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Rise of the Tomb Raider - Watch Lara's bum in NextGen fidelity

Martius

Liturgist
Joined
Nov 24, 2013
Messages
1,058
Reboot was typical :popamole:, I am surprised people care about that deal. It will come to rest systems sooner or later.
 

Wirdschowerdn

Ph.D. in World Saving
Patron
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
34,462
Location
Clogging the Multiverse with a Crowbar
Thats a pretty suicidal admission on behalf of microsoft. The exclusivity was the only thing they had that could draw interest to their flagging console. Now that everyone knows its timed they willl happily wait it out, knowing they will get a better edition at the end of it all. So what the hell was the point?

MS knows the console peasants are impatient people so they'll just rush out and D1P the XB1 version, then a year later, they'll buy the Definite Edition on PS4 again.

Console peasants.
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
"Okay, no guise, it will be xbone exclusive, this time we mean it."

Creepy Lara Croft exploitation porn movie fans whine.

"Damn it, we can't even pretend... Microsoft will be pissed if we don't fool those suckers to buy xbones... alright, you will have your porn guise, don't freak out, okay?"
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-08-16-snake-moves-with-the-times-lara-doesnt

Snake moves with the times, Lara doesn't
The Tomb Raider deal dominated headlines, but Metal Gear's move onto Steam is the true harbinger.


Lara Croft and Solid (or Naked, or whatever) Snake: you can't rival these two rock stars of gaming for their iconic power. And though Snake's roots go back a little further, they both have a deep, emblematic connection with the fifth generation of game consoles, the so-called PlayStation generation - those heady days of the late 90s when gaming burst out of teen bedrooms, into 3D and into a cinematic world of high adventure and sexy intrigue.

This week at Gamescom, both these icons made significant strategic moves on the big-business battlefield of gaming platforms. Microsoft announced that the next instalment of Lara's famous series, Rise of the Tomb Raider, would be exclusive to Xbox - for a while, at least. A day later, Konami revealed that Metal Gear Solid 5 would be released on Steam, bringing Snake to Valve's platform (if not PC) for the first time.

The first of these announcements was met with a storm of headlines, controversy, comment and community anger; the second a collective response that you could summarise as "well,duh." But let's not be blinded by the drama. The Tomb Raider deal is an anomaly, a freak of circumstance. It's the Metal Gear announcement that's a true sign of the times.

This is not to say that all the Tomb Raider fans who've been enjoying the series on PlayStation and PC since its very first release in 1996 are wrong to be upset or lack perspective. Exclusivity deals with third-party publishers have long been a key weapon in a platform-holder's arsenal - just think of Final Fantasy's decisive defection from Nintendo to Sony - and naturally give rise to frustration and divided loyalties among fans. Even so, I can't think of another occasion when a series enjoying both Tomb Raider's high profile and its long-standing platform agnosticism has been used in this way. Tomb Raider has alwaysbeen a multi-platform game; the majority of gamers have always had access to it.

jpg

Even if it's only for six months, denial of that access is bound to feel like a betrayal. Doubly so when it's swimming against the economic tide of today's games market, where there's no single dominant platform, big-budget releases simply cannot afford to restrict the size of their potential audience, and most exclusivity deals have been whittled down to a few bonus items or a month's head start on downloadable expansions.

It's not just hurtful for gamers, it doesn't seem like good business. How on earth did this happen? As it happens, the circumstances of the Tomb Raider deal are almost unique, because it's a deal born of desperation - on not one but two sides.

Microsoft finds Xbox One lagging so far behind PS4 in sales that it's not prepared to entrust the 2015 holiday season to a fair fight between the first-party big hitters - Sony's Uncharted 4 and its own Halo 5. Furthermore, unlike its rival, it has pockets deep enough to fund this sort of aggressive, acquisitive move. Now, this situation might well persist; so might Microsoft's willingness to try to buy its way out of trouble. But will it find another willing seller?

Because what was happening across the other side of the conference-room table was surely just as decisive in this deal. Years of financial and structural mismanagement at Square Enix, of hubris and unrealistic expectations at the highest levels, have led the publisher to this pass. As its borderline ludicrous sales targets for last year's Tomb Raider reboot revealed, the company is simply not match-fit for the high-stakes game of mega-budget game releases. It needs help - with marketing especially. That is where Microsoft comes in. We'll likely never know the financial ins and outs of the deal or whether it includes any actual development funding, but I'd be willing to bet that the (considerably larger) cost of and responsibility for a massive global PR and advertising campaign now rest entirely on the shoulders of the Redmond giant.

