The 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider has, to date, sold 8.5 million copies, making it the best-selling entry in the history of the popular grave-robbing franchise.
Remember that this is the same game that publisher Square Enix claimed had underperformed. Those company executives must be very hard to please.
Developer Crystal Dynamics (probably with a bit of well-deserved smug satisfaction) revealed the relevant figures in a statement over the weekend. Tomb Raider 2013 sold around 3.4 million copies in its first month on sale, which was about half of what Square Enix had planned for.
That financial losses caused by that (pretty wild) overestimation ultimately caused Yoichi Wada to resign as CEO, and lead to a period of ”major reforms and restructuring” at the company. Those major reforms presumably consisted of not expecting every game in their roster to sell like Call of Duty.
“Tomb Raider ignited and expanded the fan base, pushing the series to a new level. The game’s incredible sales success reflects the passionate response of players,” wrote Darrell Gallagher, head of Crystal Dynamics, in the studio’s press release. “Our studio is proud of what we accomplished with the game.”
Quite right too. Sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider is set to debut this winter on Xbox platforms as a timed exclusive, much to the irritation of everybody who liked the first game but doesn’t own one. Seriously, exclusives can sod off, timed or not.
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