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Phil Spencer: MS will spend money on marketing and developing Rise of the Tomb Raider

I think while we know it is pretty much a timed exclusive, he isn't going to say it's coming out on PS4. It's not his job to do that. It just damages him if he does. Though the vague answers certainly don't help
 
Bgamer90 said:
All of this is really reminding me of the statements MS made for Titanfall back in 2013.

MS wanted it to look like an Xbox One exclusive but people all assumed that it would eventually come to Playstation too (timed exclusive) -- well, until MS paid money for it not to come out on Playstation back in October.
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I imagine full exclusivity for a established IP like Tomb Raider would be extremely expensive considering how badly the brand would be damaged(it's already damaged now).
 
When has it ever been a standard to say when an exclusive deal ends? I remember this discussion back with Splinter Cell.
It was the same thing back then - "exclusive" meant 6 months and it only refereed to console exclusive. That was why Splinter Cell's "only on Xbox" stamp was justified.

They have been going with this terminology every since. It's not news, it's never been news that companies won't commit to statements about ports and sequels and what not before they see how they are doing.


Just think about Rockstar! or Valve! Tons of companies don't give straight answers. Bizarre to see you guys getting so angry at Spence for doing his PR. Maybe he wants to try and reserve exclusive rights permanently should the game do really well. To pay for marketing for the title (often the same as the budget for making the game itself) they must believe in the product. For SE to do it, they must have seen a gain as well.


I don't understand this upset. Like at all. And why ThatGameCompany or Hello Games are exempt because they are small seems like an outlandish idea to me. Having a big studio comes with many more risks and bureaucracy and paperwork. In fact I think it would be easier to go with a straight forward strategy because of much smaller budgets. But even that can't be stereotyped as every deal, company and game is different.


I think what both Microsoft and Sony is fair all things considering. I still think we should have One Console Standard, but since they want to play it like this I think it's a fair way to go about it.
Gaf was also so upset over the FFXIII 360 deal. I just don't understand it. Let the games speak for themselves! I believe they can make a crazy good TR game after the 2013 one. It was the best TR I have ever played.
 
Also does nobody at MS have any degree of foresight at all? They're partially stuck in the mess they are in right now because of their terribly vague PR and communication policy after the X1 unveil and nobody thought that another vague deal like this would be badly received again?
 
DarthWalden said:
I just find this whole thing hilarious...

People are mad because they want Phil Spencer to be straight with them so they can sleep well at night knowing they won't have to buy an xbox to play Tomb Raider.
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Ehhh, I think it's more that they want to know if they're going to be able to play Tomb Raider - full stop.

I doubt many people are seriously considering buying an Xbox just to play TR.
 
QuicheFontaine said:
Ehhh, I think it's more that they want to know if they're going to be able to play Tomb Raider - full stop.

I doubt many people are seriously considering buying an Xbox just to play TR.
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Microsoft is no stranger to betting on the wrong horse. Just look at the state of their entertainment department.
 
Ascenion said:
I dunno anymore, saying help develop implied stuff I'm not sure is even true. I just don't even know anymore. This entire situation is confusing as hell.
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I tend to interpret helping with development as "we're giving them money for the game" and that's about it. If some guy gives me $40 today as I'm walking in to a restaurant, and i spend $40 on dinner, that guy may feel like he funded my dinner even if I was going to have that exact dinner before he gave me money, and was going to pay with my own money. So SE didn't need the money and won't be doing anything fancy with it, but MS is giving them money for the game above and beyond advertising help, and they're phrasing it as help developing because it's money tied directly to the game.
 
Team Vernia said:
What about this one?
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I don't think insomniac are going to go through the trouble of keeping their own IP rights if they aren't planning to move into multiplatform development.

A better question is what AAA IP, that is owned by the developers, has ever stayed exclusive to one platform for more than one title?

Doffen said:
Xbox Got No Exclusives™
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Funny, I could of sworn that I stated 2 and possibly 3 of those games will never see a PS4 release.
 
