other third party exclusives then so be it. The world will go on.

rainslacker3536d ago

@gamer

Buying up a 3rd party exclusive that the system was going to get anyways is not providing value to their consumer base.

Providing value would be taking the money they spent on that, and likely all the other stuff they spend money on in the same manner, and investing it on building their own studio's lineup, to provide you with truly unique content that you really can't get anywhere else. It would also serve them better in the long run, as they'd actually increase the value of their company while doing it.

It is what Orange says, a way to undermine the competition, and try to persuade those truly die-hard fans(in this case of TR), to purchase an X1 to play the game. They may even get a few thousand to do just that.

To be fair, I don't like it when any company buys up third party content, even when it's DLC or special exclusive content to the system, like Sony with the AC series. It's just a waste of money IMO, and I highly doubt it sways the pendulum for console/software sales enough to be worth the expenditure.

xX1NORM1Xx3536d ago

i hope not i own both consoles but my friends don't it would suck having to play a multiplayer game without my friends i probs wouldn't bother buying it.

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70°

It’ll Be Fine, Right? Five Games With Unfortunate Release Strategies

Mark from WellPlayed writes about five game launches that were impacted by unfortunate scheduling.

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well-played.com.au
jznrpg348d ago (Edited 348d ago )

Zero Dawn sold really well so I’m not sure this belongs. The second game released next to a big game again and it hurt it some I forget what it was though, oh yeah Elden Ring .
But a good game is a good game to me I don’t care when they release personally but they do have to think about it when you want to get more people to buy it.

250°

The Tomb Raider Survivor Trilogy's Take on Lara Croft Deserved More Recognition

The Survivor Trilogy was a drastic reimagining of Lara Croft and Tomb Raider, and it provokes changes for the character that are truly fantastic.

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gamerant.com
isarai461d ago (Edited 461d ago )

Deserves less IMO, i think the 1st in the new trilogy was a perfect 1st step for the new direction. The next 2 games were half steps at best. Not only that, every character in the series including Lara is just annoying and doesn't make sense in terms of motive, like yes they have a motive, but none of it seems proportional to the lengths they are willing to go through for it. The most annoying thing is every one of the games say "become the Tomb Raider" yet 3 games later and we're still not there? No thanks. Then there's the mess of the 3rd game, massive skill tree that serves almost no purpose as there's literally only like 3-4 short encounters in the whole game, and they took till the 3rd game to finally manage some decent puzzles even remotely close to previous games in the series. Nah, the trilogy infuriated me to no end as a long time fan of the series, i hope we get better going forward cause that crap sucked.

Army_of_Darkness460d ago

The first in the trilogy was my favorite. I thought they were going into the right direction with that one until the second one came out and seemed like a graphical downgrade but the gameplay was okay. As for the Third, Graphics were really nice but it was kinda boring me to death with its non-stop platforming and exploring with not enough action! Well, for me anyway...

DeathTouch459d ago

Graphics on the 3rd one were abysmal. It’s more colorful and has more variety, but everything else was a noticeable downgrade.

The more open world with NPC quests was also handled very poorly, to the point I missed Angel of Darkness.

thesoftware730460d ago

I know it is your opinion, but she did progress as a character in each game, she even got more muscular and seasoned.

That is the thing, people first complained that there was not enough platforming and actual tomb raiding in the first and second games. Shadow remedied that and kept the combat elements.

3-4 encounters? huh? did we play the same game? there was plenty of combat and, the skill tree did matter, like being able to hang enemies from trees, set explosives traps on bodies, being able to counter, and that are just a few of the combat skills. The skill tree also had things like being able to hold your breath underwater longer, crafting upgrades, zipline upgrade, and climbing upgrades that all changed how you can approach situations.

Not knocking your opinion, but we definitely had different experiences. I had 98% completion on the shadow.

SoulWarrior460d ago (Edited 460d ago )

Sorry but i'm with him about the low number of encounters, the game throws loads of weapons and skills you're way with a comparatively low amount of places to actually use them, so they felt under utilised.

