Microsoft Confident Rise of the Tomb Raider Can Stand Against Fallout 4

One of the biggest Xbox One exclusives this year outside of Halo 5: Guardians is Rise of the Tomb Raider. It launches on November 10, the same date that Bethesda's hugely anticipated multiplatform game Fallout 4 arrives. Now, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg has said both games can find success on that date, in part because they are "not direct competitors per se" and appeal to somewhat different audiences.

"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 (via DualShockers). "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."

Coming in at the end of the holiday could also be problematic, Greenberg said.

"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," he explained. "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."

Greenberg went on to say that Microsoft, as a first-party developer, knows the launch dates for its own games and can schedule accordingly. But not everyone is as fortunate.

“Most teams pick their date not knowing what else is going to be there," he said. "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."