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Rise of the Tomb Raider timed Xbox exclusive for Holiday 2015 (No PS/PC, SE publish)
- Thread starter fluffydelusions
- Start date
BlackBuzzard
Banned
Holy cow this thread is a bloodbath.
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ok we are on a gaming forum... that means it may make financial sense but it probably doesnt bode well with majority of the creative people actually producing the game
economically it still isnt ideal
Situation A. MS spent money for exclusiveness. As a result, the opportunity cost is high. only X1 players get to play
Situation B: The many millions spent may have been used to invest in new IP in their own name with room for growth. TR still comes out. x1 players get to play
Jimmyfenix
Member
God damn!
It's not about going toe to toe on certain titles, it is about demonstrating that you have studios making games and are investing in games. Microsoft are demonstrating that they won't move beyond their core franchises (which is incredibly risky) and that they would rather secure a window on an established title than fund their own.
Chobel
Member
HAHAHA!!! No, that won't happen. Delayed most of the time have bad sales.
Was the game officially announced for PC & PS4 or was it assumed that it will come to those platforms too? that's what I found in the announcement thread from E3.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=833910
Doesn't mention any platforms and the game was debuted at the Xbox conference. Is there another PR stating the platforms?
shacklesmcgee
Member
oooow it huuurts, scanners.gif, scanners.gif!
MS are crazy, why TR ?. Maybe they tried to get bigger and better, but this is all they could secure. Will people actually pick up a system for modern day Tomb Raider ? 10 to 12 hours and your done. Well atleast their trying, but investing in and announcing a brand new 1st party exclusive would turn more heads.. like a Fallout clone or something.
Speedy Blue Dude
Banned
Power of the Cloud plus DirectX12 will make sure this game runs at 1440p at 60 frames.
Hell add In the extra 10% given to developers from disabling Kinect and the DGPU hidden inside Kinect, and I'm sure this game will even hit 4K at 30 frames.
No but seriously guys, this game wouldn't be possible on PS4. PS4 only had 4.5 GBs dedicated to games. Xbox One has 5GBs PLUS 32 MBs of ESRAM. Sony's console couldn't handle it.
Really?
Different strokes for different folks I guess. There was few puzzles to solve and the combination of yellow painted ledges with luminous which cliffs never ensured you had to think about anything. I completed it and quite enjoyed using the bow I suppose but it was very average IMO.
No.
Funny guy
Speedy Blue Dude
Banned
You guys are already taking the piss. Might as well join in on it.
Mike Works
Member
shacklesmcgee
Member
Your question got the answer it warranted I feel.
King Beyond the wall
Member
Sony gave up competing with Halo years ago when Killzone failed to match up, now they rely on multiplatform shooters like destiny, COD and Battlefield.
Uncharted scratches a different itch and there are very few similar games to directly compete with uncharted, particularly now that expectations and hype are so much greater following the success of TLOU. Tomb Raider is the only multiplatform game similar to uncharted and MS are using its timed exclusivity to negate Uncharted's impact.
I agree that this Is potentially good for the reputation and standing of the franchise, but disagree that this is good for gamers and PC and PS4 players are denied this game for x months so as to artificially improve the franchise's reputation.
Chobel
Member
I just love some of the theories in this thread:
1) RoTR is delayed in PS4 because CD are afraid of UC4
2) RoTR is delayed in PS4 because CD wants it to be like UC4.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
1) RoTR is delayed in PS4 because CD are afraid of UC4
2) RoTR is delayed in PS4 because CD wants it to be like UC4.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
well i agree that they need to build their studios. but the problem is that doesn't happen overnight. they invested in Black Tusk Studios but that developer hasn't produce anything that will release within the next year so they were given an already established ip to work on.
Microsoft knows they need to make Xbone enticing to buy over the ps4 and they need to make that happen fast. That's why they're making big deals like this. while sony knows they need to build their indie portfolio which is what they lack last gen so they are making small deals like they're doing right now.
