Spencer confirms: Tomb Raider deal "has a duration" (also cross gen)

[binary solo]

KylieDog said:

binary solo said:

The obfuscation is too strong for RTR to be a permaexclusive. If it was a permaexclusive then Spencer would have said it outright. Because from a MS perspective a permaexclusive is hugely good news, and even more if it's for all mainline sequels and not something you would want to obfuscate around. Phil's response is entirely consistent with a "yes the game will likely come to PS4 and PC but hell if I'm going to come out and actually say that to anyone" response.

Phil's ok, and he's probably got as close to confirming future releases on competing platforms as he's allowed to do as a MS PR schill. So I'm not going to criticise what he's said here. It's what's been said in the preceding 24 has that merits a lot of criticism.

RIght now the vast majority of the TR fanbase is trashing anything releated about the game, confirming full exclusive will just make it worse.  By being vague and misleading he hopes to get the TR community on the games side so they spread positive word of it.  The press release for the game said they want non-Xbone owners to join in the promotion, but it got edited out because it was insulting them even further.

You know how utterly ridiculous that sounds? Make vague statements with the intention of misleading people into thinking RTR exclusivity is of limited duration so that at launch they can pull the rug out from under the hopes and dreams of PC and PS TR fans expecting that will go down much better with gamers than being up front, transparent and honest with everyone right now. Yeah that seems like a really sound marketing strategy.

Look if the game was a permanent exclusive for Xbox, honest Abe Phil Spencer would have said so. There is no universe in which hiding that information is better for either company involved or for the sales potential of the game.

If Mass Effect 1 can come to PS3 as a standalone game (even if only digital) then on  the basis of Phil' statement of them not having bought TR outright means MS does not have RTR locked down. It doesn't mean RTR will come to PS4 because that's a decision for SE not MS, but it does mean the door is open for SE if they want to walk through it. 

I'll be so bold as to say it is guaranteed to be on PC because that won't have strings attached. Sony will want to extract a pound of flesh from SE for it to go on PS4 so SE will have pros and cons to weigh up. But I don't there is any credibility to the assertion that MS has a hold over the game beyond 12 months after launch, and it could be as brief as 31 Dec 2015.