Tomb Raider has crossed into profitability

Tomb Raider gained profitability by the end of last year, according to executive producer Scot Amos.

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Tomb Raider initially fell short of expectations, as Square Enix expected it to sell a third more out of the gate. It did eventually recoup, though, as executive producer Scot Amos says the game has now turned profitable.

"By the end of last year, Tomb Raider is in the black," Amos told Eurogamer. "We've crossed the line of profitability for the last-gen and PC versions." That means that whatever cost was put into the next-gen Definitive Editions, Square will be starting from profitability instead of counting on it to make up the difference.

On the subject of the Definitive Editions, though, he claimed that this wasn't an effort from Square Enix to recoup losses. "The dev team wanted to do the port," he said. "Square didn't approach us saying to do XYZ, at the end of the game the dev team said 'there's all these things that we want to do', but we'd pushed those machines to the limit at the time. This was in the bag and on the way even before anything happened with sales expectations or where things were at. We were having this conversation at the end of 2012 when we first heard details and rumors of next-gen consoles."

Amos also said that Square Enix has "clearly invested in us," citing both the sequel and Definitive Edition. "They've always been behind us, regardless of maybe what was said or how it was said in the press, and certainly at the end of the year we've actually gone over expectations because we've managed to get profitability back. We're very happy to say that from a partnership internally, we're committed to it totally. Square Enix talks about it as a key franchise, so we're very happy with where we're at."

Square had expected 5-6 million units in just four weeks, which made its actual figure of 3.4 million a disappointment.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    January 20, 2014 10:00 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Tomb Raider has crossed into profitability.

    Tomb Raider gained profitability by the end of last year, according to executive producer Scot Amos.

    • reply
      January 20, 2014 10:01 AM

      Meaning Tomb Raider managed to pull Final Fantasy's weight, in addition to its own, by the end of last year.

      • reply
        January 20, 2014 10:05 AM

        Hmmm?

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          January 20, 2014 10:33 AM

          People suspected that the sales target for TR was so high because it also needed to cover the failure of the Final Fantasy game.

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            January 20, 2014 12:50 PM

            Source?

            Or just internet conspiracy.

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              January 20, 2014 12:52 PM

              "Hateful JRPG sinks beautiful Western 3rd person action game" sorta writes itself to a certain demographic.

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                January 20, 2014 1:13 PM

                Pretty much. There wasn't any evidence, AFAIK.

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                  January 20, 2014 4:36 PM

                  Well Square Enix would be real dumb to say that publicly.

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      January 20, 2014 10:16 AM

      Square enix shouldn't of predicted COD sales and this crap won't happen in the first place. This was a fantastic game and worthy of a purchase but a good game will sell itself and doesn't need the millions spent on advertising. This is why big companies fall and end up closing game companies because of wasted money spent on things not needed in this digital age. One tweet or reddit post could sell a game and it's completely FREE to do!

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        January 20, 2014 10:49 AM

        the first tweet is free, it's the million likes and retweets that'll cost ya'.

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        January 20, 2014 4:04 PM

        Agreed; the megapublishers just can't bet on multi-million sales anymore for every title they plan to release in the fiscal year. EA fell into the same trap last year by forecasting Dead Space 3 and Medal of Honor: Warfighter to sell 5 million copies in retail on launch month. THQ was hoping for Darksiders 2 to sell huge to save them from what was ultimately a bankruptcy and liquidation at the end of 2012. Capcom got burned really bad by forecasting 7 million sales worldwide for Resident Evil 6.

        There's a number of things that scare me about big-budget game development getting bigger: "too many cooks spoil the broth" (see: Resident Evil 6), the "If we have to do a huge title, we should ultra-script the game to make it easier to balance and playtest" phenomenon, as well as having the biannualized-franchise starting to become as rushed as the annualized franchise (hopefully the 2013 releases are an anomaly due to the console generation transition, but we'll have to wait to see how the 2014 and 2015 releases fare).

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      January 20, 2014 10:24 AM

      So they sold like 3 or 4 million copies at launch and only just now turned a profit? Kinda sad. Great game. Honestly Crystal Dynamics has been the best thing for this series.

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        January 20, 2014 10:44 AM

        Yeah, they busted their asses on improving the series and they've done some stellar work before too (Soul Reaver). They are among my fave devs.

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          January 21, 2014 2:42 AM

          I really want them to do a real L.O.K. game again.

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        January 20, 2014 11:15 AM

        Hm, I actually saw it as a big step down from their last 3 outings. Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld were far better in terms of gameplay. I just played TR (picked it up when the price went below $10) and it's full of quicktime events (argh) and combat (where the series has always been weakest).

        A pretty engine didn't make the game any more fun to play.

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          January 21, 2014 1:45 AM

          I loved the mood of the game and the look - absolutely gorgeous - but was a bit let down by the predictability of the story. Big yawn at the end.

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          January 21, 2014 4:31 AM

          Funny you say that, the open-world aspect is what made me pick it up in the first place. I've always hated the Tomb Raider games but this one I actually liked.

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            January 21, 2014 12:53 PM

            I think the openness of the levels was a plus, but it was used minimally (how many rabbits and deer are you going to hunt? exactly enough to up XP and salvage to max out skills and weapons). It was pretty easy to get lost in some of the levels as well.

            The other games had plenty of openness in exploring the tombs. In fact I don't recall nearly as many gates and cutscenes as in this latest outing.

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      January 20, 2014 11:10 AM

      Sucks we still haven't got any single-player DLC.

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      January 20, 2014 11:56 AM

      Good. They deserve it... really surprised this latest version wasn't profitable until just now.

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        January 20, 2014 4:51 PM

        I am also surprised since they must have sold a hell of a lot of $10 copies last year to make it profitable. At least a lot more than they would have had to if the price stayed higher for longer.
        I am wondering if this is an example of how making a game reasonably priced and selling more copies can make a game money rather than making it expensive and selling it to a few. I would like to know how many cheap copies were sold and how much money they made that way.

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      January 20, 2014 12:12 PM

      I really liked the new version, would buy a part 2 or a DLC

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      January 20, 2014 5:51 PM

      well thats good to hear.... tomb raider was one of my favorite games of the year easy.

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      January 20, 2014 7:07 PM

      I'm planning on buying the ps4 version when that comes out.

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      January 20, 2014 9:43 PM

      I remember advertising for it, they HAD to dump a ton into it.
      2 months leading up to the game I probably say 10-20 commercials a day for it. As a matter of fact I'm STILL seeing adds for it once every 2-3 days.
      Stop with all the tv spots, stick to the video game magazines, put out a demo and you'll make the money!

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        January 20, 2014 10:19 PM

        The first Tomb Raider had an awesome demo. It was like a full level. Played it through like 5 times back then as a kid.

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          January 20, 2014 10:29 PM

          [deleted]

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            January 20, 2014 11:18 PM

            I didn't buy the first one because I didn't have a capable PC at home, but I did buy a lot of the Tomb Raider games. Some for PlayStation, some for PC.

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      January 20, 2014 10:18 PM

      Definitive Edition is coming out in less than 2 weeks! :D

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        January 20, 2014 11:49 PM

        More like one week!

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        January 21, 2014 12:39 AM

        I wouldn't mind buying the definitive version as DLC for PC.

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      January 20, 2014 10:30 PM

      Isn't there something wrong if you need to generate $240M in revenue to break even? This isn't GTA level of production and marketing.

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