Rise of the Tomb Raider Xbox One Exclusive Gets A Reveal

Microsoft’s Xbox One console isn’t exactly hurting for exclusive games for users to play this holiday season, but that isn’t likely to stop them from dropping a bomb on Sony’s PS4 and PS3 gaming consoles later this year. Developer Crystal Dynamics is finally talking more about Rise of the Tomb Raider an exclusive game coming to Microsoft’s Xbox One and Xbox 360 sometime later this year.

Crystal Dynamics, the developer creating Rise of the Tomb Raider reveals more details about the current issue of Game Informer, a monthly console and PC gaming focused magazine. To get all of the latest Rise of the Tomb Raider details readers need to pick up this issue for themselves. That being said, even the announcement post and a companion video provides us with need to know Rise of the Tomb Raider information ahead of its release.

Rise of the Tomb Raider leaves the mysterious trappings of the previous game’s tropical forest setting for Russia, Siberia to be exact. It appears she’ll do battle with the local wild life too if the scene depicted on Game Informer’s cover is any indication: she stands ready to take on a full-size bear in the picture. According to the piece, players will spend time in the game creating new tools to survive and taking on the same shadowy organization that appeared in Tomb Raider.

Crystal Dynamics is hoping that bringing back what made the previous game so special will lead to a good Rise of Tomb Raider. The game’s developers reveal that they’re still going to push survival and personal growth here just like they did in the last game. They also say they’re making sure to include puzzles and exploration to give the player a sense of true discovery.

Crystal Dynamics shocked everyone last year when it revealed that Rise of the Tomb Raider was on the way. Many hadn’t been expecting a sequel at all. That’s when things got particularly interesting. Tomb Raider was a reboot of the previous series that’d come to Sony’s PlayStation consoles years before there was an Xbox to even get excited about. Microsoft revealed at its media briefing that Rise of Tomb Raider would be exclusive to the Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles. That started a firestorm since usually video games don’t switch back to being exclusives after they’ve become multiplatform.

Even in interviews with Game Informer, Crystal Dynamics confirms that there’ll only be Xbox One and Xbox 360 versions of Rise of Tomb Raider this year. There’s a lot of speculation that Crystal Dynamics only signed a release window agreement with Microsoft for this year. If they did then Rise of The Tomb Raider could come to Sony’s PS4 and PS3 sometime after the Xbox version makes its way to store shelves.

Rise of the Tomb Raider anchors are ridiculously busy 2015 for Microsoft. In between now and the end of the year there are plenty multiplatform games coming for both Xbox One and PS4 like Battlefield Hardline and Batman: Arkham Knight. The Xbox One has Halo 5: Guardians, Quantum Break, SceamRide and possibly Crackdown.

Exclusives like Rise of the Tomb Raider are crucial to making sure the Xbox One stays viable. Without them, users might not have a good enough reason to pick up an Xbox console over one of Sony’s gaming consoles.

We don’t’ know anything yet about the different versions of Rise of the Tomb Raider that’ll be available for users to purchase. Presumably, a basic copy of Rise of the Tomb Raider without any add-ons or trinkets should cost $60.

The Xbox One is on store shelves now for $349.99.