I think the sales are so bad, where as they might usually go into working on a sequel, this may have jeopardised the entire franchise. Reviews don't pay for a sequel to be funded, sales do and at the moment sales are poor and potential future sales have also been jeopardised.

They may have been a great plan of going up against Uncharted and creating a big buzz in addition on piggy backing on Uncharteds hype, but that didn't happen. They put all their eggs in one basket and royally got their asses handed to them.

The game has been given away for free in bundles and been discounted within a few weeks of launch and it still failed to do good in sales. For a big franchise, that's really concerning.

I know there are hopes of making money back on the PC and PS4, but if you look at the games being released in 2016, they are in for a tough fight. I don't know of a single PC or PS4 gamer that is willing to pay full price on a 6-12 month old game.

As for what money MS gave, I don't think they covered the bulk of development costs or even half. If they did, SE wouldn't have done the panic release of a statement they did giving away the release dates on other platforms

I think him being Square Enix's head of product development and Western Studios does rather put him in the direct firing line of those execs who negotiated the RoTR deal. According to that announcement he was much more than just the head of CD and would thus have the "I was only following orders defence".

It's always curious timing when an exec leaves soon after a game launches with lower than expected sales performance. If he was a major player at SE in favour of the RoTR deal then he deserves to jump before he's pushed. But if he's not the main culprit then he's being scapegoated and thus he's as much of a victim of an awful decision as Lara herself. But unlike Lara who never actually gets raped in the game, this guy may well have taken one up the arse so that the higher ups could deflect their own accountability for the worst exclusivity deal of the 8th generation.

Even if this guy was a major force behind the deal, he may have written the agreement, but it was the SE board that decided it was a good deal and agreed to sign. Responsibility for failed major business decisions rest at the top, not the middle. If this guy oversaw the production of a crap game that earned a 45 metascore, then he would be responsible for making a shit product. But that's not what happened here. He made a genuine GOTY contender and you can't ask for more than that from the development studio.

He never should have written that condecending blogpost when the exclusivity was announced

I hope the new guys want to revive Legacy of Kain franchise :P
Then i can die in peace

There is strong indication that Crystal Dynamics approached the deal to MS and then pitched it to Square Enix. All parties are guilty!

Also I'm sure it was the developer who first announced it was X1 exclusive 

So they got their just desserts! 

The first part of that last paragraph isn't exactly true.  With a company as big as Square, it is common and necessary that the heads look to the more informed middle to give guidance.  So the question really is whether he was that informed guy who championed it.  If he came to the heads of Square with the deal and they asked him if it was a good deal and he sold him on it, than yeah it's all on him since he should know better.  But we don't know so making drama out of something we don't know isn't really a productive discussion.

I think his departure has more to do with several titles, than just the Tomb Raider deal.

Just Cause 3 - Buggy mess on several platforms, Horrible "win an Island" promotion

Life is Strange - How were sales numbers?

Hitman - Initial release Dec 2015, Delayed until March 2016 , Also received bad press about it's plan to launch content, while not having alot initially, but charging full price.

Deus Ex - Initial release Feb 2016, Delayed until august 2016. Also received bad press for it's Preorder tier rewards system.

Sounds like the Company was not hitting deadlines, and garnering bad press for numerous games before launch could have done him in.

Just my opinion...

Well, the timing fits. The decision to take the deal with MS and to set it's release date probably cost SE a good chunk of change and someone on their side of the decision had to own up for that. Was anyone else that was in a position to make those kinds of decisions let go or stepped down?