• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Microsoft paid 100 million USD for Tomb Raider timed exclusivity

Connxtion

Member
The helped pay for development of the game. There would have been no new Tomb Raider without the deal 🤷‍♂️

edit:

added quote from polygon article.
Now we have an idea of how Microsoft secured that arrangement: The company supported the 2013 reboot's vision when others didn't, said Square Enix's Phil Rogers in an interview with Game Informer.

Rogers, the CEO of Square Enix in the Americas and Europe, suggested to Game Informer that the direction of developer Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider reboot was a contentious issue within Square Enix.
 
Last edited:

Aion002

Member
bear grylls bad decision GIF by NETFLIX
 

Kuranghi

Member
That does sound fucking insane, surely that can't be true. It didn't really sell that well on Xbox One when compared to the PC release according to a quick google search, which said, the PC version sold 3x as many as the Xbox version at launch.

The helped pay for development of the game. There would have been no new Tomb Raider without the deal 🤷‍♂️

Yeah that makes more sense, do you mean there wouldn't have been a sequel to the 2013 reboot or just no reboot at all?
 

Plantoid

Member
Well they didn't had lots of studios back then, and everyone knows that exclusives sell.

It's not like 100m is a lot of money for M$, also, if timed exclusives were shit, Sony wouldn't do it too
 
Last edited:

Connxtion

Member
At the time they had no exclusives and Tomb raider brand was larger than it is now. Still over paid but not shocking. Imagine hoe much Sony is paying for FF16...these things aren't cheap.
 

Boss Mog

Member
Remember when the XB1 was announced they boasted about a $500M partnership with the NFL. Nothing really ever came of it either. Such wasted money...
 
Last edited:

Connxtion

Member
That does sound fucking insane, surely that can't be true. It didn't really sell that well on Xbox One when compared to the PC release according to a quick google search, which said, the PC version sold 3x as many as the Xbox version at launch.



Yeah that makes more sense, do you mean there wouldn't have been a sequel to the 2013 reboot or just no reboot at all?
No reboot as it was having issue after issue and no one wanted to help 🤷‍♂️ According to articles.
 

Moonjt9

Member
It makes me wonder just what kind of money MS and Sony are throwing around for times exclusives. Getting games on Gamepass day one cannot be cheap if these are the prices we are looking at. No wonder devs would jump at the chance. It basically pays for the entire production of the game.
 

JimboJones

Member
Always thought it was a weird get for them back then, decent game but Tomb Raider was well past the point of being relevent as some cultural icon that really catches the attention of people.
 
Last edited:
SE went laughing all the way to the bank. MS basically bankrolled the entire dev budget plus some marketing with that, if true.

MS would have been much better served paying for a 3rd party studio like Epic to make an exclusive game.
 

Boss Mog

Member
That wasn't just the Xbox. It was an overall Microsoft partnership that still exists. They still use Surface tablets on the sidelines and Xbox gets the Madden marketing rights.
Yeah I get it but it didn't really have much to do with the XB1 yet they made a huge deal about it at the unveiling event.
 

Withnail

Member
My understanding is these deals aren't done in cash but it will be the platform holder providing various activities/discounts/marketing etc which they value at $100m.
 
I've read the Linkedin and it states multiple deals including the Tomb Raider exclusivity for $100 million. So not just Tomb Raider alone.
Where did you read that? The Linked-in page doesn't say that. It specifically says she was instrumental in negotiating the 100m Tomb Raider deal with MS.
 

Kuranghi

Member
No reboot as it was having issue after issue and no one wanted to help 🤷‍♂️ According to articles.

Ta, I love metroid-likes but I do wish they had focused more on the tomb puzzles in 2013 reboot, thats my TR jam and I miss it from these new ones. The puzzles just kinda solve themselves through you doing everything you can, which is very limited. I dropped Rise after 10 hours due to being so irritated with the story/characters. I'm told SotTR is better with regards to tombs but I still never find time to play it despite getting it for free on PS5.
 

Chukhopops

Member
Deals worth 100M = including marketing costs, operational costs etc. I guess you can say MS paid 100M for the game but they didn’t pay 100M to SE in my opinion.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Going by what was being said at the time.

Yeah dont go by PR. Look at the dates. August 2015. 3 months before launch. The deal was signed in july. 4 months before launch. The game was done.

Here is Phil saying he bought the exclusivity because he didnt have an action adventure game to go up with U4 that year. U4 ended up getting delayed but this was an answer to it.

In part is it about having an answer to Uncharted 4? The comparison between the last Tomb Raider and Uncharted has been made.

Phil Spencer:
Totally. 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.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom