14 DAY TRIAL // Just as soon as Eidos made the long awaited announcement that Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Anniversary was to launch on June 5, gamers and gaming sites worldwide began to ask themselves why they hadn't announced it for the Xbox 360 as well. After all, Legend not only saw a 360 port, but did quite good too. Fortunately, an ESRB listing along with Eidos' official word confirmed Anniversary for the 360, but as downloadable chunks via XBLA in September, while the retail disc is due later this year. However, the fact that 360 owners wanting the XBLA downloadable Lara have to own Legend is strange for at least one reason.
Why? Why do Xbox 360 gamers, keen on getting a glimpse at Lara on their machines from Microsoft, have to own Tomb Raider Legend? 1UP asked Eidos the same question. Here's the company's answer:
"This route was chosen because it was the fastest way to enable the product to come to market. Our original plan was to release Anniversary on PlayStation and PC only as these were the formats that historically Lara had been closely associated with, but when we announced this, the demand for a 360 version was absolutely phenomenal," a company spokesperson told the site.
And they didn't see that demand before announcing it for the two platforms, huh...? OK, we believe that, but then why would Xbox 360 gamers need Legend. The real answer is quite simple really. Although Microsoft has recently made possible the downloading of larger files via XBLA, it's still not possible to download a full game the size of Anniversary. However, using independently executable downloads that attach to a game's prequel (or something of the sort) allows developers and publishers to release it faster.
This is surely the case with having to own Legend. But then another question arises: are Xbox 360 gamers going to have a Legend-looking Tomb Raider Anniversary? Probably? As the site mentioned above points out, Eidos admits that an Xbox 360 version was a recent decision. Given they had little time for development, gamers can indeed expect a "Legend-style visual upgrade or simply a port of the PC version?"
Anyway, those who aren't in a hurry or don't want to spoil their own fun will surely have the original later this year, on a disc. Let's hope that predictions concerning Legend are wrong though.