For now, it seems Square is going to let Lara Croft have a bit of a rest after a reboot trilogy with some hints that something will happen in the future to unify the past and present of the series. Overall, the reboot titles (Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider) were well-received even if older fans had a lot of issues with them. However, you may remember that the second game in that trilogy took an odd detour as it was exclusive for roughly one year to Xbox platforms despite the first game being multiplatform and the series as a whole being strongly associated with the PlayStation brand. It also seems we could now know how much that cost.
According to a resume posted on LinkedIn, former Director of Live Product Management at Eidos-Montréal and Business Development Director at Square Enix Fabien Rossini, posted that they had helped negotiate the deal that was worth $100 million. As you can see here, that text has since been edited out of their profile, but thanks to Twitter user Timur222, we can see where it was said below.
This isn’t an official statement, obviously, and most likely there will never be one since terms of these types of deals are generally kept secret in the industry unless there is a lawsuit involved, and Rossini editing out the line could be an indication that maybe what was said was an embellishment. However, if the deal in question included things like marketing and any development costs, it probably isn’t unbelievable.
Rise of the Tomb Raider launched originally in 2015 for Xbox One and Xbox 360, then PC a few months later, and the PS4 almost a year later. It is also available as part of the Definitive Survivor Collection that collects all three reboot titles.
Rise of the Tomb Raider exclusivity deal with Microsoft was worth $100 million.
Other stuff. pic.twitter.com/BH6TkhI9eL— Timur222 (@bogorad222) August 30, 2021
