Timed Exclusive Debacle

During Gamescom Rise of The Tomb Raider was revealed to be a timed exclusive. It seems that the industry is shifting towards trying to get timed exclusive content or exclusive in game content for their platforms. We saw this during the last generation with Call of Duty for the 360. But it does seem that this generation will put more emphasis on this.

In my humble opinion it seems that this is more of an annoyance to me than a good strategy. Being forced to wait just because of a deal between two companies is something that really irks me. I get that the reason they do this is to sell consoles and earn money. Because the bottom dollar is what really matters for a company. But you don't want to alienate a big part of your fans either.

It's a smart move from Microsoft, but a bad one from Square Enix. They have basicly let the two biggest user bases not buy their product on PC and PS4. Which isn't a good idea in my opinion.

Do you guys believe this is a good strategy from any company or platform to do?

I don't mind it too much, it's always better than not getting the game on other systems at all.
A bigger issue for me would be deliberate handicapping of PC ports after that waiting period

It's not really a good step but I don't mind it either. At least, this way we get to know if the game's really worth it or not.

But that just seems like a step backwards. They should rather have content that's exclusive rather than an entire game

I don't mind it per se, but I'm not going to buy RotTR because of it. When I hear of a timed exclusive that isn't on the console I own, my question becomes "What competing games like that one, ARE coming for my console?" Now, i'm an Xbox Defector, so I never tried the Uncharted series. But with S/E's crotch-thrust to PS4 owners, I'm going to give the competitor a try before I consider Tomb Raider's sequel. if it scratches that same itch, I've got no reason to buy the latecomer to the PS4.

Either the whole game or just the exclusive content, making a platform wait just because the devs have been paid to do so, is despicable nonetheless. But like I said, there's one big positive point to it; we get to know what the game really is.

It doesn't bother me at all really, as long as the games and/or dlc come to a system I own eventually then I'm fine with it. Of course I have an Xbox One so I'll get Rise of the Tomb Raider early. :P

@i_return said:

Bingo. Thank MS for Ryse. ;-) It's wonderful to know that we were all able to skip that game.

as primarily a pc gamer this is absolutely nothing new to me. we've had to put up with it for years. if i'm dying to play a game i'll pick it up on console on release, if not i don't mind waiting

I agree, we should get the whole game without any business crap. But we don't unfortunately

As long as the game does come out for my system of preference(which is the PC) I don't really mind. And yes, obviously the reason is more money and better sales for MS or Sony. I suppose companies(like Square Enix in the case of Tomb Raider) are fully aware of the consequences and expect a profit. Otherwise, they wouldn't have done it.

This is awesome. Timed exclusives give me more time to work on my ridiculously large backlog. I couldn't be happier.

I do have a ridiculously large backlog.

I understand the topic but using Tomb Raider is a bad example. Square Enix needs money and Microsoft is actually helping them make the game. This is a different situation than just buying exclusivity like Titanfall.