Would Activision Blizzard, EA, Ubisoft or Take-Two take such a deal for one of their precious franchises? Not a hope. Especially not since they can secure something approaching it for an early release of Call of Duty DLC or some exclusive FIFA Ultimate Team content. That Square Enix had to hand over the keys to the whole game, even on a lease basis, only shows how strategically weak its position must have been.

jpg

Is there another publisher, in possession of as treasured a franchise, that could find itself diminished and desperate for help in this way? The only one I can think of is Capcom, with Resident Evil. Even then, I'd bet against it.

Apart from anything else, Capcom will have Konami's example to study. On the face of it, there's little to the announcement that Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain - along with its Ground Zeroes prologue - will be released on Steam. We knew that the game's development was PC-based and that a PC version was in the works alongside the console releases. Spin-off Metal Gear Rising had already popped the series' cherry on Steam. In the wider industry, aside from holdout EA with its Origin platform (and a few powerful PC developers with the resources and motivation to develop bespoke networks, like Blizzard and Riot), there seems to be a general acceptance that Valve now owns the distribution of PC games outright.

So, nothing to see here; Konami is just letting Metal Gear Solid go with the inexorable flow. It was obvious and inevitable. Well, exactly. The significance of this announcement is just that, its inevitability. Steam is so well-established as the third platform that releasing multi-platform games on it is a no-brainer for any independent publisher. (And not only the independent ones; even Microsoft Studios releases games there.) Steam rises; its immense reach and commercial clout expand quietly and inexorably, with minimal corporate interference, while Microsoft and Sony trade expensive punches with each other. They ignore it at their considerable peril.

It's not that Steam will win a platform war. It's that - unlike Xbox - it's not trying to. Valve's position is that open systems offering access to all kinds of games, competing on features and ease of use rather than exclusive content acquisition, is the natural order of things. The market supports that view. Konami knows it; Kojima knows it; Snake follows. Lara's been led astray. Far from signifying a return to the bad old days, the Tomb Raider deal is just the last, ugly gasp of a dying era.
 

Jick Magger

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
5,667
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New Zealand
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Bubbles In Memoria
It's just Microsoft picking Tomb Raider of all franchises that weirds me out. The last game was slightly above average and needed to sell on nearly every platform out there, current and last gen, just to break even. How is this going to fare any better?

I mean seriously, who's going to buy an Xbone solely for Rise of the Womb Raider?
 

Sabba

Novice
Joined
Oct 17, 2005
Messages
13
It's just Microsoft picking Tomb Raider of all franchises that weirds me out. The last game was slightly above average and needed to sell on nearly every platform out there, current and last gen, just to break even. How is this going to fare any better?

I mean seriously, who's going to buy an Xbone solely for Rise of the Womb Raider?
Rumor is that they tried to nab more important exclusives but they were turned down at each approach.

SE managements was peobably the only one clueless/strapped for cash enough to accept this deal. With the PS4 outselling the Xbox One globally 2 to 1 (and in Europe it's even worse for them) there is no sane to reason restrict a high profile, multi-milion dollars budget, AAA game to a smaller audience.
 
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
3,059
Location
Brazil
Divinity: Original Sin
Strangely, I bought the last tomb raider on steam, but it was cheaper then a lunch on a good restaurant, and it came budled with all previous games from the series, which was a hell of a deal. But the fact thta a game so new being sold so cheap means that the game wasn't doing well... and tomb raider is just another nail in the coffin... see what they did with all eidos franchises...
 

Lemming42

Arcane
Joined
Nov 4, 2012
Messages
6,043
Location
The Satellite Of Love
I'm still never sure why they chose to revive Tomb Raider, of all the dead franchises they could have picked. Doesn't help that they gutted what made the first three or four TR games fun in the first place.
 

Zewp

Arcane
Joined
Sep 30, 2012
Messages
3,566
Codex 2013
Because autistic nerds + female protagonist = profit.
 

Cadmus

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
4,264
lol, I only wish the latest TRs were not such utter and complete shit. I'm happy that I'll finally be able to play MGS on PC as it seems, so fuck everything else. It just seems a little bit surprising how Microsoft never understands that the evil corporation schtick isn't all that great for them..or is it?
 

Wilian

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 14, 2011
Messages
2,819
Divinity: Original Sin
lol, I only wish the latest TRs were not such utter and complete shit. I'm happy that I'll finally be able to play MGS on PC as it seems, so fuck everything else. It just seems a little bit surprising how Microsoft never understands that the evil corporation schtick isn't all that great for them..or is it?