You know what would make all this go away?

If everyone just went out and bought both a PS4 and an Xbox One. Then we'll ALL get to play the game one way or another.

Come on guys, lezbee friends.
 
Abstruse Moose said:
How I see it:

-It's a temporary timed deal(3-6months).
-After this time it gets released on PS4.
-The deal hinges on the fact that SE isn't allowed to even acknowledge the existence of a PS4 version until after the holidays.
-Everyone thinks it's Xbox only, and therefore buys XB1s to play it.
-If people know they can buy it a few months later on PS4 they'll wait and not buy XB1s
-MS is in full PR mode doing their best to keep people from knowing it'll be on PS4 shortly after launching on XB1.
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Do companies do three-month exclusivity deals? That seems a bit short to me. Are platform holders really willing to get the chequebook out for a three-month window?
 
Abstruse Moose said:
How I see it:

-It's a temporary timed deal(3-6months).
-After this time it gets released on PS4.
-The deal hinges on the fact that SE isn't allowed to even acknowledge the existence of a PS4 version until after the holidays.
-Everyone thinks it's Xbox only, and therefore buys XB1s to play it.
-If people know they can buy it a few months later on PS4 they'll wait and not buy XB1s
-MS is in full PR mode doing their best to keep people from knowing it'll be on PS4 shortly after launching on XB1.
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doesn't this hurt the Xbox image in the long run? people will be less trusting of future announcements much like they are with this one.

is MS going to keep using this tactic in perpetuity due to short memories?
 
Chobel said:
They're only helping developing and marketing Xbox versions.
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Intelligent observation. This might be what they are saying. An exchange of resources, and a willingness to give access to technology in no case means co-developing the game. They -at least according to the words that are being used-, and by they I mean MS, are trying to make sure the game takes advantage of the plateform.
 
Collingwood said:
You know what would make all this go away?

If everyone just went out and bought both a PS4 and an Xbox One. Then we'll ALL get to play the game one way or another.

Come on guys, lezbee friends.
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Having both and being able to play any game does not excuse the past 4 days of Phil Spencer's messages.
 
How could two of the biggest names in gaming handle the reveal of one of the more well known series in gaming so poorly? This thing's such a mess and we know eff all about the game so far to boot.

Collingwood said:
You know what would make all this go away?

If everyone just went out and bought both a PS4 and an Xbox One. Then we'll ALL get to play the game one way or another.

Come on guys, lezbee friends.
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If we all had PS4s and Xbox Ones we'd still have preferences and be annoyed as hell that we're not sure which copy of the game we could buy and when.
 
Abstruse Moose said:
How I see it:

-It's a temporary timed deal(3-6months).
-After this time it gets released on PS4.
-The deal hinges on the fact that SE isn't allowed to even acknowledge the existence of a PS4 version until after the holidays.
-Everyone thinks it's Xbox only, and therefore buys XB1s to play it.
-If people know they can buy it a few months later on PS4 they'll wait and not buy XB1s
-MS is in full PR mode doing their best to keep people from knowing it'll be on PS4 shortly after launching on XB1.
Click to expand...


Similar with D3.. The D3 XB1 version was not confirmed until some months ago.
 
El-Pistolero said:
Intelligent observation. This might be what they are saying. An exchange of resources, and a willingness to give access to technology in no case means co-developing the game. They -at least according to the words that are being used-, and by they I mean MS, are trying to make sure the game takes advantage of the plateform.
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yap, if ms are willing to send over devs to help with the xbox one version of destiny, they will certainly help with a game that they have an exclusivity agreement with. they did the same for ryse, dr3 and sunset overdrive
 
Marcel said:
They're watching that drinking bird or maybe counting the number of cars that pass by their building. Hell, maybe even sometimes the boss orders pizza and they all eat quietly as they go back to their desks and think about what could have been.
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Have you seen the show Silicon Valley? All the outcast employees at Hooley just hung out on lawn chairs on the roof together and grilled food and stuff all day. I like to imagine that's what the Rare team is like right now.
 
