14 DAY TRIAL // One of the biggest announcements coming from the Microsoft press conference at Gamescom 2014 was that Rise of the Tomb Raider, the game from developer Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix, would be exclusively launched on the Xbox One in 2015.
Since then, the company has nuanced its position, saying that the exclusivity is linked to a certain time period, but the announcement still means that a big franchise has abandoned the PlayStation 4 for the time being.
Phil Spencer, one of the executives guiding the Xbox One towards the future, tells Eurogamer that the choice to bring the Rise of the Tomb Raider experience to the Microsoft platform is linked to the fact that Uncharted is a PlayStation exclusive.
He explains that “I'm a big fan of Uncharted and I wish we had an action adventure game of that ilk. We've started some, and we've looked at them. But we don't have one today of that quality. This is an opportunity.”
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End will be launched on the PlayStation 4 at some point in 2015 and Naughty Dog is handling the development process.
The Rise of the Tomb Raider exclusivity announcement was greeted with some pretty nasty comments by the fans of the series, but Spencer says that his company never aims to hurt gamers in any way.
He adds, “I'm not trying to push gaming down on any other platform. Clearly, I'm not going to invest in something to make games great on other platforms. Windows stuff I will. But not on stuff on other consoles. That's 101. This wasn't an attack against anybody else. It was an opportunity that came up for us that fit really well.”
Rise of the Tomb Raider will tell the story of Lara Croft as she becomes the adventurer that gamers love while dealing with the trauma of the previous events in her life.
Camilla Luddington is at the moment contributing both motion capture and voice work for the character, and the core narrative is being written by Rhianna Pratchett, although limited details are offered at the moment.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End will be the final title that will star Nathan Drake and will allow fans of the series to see him, after retiring from criminal life, moving across the globe in order to find the secret of a pirate’s treasure while also making sure that all his closest friends are safe from a mysterious threat.