Late in 2014, Microsoft shocked the gaming world when it announced Rise of the Tomb Raider would be an Xbox exclusive. Later it slipped out that the game would merely be a timed exclusive, but neither Microsoft or franchise owner Square-Enix would clarify when Lara Croft would be leaping to non-Xbox platforms. Well, turns out we won’t be waiting long.
Today Square-Enix announced Rise of the Tomb Raider will be coming to PC on Jan. 28. The game will come in various versions, including a $90 “digital deluxe” version that includes all current and future DLC and a swanky $150 collector’s edition. Of course, Rise of the Tomb Raider is still console-exclusive, as Square-Enix has yet to announce a release date for the PS4 version, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that also shows up sooner than many were expecting.
The speedy arrival of Rise of the Tomb Raider on PC comes amidst rumblings that the game didn’t sell particularly well on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 this past holiday. Microsoft recently dropped a press release boasting that Rise of the Tomb Raider has sold “over 1 million” units, which isn’t exactly an impressive number for a triple-A title. Remember when the last Tomb Raider sold more than 3 million units at launch, but was considered a “failure” by Square-Enix because it didn’t move at least 5 million? I bet that 3 million figure is looking pretty good right about now.
Since that initial press release, Xbox executive Aaron Greenberg has tweeted that Rise of the Tomb Raider has actually sold “well over” 1 million copies, without providing any hard numbers. You’d think if the game had sold more than 2 million he would have mentioned it, so the game is probably still tracking well behind expectations…
@PNF4LYFE It is sell-through and well over 1M units, big December!
— Aaron Greenberg 🙅🏼♂️💚U (@aarongreenberg) January 4, 2016
Don’t count Rise of the Tomb Raider out just yet though. The last Tomb Raider was a slow but steady seller – despite it’s initial “failure,” the game went on to sell more than 8 million copies. Maybe Rise could pull off a similar turnaround, although the Xbox exclusivity deal will be a hindrance to that. I have a feeling Microsoft won’t be announcing any high-profile third party Xbox exclusives at this year’s E3.
(Via Polygon and Destructoid)