Rise of the Tomb Raider Director Defends It As A “Game We Are All Proud Of”

Rise of the Tomb Raider director Brian Horton is undisputably proud of Crystal Dynamics latest creation. Unfortunately for him, fans haven’t been kind, due to the Xbox exclusivity clause, but Brian isn’t afraid to answer back.

On the official Tomb Raider forums, fans were speculating on sales, citing VGChartz, an outlet which is known to guess sales numbers when they haven’t been publicly disclosed. VGChartz gave out a ballpark number of 300,000 units, but note, this was number was given out before the NPD Report. While it seems VGChartz may have insider sources to substantiate those guesses, we don’t publicly know which is which.

And so, Brian shared these statements, in succession:

Microsoft and Square are very happy with Rise and the dev team, thanks for the concerns. Crystal and Eidos Montreal made a game we are proud of and we appreciate the overwheling number of positive reviews and fan feedback. We're looking forward to the Game Awards next week where we are nominated for Best Action Adventure and Best Performance for Camilla. Wish us luck, hopefully it's just the beginning of the recognition Tomb Raider and Lara Croft receives this year. It's cool to see her on top again for the second game in a row. We're all fans and for me it's been the honor of my career to be a part of such a fantastic legacy. Next year 20th Anniversary!

The dev team is not responsible for sales and therefore we look to reviews and releasing on time to gauge our performance. We acomplished these goals. The press considers Rise of the Tomb Raider a high quality game based on the scores. I don't see any of this as a lie.

I didn't mean to go off topic or patronize, but there was suggestion in the thread that the reported sales numbers reflect poorly on the dev team. Square/Microsoft are happy with Crystal and Eidos Montreal and the game itself. As to the topic of sales, I'm unqualified to discuss it so I won't have anything else to say on this thread. Much love TRF and happy holidays

Do you think Brian’s confidence is well founded? Have you already bought the game, without waiting for a PS4 release? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.