HORRORSHØW
Member
Speedy Blue Dude
Banned
If this ever comes up when someone Google searches my username I'll probably cry. Hahaha.
God damn
Earthpainting
Member
Because now they can spend more time on a single version, potentially improving performance. Perhaps Microsoft can put some of their own software engineers on the job to help with the optimisation. Multiplayer at launch wouldn't be fragmented, since everyone is on the same system, which means that everyone with that game could play with anyone else with that game. They don't have to be subjected to comparisons to other platforms at launch, trying to discourage people from their potential only available option. They also aren't running the risk any more that another platform holder snags the title away as a (timed) exclusive.
Several of these fuel confirmation bias and platform affinity, rather than a tangible benefit to the game itself, but that is exactly why these deals exist in the free market. It helps validate the investment in the system, since the platform holder is willing to put in time and money to ensure there is value to picking their brand. Time and resources are limited, so a lot of people may have to settle for a single system. It's Microsoft's job to make people feel secure about picking them in that choice. Of course the ideal situation for gamers would be completely DRM- and encryption-free gaming, where everything is playable on anything that has the specs, but the none of the three console manufacturers are actually looking out for what's best for gamers.
Pseudo judo
Member
If you saw the conference yesterday it's clear that they are invested beyond their core franchises. The first party landscape is pretty barren for both Sony and MS in 2014, MS is actually looking better in this regard. MS needs to see a real turn around by Christmas 2015 so they are making moves well in advance.
King Beyond the wall
Member
What is ridiculous about such theories? Are you denying that TR and CD will be brought into the same league as Uncharted and ND with the inevitable and endless TR v Uncharted (tied up with the XOne v PS4) debate all next year,
I believe they had an IP which got knocked back in favour of Gears. Not the sort of news you want trickling out in tandem with the Rare portfolio of canned titles. I just feel that... Microsoft should probably be singing and dancing about the new game from their Halo developers called Destiny, showcasing a brand new title from Black Tusk, firing out a title from an unchained Rare. If Halo, Forza or Gears start slipping in worth, they are going to find themselves in a really bad situation. At least with Remedy, they can use their style over a number of different game scenarios (think the Naughty Dog approach on the adventure romp and, survival drama).
I get what Microsoft are doing but it really isn't doing them any PR favours here. We'll see how it goes next year.
Don't be naive.
If the game was multiplat then it probably wouldn't be compared to UC at all. Now that its MS' "exclusive" 3rd person shooter/adventure game? It definitely will
krypt0nian
Banned
Good lord...
DOWN
Banned
Square can't afford to throw away sales that they know are way bigger outside the exclusive box they climbed into.
Chobel
Member
And? It will only create buzz around Xbone version, when PC/PS versions come out the buzz will be gone killing the sales in PS/PC platforms.
i dont see quantum break releasing anywhere near uncharted but yeah i agree
its a pretty strange decision to moneyhat tomb raider but we will see how it pays off.
tr 2013 was amazing though and im looking forward to this
Well I figure there aren't that many fans of tomb raider in the first place to disgruntle, and I don't have the numbers so this is pure speculation, but I reckon the 7 mil only happened since they sold a late port on new consoles which did not have any games at the time. A lot of people I know double dipped on TR definitive. and the rest just wanted anything to play at all, and wouldn't have bought the game (hence they didn't on last gen) when enough other games were available. So I think you can't compare the 7 mil. sales number but you have to look at the sales made on xb360/ps3 when it was first released.
And if you read my post again, I strictly compared to last gen consoles. So of course tomb raider 2 won't sell 7 million units on xb1 but it wouldn't have either on xb1+ps4+pc imo. It would have had a similar result to the last gen release. Now maybe they can actually shift 3 million on xb1 due to more xb1s being out by next christmas (highly speculative since we have no idea how this console will sell by next fall.) and another 1,5 on pc and ps4 combined later down the line. That's probably more than they could move when tr1 was originally released.
