Oh, video game industry. I feel like that school councilor who has that one mischievous brat constantly coming back to the office. I rub my eyes with deep sorrow and say, “You were just here! We’ve been over this a hundred times. Why do you keep doing this?”
That brat is the video game PR industry. I can rant, rave and scream at the top of my lungs hoping those in charge would treat 2014 as a year to speak to the gamers instead of at them. Well, the add-wizards were at it again last week during Europe’s biggest gaming convention Gamescom.
Oh no, Jared. What happened?
During the convention the some of the biggest gaming companies presented exciting updates to their games while announcing new titles. This year Microsoft announced the highly anticipated sequel to “Tomb Raider” called “Rise of the Tomb Raider.” The catch was the wording after the announcement, which the presenter said, “Coming exclusively to Xbox holiday 2015”
So it’s a timed exclusive during the holidays so Xbox can compete with Playstation’s “Uncharted 4.” No big deal.
That’s what most of us assumed. Gamers generally know that exclusives of major franchises like “Tomb Raider” is bad for business as a whole. A company that wants more money will certainly go where the is money to be made. I thought it was a smart move for Microsoft the have a strong title exclusive to their system during a lucrative time for buying games….
But no, no no, my friend. The further clarification on the wording to this announcement is what caused the controversy. When my “favorite” journalist Geoff Knightly clarified the exclusivity just for the 2015 holiday, Xbox Studios global product marketing director Aaron Greenberg corrected him by indicating that it wasn’t just for the holiday, but forever.
That’s not all. The developer of “Rise of the Tomb Raider’ Crystal Dynamics released a post on their Tumblr defending their choice to be an Xbox exclusive. While neither Crystal Dynamics nor Microsoft specifically said, “This is a timed exclusive.” or ” This game will never be on the Playstation or PC.” But it was heavily implied from CD’s post and Greenberg’s reaction that “Rise of the Tomb Raider” will be on Xbox One and stay that way. The post says,
“As you may have seen, we’ve just announced that Rise of the Tomb Raider, coming Holiday 2015, is exclusively on Xbox.”
The wording from Crystal Dynamics suggests it’s an Xbox exclusive. The “coming holiday 2015” is phrased in a way that it’s provided as additional information, not a qualifier. The sentence is essentially “Rise of the Tomb Raider is exclusively on Xbox, and it’s coming Holiday 2015.”
I bet that caused a lot of anger among the gaming community.
You bet it did! The neckbeards were enraged. There was rant, after rant, after rant. Some say that any press is good press, but there were claims of boycotting anything from Crystal Dynamics and selling their Xbox Ones.
Was it overreaction? You bet. It’s a game, and I really didn’t think “Rise of the Tomb Raider” would be 100 percent exclusive. But the vocal nerd rage made its way across the internet and caught the attention of the head of Xbox Phil Spencer who said in a Eurogamer interview,
“Yes, the deal has a duration. I didn’t buy it. I don’t own the franchise.”
While I’m glad the controversy has been explained, to a degree, I don’t care for the way Spencer explained it. Phrases like “I don’t own the franchise.” or “My job is not to talk about games I don’t own.” rub me the wrong way. It feels like he’s distancing himself from the internet rage while staying vague and uncaring. Did he have a PR rep tell him to say those things? I understand he’s the head of a huge organization, but his wording is… odd…
What’s the moral of the story? I need a TL;DR!
Long story short – be honest. I don’t know what CD or Xbox were trying to achieve by making fans think “Tomb Raider” would be completely exclusive to a single console. Gamers who play games like “Tomb Raider” are very consumer focused and want games from transparent developers and publishers.’
Microsoft has been given a lot of hate recently. Many have claimed that I have been a part of that hate, but the finger of blame isn’t easily pointed in this situation. Everybody seems to be pointing at some elusive nothingness, which wouldn’t have been the case if they were just honest in the first place.