it's a calculation from SE, most third parties are probably aware that MS is willing to pay a lot of money to compensate for their lack of proper studios... they cannot differenciate by offering better exclusives, so they have that.

My guess is they paid quite a lot to have exclusivity on a well known IP like this one (obvisouly it's not COD or Battlefield) ...

I find this morally dubious, but I get why business people do this, it takes the risk out of the development phase for the publisher and the platform holder gets something to parade their console with (but what if the project gets delayed? penalties?)

Funny, I remember playing playing Tomb Raider 2 on PC at the same time as PS players

Plus, it's not 1997 anymore. If the internet was as big back then as it is now I'm sure Sega fans would be complaining just as much, although there weren't that many Saturn fans anyway.

I have no idea why and don't really even care. Looking forward to playing the game though. ^_^

There could be a ton of reasons for console (timed) exclusive...

How about...

Tomb Raider development was behind schedule but they wanted to ship during holiday 2015. By partnering with MS, getting their marketing dollars, and by parking other versions they gained the resources necessary to finish Tomb Raider on time.

Oh... Sorry, that would just be logical, and would not involve a large conspiracy or a reason to blame MS for this apparent sin.

wow.... WOW... STOP IT!

Seriously what is wrong with you? Let those internet forum experts copy/paste some random tables, statistics, speculations/assumption about the deal and come out with their expert point of view before to bring some common sense and/or logical thinking into the picture.

Sir, you are just boring and ruining all the fun! Damn you!

Because Microsoft is full of money and desperate, a timed exclusive is not something that important... I mean, seriously PS4 players aren't able to wait some months to play the new Tomb Raider ?

Phil Spencer admitted that it was because they have no anwser for Uncharted next year, they wish they had Uncharted, they couldn't make uncharted while trying to make uncharted and failed and Tomb Raider was Uncharteds competition for that period soooooooooooooooooo MS showed Square Enix their greatest first party in house studio...Make it  Rain studios.

I predicted in a previous thread before I got banned that MS would say it was because they had no Uncharted and they did it exactly as I said it. Its amazing that I ended up being right the last couple times I was banned. Anyone who thinks I cannot predict Microsofts movements from this point forward really needs to stop taking my ability to analyze their movement lightly.

Vindication. :)

Yeah Sony said it couldn't go to any other consoles - basically, a console exclusive.

And the internet was big in 1997! In fact, here is a thread that took place May 1997 in regards to the exclusive deal:

Thread Title: TOMB RAIDER II : VERY BAD NEWS !!!!!!!!!!!!!! posted on May 23, 1997

Is there any body who have more news about the behaviour of Sony who want to have all the rights for TOMBRAIDER 2 ? See http://www.next-generation.com/news/052297a.chtml

Tomb Raider 2 PlayStation Exclusive? If Sony gets its way, Tomb Raider 2 may only beavailable on PlayStation. 

May 21, 1997

According to well-placed sources within Sony, a deal over playStation exclusivity for Tomb Raider 2 is in progress. f Sony is successful in convincing Eidos to make Tomb Raider 2 a PlayStation exclusive, it would be a major  feather in Sony's cap, rivaling the coup it made in securing Final Fantasy VII. The deal has not yet been finalized but is supposedly nearing completion.  Eidos refused to confirm or deny the allegation. Said a spokesperson: "At this time Eidos is still exploring all of  its options with Tomb Raider 2." Should an agreement be struck, it would only be for console exclusivity and would not affect the PC version of the game. 

REPLY ON MAY 23, 1997: Read the WHOLE article.  Whatever happens with SONY is exclusive to the CONSOLE market and WILL NOT affect the PC release. EIDOS/CORE would be cutting their own throats if they didn't make a PC version of this game.  Tomb Raider is probably responsible for more 3Dfx sales than any other title.

As an owner of a PSX I hope SONY gets the exlusive rights.  I hate it when a game has to suffer in quality so they can port it down to SATURN, etc. Fortunately they did a complete rewrite on the original so the PSX looked great and the Saturn looked "okay".

Of course 3Dfx PC blew all the consoles away.

REPLY ON MAY 23, 1997: IF THIS HAPPENS...... I will personally   W R E A K   Every playstation at the nearby  BEST BUY (or similar)  store.   SONY

SUCKS   BIG TIME !!!

REPLY ON MAY 24, 1997: What I can't figure out is why is this an issue. Everyone knows the Saturn is dying in terms of software support for next year and the Nintendo probably couldn't fit all the textures needed on a cart.

Rob Merritt

http://www.jagunet.com/~robertm

REPLY ON MAY 28, 1997: I hate this kind of crap.  Does anyone actually go out and buy a console machine just because it's the only system that has a certain game?  I certainly don't.  There are almost always plenty of games to suit me on the systems I *do* have. (BTW - FF7 will be ported to Win95 a few months after the PSX release, perhaps the same will happen to TR2.)

Sony had shares in square around that time and much like Eidos Sony was giving them CD roms and helping them. Square had also chosen Sony as the platform of choice instead of Nintendo for Final Fantasy because of CD Roms. Sega had theirs but Sony had been actively working with many development houses and using their assets as a hardware manufacturer to help with ease of coding and format for peoples games. Sega at that time was trying the patience of third party by rushing the launch of the Saturn leaving third party confused.

"Smith was playing the game an hour before the PlayStation version went to Sony, when Lara fell off a ledge and he couldn't get her back up. "If Sony found a bug it would b nuclear here, but we're almost there." Then they found that they'd sent out thousands of demo CD-ROMs with the copy-protection timers already expired, making then unplayable. Then they went nuclear. Fortunately, someone came up with a patch, and they recalled the discs to make the fix. That's par for the course in the high-stakes world of game design, says Adrian's brother and managing director Jeremy Smith. "You're working under pressure to meet deadlines, an somehow you forget to take out one line of code. Still, it could have been worse. It could have gone out to the whole game," he laughs."

http://web.archive.org/web/20050425124945/http://www.cubeit.com/ctimes/news0094a.htm

From your link

"Given the worldwide domination of the PlayStation system, it's a natural for Eidos to partner with Sony Computer Entertainment America and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe," said Mike McGarvey, chief operating officer, Eidos Interactive. "We want our best-selling franchise to reach the greatest number of consumers and the PlayStation and its powerful CD-ROM software format satisfies this demand.

If Sony continues to dominate this gen they will get exclusives by default. Much like it says here from the link you posted. 

What you're complaining about is nothing, but i'll give you one:

GTA Trilogy timed exclusivity  for the PS2 era. Ones one major moneyhat of all time. Still nothing compared to all the times MS has moneyhatted since they joined the industry, but its Sony's worst and it will never ever get worse than that.

Perfect