BruiserBear said:
It's weird how people feel this sense of entitlement to know the inner workings of deals like this.



Dead Rising 3 will be arriving on PC more than 9 months after it arrived on XB1.
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And I'll be happy to wait even longer when it's $10 on Steam. Well, as long as it doesn't have any of that GFWL funny business.

Neuromancer said:
Have you seen the show Silicon Valley? All the outcast employees at Hooley just hung out on lawn chairs on the roof together and grilled food and stuff. I wonder if Rare is like that right now.
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The World Cup was probably a high point for Rare. The most amount of activity and enthusiasm seen in that office for a while.
 
Its not that similar is MS published DR3 and not TR.
 
Developing probably just means sending the tech team in. Still baffles me how the whole story can be seen as a clusterfuck. They are all over the internet. Nobody talks about the games Sony announced anymore, it's all about Tomb Raider. Mission complete for PR, no matter how exclusive it is. MS hasn't had that much publicity since the TV TV TV announcement.
 
So.....this is either a Titanfall/Dead Rising 3 case (where Square/CD needed the money/support/ect to finish development of the game) or a Plants vs. Zombies GW deal (where they just pushed it as a 'Timed' Exclusive' for a few months then a while latter it comes to PS platforms)?

......Man, if they could JUST be a bit clearer on this thing, people wouldn't be so upset X(. If it is the former deal, I can't see why people would be mad. The game will be finished and be release instead of just dying away, so it being only on X1/PC isn't that bad :). If it is the latter though, then just say 'First on Xbox' to not confuse people; it will come to X1/360 first then 4-6 or so months latter land on PS3/PS4.

Just so stupid how this is being handled :(. I'm indifferent on the whole matter here (as I'm not a huge TR fan and didn't love the reboot; gameplay was great but the story was just.....horrible X() but I can fully get how people are pissed about this whole deal. The lack of clear dialog between Microsoft, Square/CD and the consumer is completely off.....making this more of a big deal then it really is :l.
 
I hope you didn't exert yourself signing that check, Phil Spencer. Lazy. How's your 1st party looking BTW?
 
Seems like the same consumers that were too stupid to understand Microsoft's amazing DRM system have crawled out from under their rocks of ignorance and are kamikaze'ing Phil Spencer's clear and unminced message as to the pertinent details of Tomb Raider's exclusivity.

There's no i in obfuscation, but there most definitely is a u.

For shame, gamers.
 
Mike Works said:
Seems like the same consumers that were too stupid to understand Microsoft's amazing DRM system have crawled out from under their rocks of ignorance and are kamikaze'ing Phil Spencer's clear and unminced message as to the pertinent details of Tomb Raider's exclusivity.

There's no i in obfuscation, but there most definitely is a u.

For shame, gamers.
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there is an i in "I Believe in Phil Spencer" tho lol
 
The situation has been pretty much a clusterfuck for Spencer.
He STILL refuses to give a straight answer (ex "the game will be released first on Xbox" or "this particular game in the Tomb Raider series will be totally Xbox exclusive") stating that the details of the deal are between them and Square Enix. But that is totally stupid...what were they thinking? That people weren't going to ask? That all the fans would just go out buying their console? :D LOL. The industry these days works at a new level of transparency towards the customers that they seem not to have catched up with. Multiplatform games are pretty much the standard and if you're announcing a deal you have to say what the deal is about ("first on", "only on", and so on).
They won't run away making people believe that it's permanent exclusive to try to make the Tomb Raider fans buying an Xbox One...it's just deception. And if the deal was based on such premise...the thing already failed after 24 hours.
Just say that your deal is first on Xbox and let people decide if buying an Xbox is worth to play the game earlier. Or just say it with no ambiguity that this game won't appear on other platforms like they said it with Titanfall when they changed their deal from timed to total exclusive.
 
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