'Rise Of The Tomb Raider' Will Be Published By Microsoft Instead Of Square Enix

An Executive at Microsoft has confirmed that the company will be acting as the publisher for Crystal Dynamics’ Xbox exclusive ‘Tomb Raider’ reboot series sequel ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’.

The news was confirmed via Twitter by Aaron Greenberg, a Marketing Manager at Xbox, when he responded to a fan asking if the publisher of the game would be either Microsoft or Square Enix (publisher of the 2013 ‘Tomb Raider’ reboot).

@diosmekemeke Yes we are publishing Rise of the Tomb Raider.
— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) December 8, 2014

In response to Microsoft’s acknowledgment as publisher of the title, Square Enix issued the following statement to IGN when the publication reached out to the company concerning the news.

“Yes, Microsoft will be publishing Rise of the Tomb Raider on Xbox,” said Square Enix to IGN. “Microsoft has always seen huge potential in Tomb Raider and they will get behind this game with more support across development, marketing and retail than ever before, which we believe will be a step in continuing to build the Tomb Raider franchise as one of the biggest in gaming.”

Earlier in August, Microsoft revealed during Gamescom 2014 that the latest ‘Tomb Raider’ game would be an Xbox exclusive title. This came as a shock to many gamers since the previous entry in the series was released across a variety of different platforms.

However, Crystal Dynamics’ later clarified through a Tumblr Q&A that ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’ would actually be a timed-exclusive on Microsoft consoles.

“We did not make this decision lightly,” the studio answered. “Our goal is to build the best game that we possibly can, and our relationship with Microsoft will help us realize our vision for the game.”

The studio then addressed in another answer: “We certainly didn’t intend to cause any confusion with the announcement. The Microsoft Gamescom stage was a great place to make the initial announcement, but not necessarily to go into details.”

‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’ is the sequel to last year’s ‘Tomb Raider’, which was a modern reboot of the classic game franchise of the same name. Little is known about the sequel’s story other than that it picks up right where the first game left off and will focus on Lara Croft’s rise to her destiny as the Tomb Raider.