-Foxtrot461d ago

Yeah...no

It was awful, for THREE GAMES it was "become the Tomb Raider" where she went back to square one after each game. Not to mention after a huge reaction of killing someone for the first time she then becomes Rambo straight after and goes on a slaughter spree without a single other reaction. Her development was all over the place.

She was whiney, weak and in later game a little arrogant and selfish

Oh and the voice actress compared to the previous ones was not as good

Lara Croft deserved better and while they are decent games as they are, we deserved actual Tomb Raider games, we could have had better survival games if they just stuck with the original Lara Crofts origin about her plane going down. Surviving 2 weeks in the Himalayas...I'd have liked to seen that, who knows what mystical threat she could have faced in the mountains or underground some secret concealed cave.

Tacoboto459d ago

I thought Shadow of the Tomb Raider had better gameplay than Rise, but it annoyed me the most of the trilogy when I stopped to think about the story.

It's like they deliberately decided to make her unlikeable and did nothing to make the character you're playing as likeable or have even one sign of humility.

SoulWarrior461d ago

2013 I thought was a fine entry, but Rise and especially Shadow were painfully mediocre follow ups imo, I really didn't like how selfish and angry her character was in those two.

Terry_B460d ago

No. Please forget the crap completely.

northpaws460d ago

First one was decent, played through it twice.
Second one was okay, played through it once.
Third one was really bad, tried twice a year apart, still can't get through the first two hours, it is just really bad.

thesoftware730460d ago

Honest question, what did you find bad about it? the opening 2 hrs of Shadow were fantastic imo.

The opening was very similar to the first 2, what did you find really bad?

Not looking for an argument, just an honest question.

Starman69460d ago

3rd one just didn't feel like a tomb raider game. Possibly because the development was passed to another development team. Big mistake! Microsoft killed tomb raider making the first game a timed exclusive. Never recovered after that.

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200°

Get three Tomb Raider games free at Epic Games Store

Starting today, Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Rise of the Tomb Raider are free at Epic Games Store. The free game offers run until January 6 at 11 AM Eastern. Once you claim them, they’re yours to keep.

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gamefreaks365.com
CrimsonWing69840d ago (Edited 840d ago )

They're all solid games, but nothing quite matched the epicness of the first one for me. I think the 3rd one started off strong but once you got to that Peruvian area it took a massive nose dive for me.

lelo2play840d ago (Edited 840d ago )

You got to be kidding!
The first one was great at the time... but this latest trilogy of Tomb Raider games are also great.

LiViNgLeGaCY840d ago

I think he means the first one in the new trilogy.

CrimsonWing69840d ago

I meant the first of the new trilogy.

Furesis840d ago

yeah i remember liking the first one when it came out, so i tried the second one sometime after release and i just could not get into it, i couldn't finish it. So i might try the 3rd now that i got it for free but ehh. But i do remember enjoying the first one, i wonder if i'd feel the same way if i played it today? Better not taint those memories lol

ANIALATOR136840d ago

I was the same for some reason. Never finished the second one. I got like half way through maybe.

ActualWhiteMan839d ago (Edited 839d ago )

The first one of the latest trilogy is a masterpiece

Fishy Fingers840d ago

I'll take a copy of Shadow... Cheers.

Profchaos840d ago

Great games I've played them all on ps4 but it'll be good to finally try shadow on my rtx card.

Double_O_Revan840d ago

Trying to claim them and the store keeps crashing. lol.

gamefreaks365840d ago

EGS has been having issues all day.

RedDevils840d ago

Weird I don't has that issue.

Double_O_Revan840d ago

I finally got it after a while. But it was real bad for a while.

PeeShuter840d ago (Edited 840d ago )

Claim games by going to the website and login using ur credentials. I did the same as i couldnt use epic launcher. Also try reinstalling Epic Launcher I did it and it worked.

Double_O_Revan840d ago

I always go through the website. It was all just down for a while yesterday it seems.

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