Good news for those who wanted to play Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light on the 360. It turns out it will be coming out 4 weeks earlier on Microsoft’s console and then on the PS3 and PC. This is evidently because Microsoft requires the game to be exclusive for at least four weeks in order to participate in the hugely successful Summer of Arcade event.
“The agreement with Microsoft is, in order to participate in their hugely successful Summer of Arcade promotion, there is a window of exclusivity. That window of exclusivity is a set four weeks,” said Global Brand Director Karl Stewart. That means that the delay at minimum must be four weeks, but it could be even longer. Evidently it’s not quite as easy to pick and choose your release window with downloadable titles.
“As with all arcade titles, irrespective of platform, you have to go through your submissions before they agree and approve a date,” Stewart said. “Unlike a disc-based title where we can pick our window, you have to go by what the first parties approve and give you a date, to make sure you’re not coming out on the same day as five other titles. They like to manage the release window accordingly. We have requested a specific date and hopefully we’ll get that and it’s not too long after the 360 SKU.”
If you’d like to do some math, then you can deduce from the August 18 release date of the game on Xbox Live that the earliest we will be seeing it on PlayStation 3 and PC is Sept. 15.
Lara Croft a four-week Xbox 360 exclusive [Eurogamer, via 1UP]
