Rage of the Tomb Raider and Why You Should Care.

I don't like exclusives. I don't mean the games themselves but the fact that they are limited to one system. Exclusives are made, and thought up primarily to sell the system they're made for. The direct implication of the console manufacturer into the development process is often a positive thing as the game is better optimized and takes full advantage of the hardware at it's disposal. Also some great IP's were born as exclusives and some even managed to become gaming icons that will stand the test of time (HALO, God of War, Super Mario).

So why hate exclusives? Well for starters most of them don't live up to the hype generated around them by the corporations that are more interested in numbers than customer satisfaction.

Secondly a by-product of exclusives is the fan-boy. The guy that, among other things, buys a game just because it's exclusive to his console regardless of the actual quality of the title. And worst still, defends it's name valiantly on forums and social networks against objective and honest criticism with illogical and unfounded and highly questionable remarks that make sense only to him and of course to others like him. He just makes us look bad. I know, I used to be one.

And third, why we waste time arguing about witch system has the better hardware or the best games, the corporate big wigs cheer us on while shoving digital crap down our throats in exchange for our money and more important our loyalty which they really don't deserve.

There is one thing I hate more than exclusives though, and that's timed exclusives. Why? Because the idea that a game that was designed and developed to be enjoyed by everyone changes direction just because some company who had nothing to do with the creative or financial process drops millions of dollars on some publisher's desk really bothers me. Forget about creative, and not to mention moral, integrity. But hey that's business right? If you don't like it tough luck right?

Normally I let stuff like this slip by me and ignore the game altogether. If this was about some new IP made by some long forgotten developer. But it's not. This is about Lara Croft, this is about ten year'old me drooling over her exaggerated square boobs. This is about the guys that bought all the games with the words Tomb Raider on the cover even when the series was utter garbage. Tomb Raider is one of the biggest gaming icons in history. And for Square Enix to sell Lara off like some kind of cheap prostitute pisses me off. Reading the lame and complaisant statement made by the head of Crystal Dynamics only manages to infuriate me further. I won't soil these pages with that garbage so if you want to read about it you can Google it. It's all over the place by now.

Not only this managed to enrage the fans of the franchise but financially speaking it's a really dumb move. Microsoft in all it's "wisdom" a company that forgot how to make games and now just goes around buying them, thinks this will sell their console. That's not going to happen for two reasons.

One, everybody knows this is time limited so everybody that's left wanting the game will probably pick it up months later for their preferred system.
Two, the 5 million that did but the Xbox One are more interested in the next Halo and Call of Duty anyway.

The last Tomb Raider game sold 2.22mil PS3 copies and 1.71mil 360 copies that's when Microsoft was selling more consoles than Sony. What do you think the outcome will be now when the ratio is 2:1 in the PS4's favour? And to top it all off Square Enix declared that despite these sales figures, the Tomb Raider reboot did not generate the expected profit. Well I can see how limiting the distribution base and pissing off the fans will help with that. What can you expect form the company that seems the least in contact with current industry events. I mean these are the guys that are slowly killing off one of the most enduring video game franchise in history.

So why should you care? Because this is just another example of unfounded and, honestly, damn right stupid example of greed in the industry. Rise of the Tomb Raider would have been a great selling title, now even when it will eventually be released on the other platforms it managed to sabotage itself enough to guarantee a financial failure.

As for Microsoft, this questionable yet understandable move will guarantee their fan base won't grow any larger in the coming years, at least not thanks to miss Lara.

As gamers we have a responsibility much greater than we realize. The choices we make with out wallets are felt by all others so let's make those choices count and just say no to corporate greed. If we let things like this pass, it will just encourage the industry to grow even bolder with it's shady business practices. No matter what you game on, PC, PS4, Xbox, Wii, this isn't good for anyone.