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Aaron Greenberg: We feel Rise of the Tomb Raider will stand on its own vs Fallout

Starts around the 14:18 mark where he's asked about any concerns about the same launch date & the game getting overshadowed or sales cannabilized: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-5Z_7yM_5o

Here's a write-up of it:

“We worked closely with a lot of our internal studios, for example with Halo launching. And we talked with Crystal on Tomb Raider. The challenge is that you have to look at the production schedule. You want to make sure that you don’t rush the game so that it’s not done or of high quality. That is always the number one priority. The challenge with Tomb Raider is if you go a week later you're against Star Wars Battlefront, if you go a week earlier you'll be against Call of Duty Black Ops 3 and if you go two weeks earlier you're against Halo. And then you go late and then you're like well, the consumer doesn't have any money left to buy the game so there wasn’t a better scenario for us except that was the week it was not going head to head against Call of Duty or Star Wars Battlefront. We felt like the Fallout audience-they are not direct competitors per se, but you are right, it’s two big, big titles launching at the same time and we hope people will buy both.”

We're first party so we know our dates are, most teams pick their dates not knowing what else is going to be there. And once you know then would you rather launch against Call of Duty, Star Wars or Fallout? So you just got to launch and stick with the date and feel confident that the game still stand up and we believe it will. It's a fantastic title.”


There's a lot more in the interview as well. Discusses the holiday lineup, Halo 5, Rare Replay, sales, etc.
 
Given the choice of those three games, FO4 is def. the best choice to launch against. Still going to get crushed, though.
 
Well seeing as they're two vastly different games with virtually nothing in common - I'd say they're sure to stand on their own too.
 

Starfield

Member
this is what's going to happen with Tomb Raider (sadly)

tumblr_nu62vxkSl71tz9itio1_400.gif



but I think sales will go at their highest around christmas time
 

Krakn3Dfx

Member
Greenberg'd

I'm sure TR will do fine, but yeah, 11/10 is all about the Fallout 4 for me personally. TR is a 2016 title for me regardless of platform.
 
Also unrelated but he said Rare Replay greatly exceeded expectations, as did Gears, both selling out week 1...I thought that was interesting
 

Begaria

Member
I think it was an unfortunate coincidence that Rise of the Tomb Raider got squeezed in between two big games and then lands on the same date as Fallout 4. I don't think Microsoft said to themselves, "Perfect, let's launch our timed exclusive with our biggest marketing deal this holiday. Nothing could possibly go wrong."
 

Yurikerr

This post isn't by me, it's by a guy with the same username as me.
Pretty good answer by Greenberg, i agree that it was the "less-worst" possibility.
 

ps3ud0

Member
I personally don't understand why they would place it against another Xbox-marketed game.

Perhaps Im failing to see how TR is more like COD and Battlefront than it is like the SP orientated Fallout 4. Its a tough schedule no doubt...

ps3ud0 8)
 
Will probably be a great game that's overshadowed by this holiday's monster releases and a lack of presence on other platforms.
 
I'm still wondering what Square-Enix biz plan is. They undersold on all the consoles. Now it's some sort or staggered release on less platforms.
 
I don't disagree.

The problem is that there are, most likely, not enough Tomb Raider fans versus Fallout and Halo fans on the XB1 alone.

My buddy played TR2013 and has had Lara tattooed on his arm ever since. This guy loves Tomb Raider and can't wait to play RotTR.

But not before he sinks 400 hours into Fallout 4 and perfects Halo 5.
 

blakep267

Member
The audiences aren't remotely similar so I can see him being right. More casual fans would probably choose Tomb raider by name recognition of the last one That's not saying fallout is gonna do bad. But I don't see them overlapping audiences
 

RE_Player

Member
I was curious about this so I asked at my local EB Games how pre-orders were doing for Tomb Raider compared to Fallout 4 or anything for that matter. The guy at the register said they weren't that great. Now that is totally just one store and could be different everywhere else around the world.

I think it will perform well enough to chart but it won't be incredible in long term sales. Hope I'm wrong because it would be a shame for this rebooted franchise to be dead after two games.
 

Kezen

Banned
Well the two games are different in nature so I don't see how Fallout 4 will cannibalize Tomb Raider sales.
 
I really hope Rise of the Tomb Raider does well, but Fallout 4 is definitely going to make a dent in potential sales unfortunately.