But this is all bs since we it's too far away to make any educated guesses here. Just spitballing
Oh and btw. I think this is a terrible practice, if it really was like it seems, and ms just put down a big chunk of money to forbid the other versions that sucks major balls. But if the original aimed at release was april 2016 for all versions and ms just gave them money to focus on the xb1 version first and then on the others, and therefore ps4 still comes out in april as planned but xb1 comes out earlier since they managed their time differently, it's all not that bad actually. But we'll never know I suppose...
hendersonhank
Member
People consider Uncharted a system seller and I could beat any two of those in the time it took me to play through Tomb Raider once.
Yeah, there is absolutely no way SE let it go for that cheap. Simple calculation:
Let's suppose that SE estimated the install base of PS4 and XB1 to be 15M/10M respectively at the time of game's launch. (They must have started negotiating this exclusivity deal at least six months ago, mind you.) They could be extremely optimistic and project combined sales of, let's say, 2.5M copies. Now, these would have gone PS4's way in best of cases, but it's easy to argue that they would lose 1 million sales by dropping PS4.
Game is sold for $60, with publisher's cut being roughly two thirds, so the opportunity cost is $40M. Discounted value for time of Microsoft's payment would be something along the lines of $35M. And with the risk of this deal being negligible, SE could finally settle for $30M.
Financially, this makes no sense for MS. If they spent this $30M on developing a new game, they would have it ready by 2016, and they must have trust their install base to be somewhere in 20 million range, at least. With proper marketing they should sell some 2 million copies for a net present value of at least double the investment.
Of course, this would mean an additional waiting time of one year, which gives Sony an advantage with their exclusive line-up. So tactically, MS bought one year of time, which they couldn't afford to lose.
TL;DR: This deal must have cost MS at least $30M, and it was probably a good move for them to make.
King Beyond the wall
Member
When it comes out on XOne it will be considered by Xbox fans as an uncharted killer. When it comes out on ps4 and PC it will be considered an uncharted tier action game because of all the debate. This move is going to drastically improve the reputation and perceived quality of the franchise.
If corporations only care about money, then at least Nintendo and Sony have shown they want to keep the hobby sustainable over longer time periods, by creating breadth and stimulating digital art, funding games such as Journey, Unfinished Swan, Splatoon, Wonderful 101, etc. Microsoft? Not so much. They just look at lowest common denominator and churn out games to maximize short term ROI.
I like what you said about them misjudging the mood.
To a certain extent, I think MS and CD must have known that this announcement would have caused some unhappiness in the PS and PC camps. But I think they really thought that any unhappiness would be muted, or at the very least drowned out by positive responses relating to crystallization (hurhur) of the release window, likelihood of optimisation on one platform etc.
As many posters have pointed out, there's not so much of a backlash when games like No Man's Land are declared to have their console debuts on PS4. Perhaps MS and CD thought that this announcement would be a bit like that.
It's too early to judge how bad of a move this was. I only know that what I've seen on the net so far tends to be more negative than positive.
ShogunDarius
Member
but thats what they did, they bought the rights to the game, whether timed or not, they bought them. They would rather do that than make a Viva Pinata for instance(I want a new one soooo much) or a new IP. As an Xbox One owner I feel like i've been hit twice by this, the fact some other xbox one owners like this disgusts me.
Chobel
Member
LOL no. When it will release for PS/PC it will be just another delayed game, the sales will be poor, decent at best. Also UC4 will kill it in sales, performance, graphics heck even press impressions , TR will only look like UC wanna be.
It's because a large proportion of the early 360 cycle was filled with "we won Tekken!" and "we won Final Fantasy!" along with a raft of seemingly 360 only titles like Bioshock and Mass Effect. Heady conference times for Microsoft.
As it is the only thing they've known, they must have looked to that strategy again as a win. It's just not the same market though and they've had quite a few warnings that the goalposts have moved since the X1 was launched.
krypt0nian
Banned
This move is on its way to burying the franchise.