Microsoft has revealed it will publish Rise of the Tomb Raider, rather than the IP owner Square Enix.
Following the timed exclusivity announcement for Rise of the Tomb Raider at GamesCom in August, Microsoft has now let slip it will be the publisher for the game as well.
The news comes from Microsoft Games Marketing head Aaron Greenberg, responding to a question on Twitter.
The Xbox One Rise of the Tomb Raider exclusivity was announced at GamesCom by Square Enix and Microsoft. The title will launch only for Xbox One and Xbox 360 during the 2015 holiday period.
However, Xbox boss Phil Spencer later added that the exclusivity deal had a “duration”, but wouldn’t elaborate on what that duration entailed.
Some Xbox One launch games like Dead Rising 3 and Ryse have since been released on the PC, both nearly a year after their original Xbox One release.
That might be what happens with Rise of the Tomb Raider, with a timed exclusivity for that title, or it could be that the deal is for that one game and others afterwards will be multi-platform.
Microsoft made the deal in an attempt to compete with Sony and the PS4 for the action game genre, suggesting that Tomb Raider could be the Xbox One’s answer to Uncharted.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is being released at some point in 2015, so it could well mean that it and Rise of the Tomb Raider go head to head at the end of next year.
Read more: PS4 vs Xbox One