People who only have $60 to spend on 11/10 are more than likely going to choose Fallout 4. But there is definitely some people who would choose Tomb Raider over Fallout 4.
 

notworksafe

Member
Well I will be buying Tomb Raider day one and won't be buying Fallout at all, but I already know I'm an extreme minority.
 
I think it should have gone against Call of Duty, personally. I don't think those two fan bases overlap as much as Fallout and Tomb Raider's do.
 

hawk2025

Member
Just hard to time, really.

I suspect they would have loved to release it in early October, but it was maybe cutting it too close to be ready in time.
 

Klossen

Banned
Man, I feel sort of bad for SE and Crystal Dynamics. They probably thought they were doing the deal of the century, avoiding Uncharted's cannibalization on PS4 all while getting Microsoft to help you out making the game. And then Uncharted 4 gets delayed and all that is ruined. Now they have to compete with UC4 on PS4 anyways and they miss a relatively slow Christmas for PS4 while competing against the likes of Halo on Xbone. Bias of hindsight and all.

Can you not release in December?
Do games not sell well then or something?
December is Just Cause 3, another SE title. They'll want to avoid internal competition.
 

Begaria

Member
I'm still wondering what Square-Enix biz plan is. They undersold on all the consoles. Now it's some sort or staggered release on less platforms.

Considering Microsoft is the publisher for Rise of the Tomb Raider on Xbox 360 and Xbox One, it'll be Microsoft taking the possible hit on the sales of those particular versions. Square Enix is publishing the PC and PS4 versions. It'll actually be less financial stress on Square Enix.
 

Vire

Member
They maybe could have done a Friday release instead and avoided everything. But I'm not sure how much of a difference that would make.
 
What are they thinking? Bumping the game even a week or two to get away from the "5 million day one" games has always done wonders for the Far Cry franchise.
 

Shabad

Member
Well, if it does blows, they will have another shot at this when it launches on PC. And another one when it launches on PS4.
 
I think he's right. Tomb raider has it's own fans and i actually put it before Fallout in my wanted list.

Yes, but most of them are on PC and PS4. Regardless I don't think the date matters much. Most people already know what games they plan to buy this Fall so unless it was getting delayed to 2016 its fate was sealed.
 

jackdoe

Member
I'd believe him if it didn't seem like MS was pushing Fallput harder than TR.
At this point, it feels like they're pushing Black Ops 3 and Battlefront harder than Rise of the Tomb Raider, or at least it does based on the Xbox One dashboard. Honestly, it's headscratching that their largest third party exclusive has a bundle that's exclusive to Best Buy and the Microsoft Store.
 
This moneyhatting exclusives did not work out for Respawn (to my knowledge) and I hope that the next Tomb Raider (assuming there is one
I hope
) will be a simultaneous release. I do not own an Xbone and plan to get a PS4 so I guess I will be waiting....
 
Well seeing as they're two vastly different games with virtually nothing in common - I'd say they're sure to stand on their own too.

But if you only have enough cash for one, and you wanted to play both of them, which one would you choose? And Battlefront is right around the corner riding the Star Wars hype.
 

ironcreed

Banned
Both for me, but I will be playing Rise of the Tomb Raider first. The game looks way too good to put on the backburner.
 
I think after this week, it's going to be a change of marketing to include Tomb Raider in their heavy tv spots.

did the launch trailer already release? lol
 

hawk2025

Member
Considering Microsoft is the publisher for Rise of the Tomb Raider on Xbox 360 and Xbox One, it'll be Microsoft taking the possible hit on the sales of those particular versions. Square Enix is publishing the PC and PS4 versions. It'll actually be less financial stress on Square Enix.

We don't know the details of the contract. I highly doubt that SE took a one-time payment for all Xbox-related releases and is not incurring at least partially on the risk of the release, especially given the impact it inevitably has on sales of other platforms.
 
I was planning on getting both but now I'm a little burnt out on the genre after Uncharted Collection. We'll see.

Too bad they couldn't have released earlier, like over the summer or earlier this month.
 

Boke1879

Member
I think after this week, it's going to be a change of marketing to include Tomb Raider in their heavy tv spots.

did the launch trailer already release? lol

I've seen their Holiday ad that includes TR, Gears, Halo and Forza during TWD but that's about it really.
 
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