More puzzling than a tomb: why announce Rise of the Tomb Raider's PS4 release now?
Those of us with the DualShock 4 close to our hearts rejoiced this morning when Square Enix finally announced that Rise of the Tomb Raider is really making its way to the PS4.But don’t get your joysticks in a twist. It won’t be until holiday 2016.
Those of us with the DualShock 4 close to our hearts rejoiced this morning when Square Enix finally announced that Rise of the Tomb Raider is really making its way to the PS4.
But don’t get your joysticks in a twist. It won’t be until holiday 2016.
Sure, we knew it wasn’t going to be any time relatively soon (though PC users are getting it in “early 2016”), but why did Square Enix choose now to reveal the date before it got its exclusive first appearance on Xbox? Not set to release until November 10, why did the company decide against waiting until after it released to drop the news?
Perhaps preorder sales so far for the title are not up to Square’s liking. While Lara faces some stiff competition on her big day, Square has previously expressed disappointment when the original Tomb Raider reboot sold 3.4 million in its first month after release.
Those of us who have the luxury of owning both a PS4 and an Xbox One may have not thought twice about Lara’s latest adventure, cautiously waiting to see what would become of the exclusivity deal Microsoft and Square agreed upon. However, now seeing as the title won’t be Sony’s until the end of 2016, Square’s motive may be to finally push some gamers to take the plunge this year and get the game on the Xbox One now.
On the other hand, it’s possible the date for Rise of the Tomb Raider’s PS4 release has only recently been finalized. Since its reveal at E3 last year, seemingly every gaming event has had ambiguous statements where both Square and Microsoft failed to comment on what kind of exclusivity the title would have, something that we are now fully aware of. Maybe they didn’t truly know themselves until now, and maybe it was part of the agreement that they had to announce it before Rise of the Tomb Raider released on Xbox One. After all, Square clearly wants to sell as many copies as they can.
But with such a jam-packed fall up ahead, could this new reveal actually hurt Rise of the Tomb Raider selling on Xbox One?
With so much to play already from September on, some gamers may decide a year is actually not that long in the scheme of things, and will just decide to play Fallout 4, Battlefront, and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate instead this holiday season, simply waiting another year until Rise of the Tomb Raider arrives on PS4 to tackle another tomb or two.
It may be up to time to tell for the answer to this one, but let us know below what your theory behind Square Enix revealing Rise of the Tomb Raider’s PS4 release date is.