New information has emerged shedding light on just how much Microsoft paid for the one year of Rise of the Tomb Raider Xbox exclusivity in 2015.
For those who can't recall, Rise of the Tomb Raider was released in 2015 on Xbox One and Xbox 360 with a 2016 release a year later on PC and PlayStation 4. In information from the former Strategic Planning & Corporation Development Director at Square Enix Fabien Rossini posted on LinkedIn, first noticed by Twitter user @bogorad222 we found out about how much Microsoft spent on the Tomb Raider exclusivity. In a bullet point about his job there, Fabien wrote that he negotiated multiple deals, including the "Tomb Raider exclusivity on Xbox worth $100m".
It is important to note that being worth $100m doesn't mean that Microsoft paid Square Enix $100m for it in a giant suitcase. Likely, some of this was covered as a marketing deal, having Microsoft promote Rise of the Tomb Raider on Xbox and in other areas. This would have covered a significant amount of the development, and marketing expense given that Rise of the Tomb Raider's sequel, Shadow of the Tomb Raider was estimated to cost between $75 and $100m with an additional almost $35m in marketing by Eidos Montreal boss David Anfossi in a 2018 interview. For this, Square Enix was even able to release on other platforms, albeit with a one-year delay. Rise of the Tomb Raider was able to sell almost 7m units as per a 2017 interview, and with that covering, much of its development costs almost certainly made it a sizable success for Square Enix.
Rossini's LinkedIn page reveals several other interesting things as well. According to it when he was the Director of Live Product Management he oversaw a team of 30 developers making additional content for Deus Ex Mankind Divided. This was almost certainly the expansion pass and related DLC. This generated 15m over 2 years, providing a look to some extent at the smaller teams making DLC, and the similarly smaller rewards to some extent on some products.
Are you surprised how much the Rise of the Tomb Raider Xbox exclusivity cost? Do you think Square Enix got a good deal here? Let us know in the comments below
