When Rise of the Tomb Raider moved its release date further and further away from Fallout 4’s release date, it was obvious that Crystal Dynamics was worried Fallout 4 would eat away at Rise of the Tomb Raider’s sales. Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg, Product Manager, sings a different tune about Rise of the Tomb Raider’s chances against Fallout 4.
“The challenge is that you have to look at the production schedule. You want to make sure that you don’t rush the game so that it’s not done or not of high quality,” Greenberg said in an interview with Kinda Funny Games. “That is always the number one priority. The challenge with Tomb Raider is if you go a week later you’re against Star Wars Battlefront, if you go a week earlier you’re against Call of Duty Black Ops III; you go two weeks earlier you’re against Halo 5.”
He continues:
“And then you go late and then you’re like well, ‘Does the consumer have money left to buy the game?’ So there wasn’t a better scenario for us except that was the week it wasn’t going head-to-head against Call of Duty or Star Wars Battlefront. We felt like the Fallout audience and game, while both fantastic games, they’re not direct competitors per se. But it’s two big, big titles launching at the same time and we hope people will buy both.”
It might end up boding well for the PS4 version of Rise of the Tomb Raider, being that the game will be distanced from such huge titles like Black Ops 3 and Battlefront. To go toe-to-toe with Call of Duty and Star Wars would be more difficult than shooting womp rats in a T-16. However, Greenberg remains adamant that Rise of the Tomb Raider will hold out.
“Most teams pick their date not knowing what else is going to be there, and once you know then it’s like, would you rather launch against Call of Duty, Star Wars, or Fallout? So you just got to launch and stick with your date and feel confident that the game still stand up and we believe it will. It’s a fantastic title.”