Rise of the Tomb Raider Xbox exclusivity IS time limited

Slowly, painfully, we are edging toward knowing the full details of Rise of Tomb Raider’s Xbox exclusivity deal.

It was ascertained just a few moments ago that the game WILL be released for Xbox One AND Xbox 360. Now we know for sure what we all suspected – that the game WILL arrive on other formats at some stage in the future.

"When people want me to say, can you tell us when or if it’s coming to other platforms, it’s not my job," Xbox boss Phil Spencer told Eurogamer. "My job is not to talk about games I don’t own. I have a certain relationship on this version of Tomb Raider, which we announced, and I feel really good about our long term relationship with Crystal and Square.

"I have Tomb Raider shipping next holiday exclusively on Xbox. It is Xbox 360 and Xbox One. I’m not trying to fake anybody out in terms of where this thing is. What they do with the franchise in the long run is not mine. I don’t control it. So all I can talk about is the deal I have. I don’t know where else Tomb Raider goes.

"The deal has a duration. I didn’t buy it. I don’t own the franchise. It’s a deal between us and the partner. People ask me how much did we pay. There are certain things I’m just not going to talk about because it’s a business deal between us and then. Obviously the deal does have a duration. I didn’t buy the IP in perpetuity."

So will either Square Enix or Crystal Dynamics now reveal when PlayStation and PC owners can expect to see the game? Not in the near future, we’d bet.