Ten billion dorra lost on upkeeping the Xbox franchice would imply it isn't.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...icrosoft-will-publish-rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Square Enix confirms Microsoft will publish Rise of the Tomb Raider
New statement suggests significant investment from Microsoft.

Microsoft will publish next year's Rise of the Tomb Raider, Square Enix has confirmed.

At E3 in June Microsoft and Square Enix announced Rise of the Tomb Raider would launch "holiday 2015 exclusively on Xbox".

Then, in a follow-up interview with Eurogamer, Spencer admitted the controversial deal "has a duration", suggesting timed exclusivity of some sort.

Angry gamers directed many of their comments towards Square Enix, accusing the publisher of selling out and alienating their PlayStation and PC-owning customers.

"Our friends at Microsoft have always seen huge potential in Tomb Raider and have believed in our vision since our first unveil with them on their stage at E3 2011," wrote Darrell Gallagher on the Tomb Raider tumblr in June.

"We know they will get behind this game more than any support we have had from them in the past - we believe this will be a step to really forging the Tomb Raider brand as one of the biggest in gaming, with the help, belief and backing of a major partner like Microsoft."

Then, yesterday, responding to a question on Twitter, Aaron Greenberg, boss of Microsoft's first and third-party games marketing team, said Microsoft was taking the extra step of publishing Rise of the Tomb Raider.

We followed up with Square Enix, which issued the following statement:

"Yes, Microsoft will be publishing Rise of the Tomb Raider on Xbox. Microsoft has always seen huge potential in Tomb Raider and they will get behind this game with more support across development, marketing and retail than ever before, which we believe will be a step in continuing to build the Tomb Raider franchise as one of the biggest in gaming."

The wording of Square Enix's statement suggests Microsoft has made a significant investment in Rise of the Tomb Raider, which makes a degree of sense when you consider the game will likely go up against Sony's PS4 exclusive Uncharted 4 next Christmas.

It's worth returning to our interview with Spencer at E3. In it he said the deal was in part about the Xbox One having an answer to Uncharted. "Totally," he said. "I'm a big fan of Uncharted and I wish we had an action adventure game of that ilk. We've started some, and we've looked at them. But we don't have one today of that quality. This is an opportunity."

As for Square Enix, Spencer suggested the Japanese company's motivation to secure additional investment from Microsoft was about boosting the game's profile and success - comments now echoed by Square Enix's latest statement.

"Our partnership with Capcom around Dead Rising has been good for Dead Rising," he said. "We've been able to invest and to raise - maybe it's a bit egotistical - the notoriety of that franchise.

"Crystal has been investing in that game and Square has as well, in Tomb Raider as a franchise, and wanting to put it at the highest level, with the big triple-A franchises out there, but that's expensive.

"And they want to build that game up to the same level as any of the huge triple-A games out there. It used to a big dominant game. Crystal has done a great job in rebuilding it since '09, when they started kickstarting it, but continuing to invest at that level, it takes a partnership."

Square Enix is yet to comment on whether it will eventually release Rise of the Tomb Raider on PC or PS4.

Square can't even publish their own games now
 

Grunker

RPG Codex Ghost
Patron
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Messages
27,385
Location
Copenhagen
Too bad. I kind of enjoyed the first one. Not like I'll be losing any sleep though. Only noticed this topic now.
 

Talby

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 15, 2008
Messages
5,507
Codex USB, 2014
MS must be really desperate for exclusives. It wouldn't surprise me if more major series like Street Fighter go PS4/PC exclusive as publishers decide the XBone isn't worth their time.
 

Athelas

Arcane
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
4,502
If Dead Rising 3 and Ryse are any indication, it will be released on PC within a year after its console launch.
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
Well, now with the game exclusive to Xbox One is that the japs aren't going to get those 6 million copies. Unless every single dudebro want to play with a womyn power girl fantasy on the land of the raep hobos.:lol:
 

Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
56,164
Poetic justice if the fuck box fails and Microsoft gets thrown out of the market (wishful thinking, but hey, a man can dream).
 

Slow James

Savant
Joined
Dec 10, 2012
Messages
271
Location
Louisville, KY
Poetic justice if the fuck box fails and Microsoft gets thrown out of the market (wishful thinking, but hey, a man can dream).

For a while in Summer 2013, I entertained the idea that Microsoft was deliberately trying to sabotage the console marketplace to move more people to buying Windows8 and push their interconnectivity with their phone and tablet products in a bid to compete with Google and Apple in some diabolical plan.

Instead, it turns out that MS is just really dumb.
 

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