Rise of the Tomb Raider being published by Microsoft, not Square Enix

Welp - there goes the idea of possibly seeing Rise of the Tomb Raider released on platforms outside of Xbox.

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Rise of the Tomb Raider will be published by Microsoft when it’s released exclusively on the Xbox One in 2015.

The news comes directly from Xbox marketing manager Aaron Greenberg as he responded to a fan on Twitter asking if “The Publisher of Tomb Raider Rise of Nightmare is Microsoft or Square Enix,” which we could only assume the user meant Rise of the Tomb Raider. Greenberg responded by saying “Yes we are publishing Rise of the Tomb Raider.”

Considering Square Enix has been publishing the Tomb Raider series within the past couple of years, it comes as a pretty large surprise to hear Microsoft is now taking the reins of the follow up to the hugely successful reboot of the Tomb Raider series. This certainly takes the exclusivity of Rise of the Tomb Raider to another level as I can’t imagine the game making its way to competing platforms now that Microsoft is its publisher.

A Square Enix spokesperson proceeded to confirm today’s news saying, “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."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 9, 2014 11:00 AM

    Daniel Perez posted a new article, Rise of the Tomb Raider being published by Microsoft, not Square Enix

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      December 9, 2014 11:10 AM

      Man, well that's disappointing news.

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      December 9, 2014 11:31 AM

      A Square Enix spokesperson proceeded to confirm today’s news saying, “Microsoft will be publishing ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’ on Xbox

      Splitting hairs but could this also mean that square enix is publishing on other platforms?

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        December 9, 2014 11:40 AM

        Hmm.. that's a good point, mobab. You always need to read the fine print, and having the term "on Xbox" in there may mean just that. Although, I haven't seen many games that are specifically published by a first-party publisher for one console published by a third-party publisher on other platforms.

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        December 9, 2014 12:08 PM

        This business is all about splitting hairs.

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        December 9, 2014 1:05 PM

        Sounds more like another Dead Rising 3 situation where MS bought the console rights and that SquareEnix would handle the PC release 6+ months later.

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      December 9, 2014 11:43 AM

      Guess I'll be playing this "exclusive" on PC.

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      December 9, 2014 12:10 PM

      I am a PC-Only player. Tomb Raider on PC was only OK. The graphics were all right, better with the updated patches, but the overall port was horrendous. I -!!!-HATED-!!!- those damned QTEs.

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        December 9, 2014 12:13 PM

        After hearing this so many times I went in expecting to hate all the QTEs. Only to barely notice them. Not done horribly like some games, and didn't even seem to be more than 4-5 in the entire game.

        I thought that game itself was fantastic. Good graphics, great gameplay, interesting story. Best tomb raider in many a year.

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        December 9, 2014 12:14 PM

        You're the first person I've heard say this. I played the PC version and thought it was gorgeous. Had zero issues with the port either. Were you playing with a controller or kb+mouse? I played with a 360 pad and it ran like a dream.

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        December 9, 2014 12:14 PM

        I thought it was superb. There were a couple of annoying QTEs in the beginning, but the visuals, framerate, controls, and audio were top-notch.

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        December 9, 2014 12:17 PM

        I don’t get people that say that about the QTEs. I barely even noticed them.

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        December 9, 2014 1:04 PM

        PC version was amazing so was the game

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          December 9, 2014 1:16 PM

          I agree 100%, it should of gotten GOTY that year.

          Hmm I wonder what the MS deal will mean, they clarified last time that it will be coming to all systems so who knows. Does it really matter?

          I have all the systems so I can play it on the XB1, but really love to play it again on the PC especially in three screen mode that was CRAZY! Like you said the PC version was amazing.

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        December 9, 2014 1:13 PM

        Other than TressFX killing the 560ti I had at the time, I didn't have any issues running on on the PC. Both controller and KB+M support were good, and after the first level QTEs were pretty minimal. It's certainly better than a lot of console ports out there.

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        December 9, 2014 1:20 PM

        [deleted]

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        December 9, 2014 1:32 PM

        Tomb Raider on PC was hot stuff! You're crazy!

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        December 9, 2014 1:42 PM

        I was annoyed at the QTEs as well, but the port was fine. PC version was great.

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        December 9, 2014 1:52 PM

        The PC version was a masterpiece in terms of console/PC concurrent releases. It looked fantastic (The best of the bunch) at higher resolutions and ran like a dream out of the gate.

        Maybe you hated the QTEs, but that's not a byproduct of a port. And the bulk of the QTEs were only at the start of the game; sounds like you didn't give it more than 2 hours.

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        December 9, 2014 1:53 PM

        It was a great PC version, and the QTE's were pretty heavily concentrated in the first hour of the game (probably there to satisfy reviewers) and they kinda vanished afterwards apart from in some action sequences.

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        December 9, 2014 1:55 PM

        How's the weather in Crazytown?

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        December 9, 2014 1:58 PM

        Nope. The QTEs were lame, but the port was really really solid.

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        December 9, 2014 2:11 PM

        Why do people keep saying this about the recent TR game? The QTEs in this game were so fucking easy and minor it wasn't a problem, have you never played games like RE5? That's a fucking abomination of QTE's, I will take TR any day over that shit. Also the game was badass and looked great

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        December 9, 2014 2:57 PM

        I hope this is the most wrong thing you say today.

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        December 9, 2014 2:58 PM

        [deleted]

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        December 9, 2014 2:58 PM

        [deleted]

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        December 9, 2014 3:34 PM

        It was actually technically a very very good port.

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        December 9, 2014 7:56 PM

        I thought the QTE's were terrible. Especially that one where you fall out of the plane cockpit and have to parachute down to the ground. That being said, the graphics were fucking amazing on PC, I don't know what in the goddamn shit you are smoking that you would think otherwise. The port was fine and it was a great game.

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      December 9, 2014 1:15 PM

      Guess I'll be playing it in '16 when it comes to PC. *rabble rabble rabble*

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      December 9, 2014 6:39 PM

      That's actually a good sign that it'll ship on pc later. Microsft published third party games get very very often ported elsewhere after a few months.

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      December 10, 2014 9:36 AM

      Fuck them all. Even if it'll probably come to PC after a while just fuck exclusives.

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