One of the most surprising bits of news to come out of this week’s Gamescom from Germany was the announcement that the upcoming Rise of the Tomb Raider game would be an Xbox exclusive! Now we get further clarification on the matter (which dampens the celebration at Microsoft a bit).
It would appear that, even though the game will in-fact be available only on Microsoft’s brand for a time, it’s not meant to stay that way forever. Xbox head Phil Spencer recently stated, “…I’m not trying to fake anybody out in terms of where this thing is. What they do with the franchise in the long run is not mine. I don’t control it. So all I can talk about is the deal I have. I don’t know where else Tomb Raider goes….The deal has a duration. I didn’t buy it. I don’t own the franchise.”
While Spencer is clearly just beating around the bush in his statement above, the bottom line is gamers may very well see a port to the PlayStation or PC at some point in the future (probably after the start of the new year). Spencer goes on to explain that the deal in place was to only guarantee the Xbox maker an exclusive period for a set window of time. “It’s not because I’m trying to be a headfake on anybody. It’s a deal between us and the partner. People ask me how much did we pay. There are certain things I’m just not going to talk about because it’s a business deal between us and then. Obviously the deal does have a duration. I didn’t buy the IP in perpetuity.” He reveals.
We’ll bring you more once we can confirm exactly if/when fans can expect the next Tomb Raider to come to other systems.