Xbox 2015 Fall Exclusive Line-Up Sells Big

It is no secret that Sony's PlayStation 4 has been consistently outselling Microsoft's Xbox One in the little over two year life-span of the consoles, currently reaching a roughly two to one ratio by comparison. More consoles in the entertainment centre means more games on the living room shelves (or digital collections), and that should also suggest that the Xbox exclusive line-up would struggle to reach sales numbers akin to those of the PS4 catalogue. As if Microsoft needed more adversity, Rise of the Tomb Raider, a major exclusive title for the Xbox fall line-up, released alongside the highly anticipated and competitive multi-platform Bethesda RPG Fallout 4, which many suggested would be the death of Lara Croft's sequel adventure on the Xbox One. 

Xbox has been quiet about its sales numbers virtually on principle as they have trailed the PS4 in a number of categories, but Xbox Wire has chosen to speak up about the success of the 2015 exclusive line-up. Mike Nichols, the Corporate Vice President of Marketing at Xbox, announced that Halo 5: Guardians, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Forza Motorsport 6 and Gears of War: Ultimate Edition each sold over one million copies since their individual releases. This all despite a heavy season of new releases and half the number of units sold as the PS4. PlayStation may not have had any major first-party exclusives for the holiday season, but they did have third-party marketing agreements with EA for Star Wars: Battlefront and Call of Duty: Black Ops III, the former selling over twelve million copies to date and the latter being associated with Xbox for years prior to a new agreement between Sony and Activision. 

Days after the release of Rise of the Tomb Raider, industry voices and entertainment personalities were declaring Microsoft's agreement with Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix a failure simply due to the success of Fallout 4 and other holiday titles. Of course, had the game released on multiple consoles the sales numbers would have been far larger, but that does not spell the end for the reboot of the legendary series. Rise of the Tomb Raider will come to the PS4 in fall 2016, but it won't have to wait until then to be a success. The game itself is a spectacular adventure sure to please fans of the series and the genre alike. The gameplay is smooth and diverse, the puzzles unique and challenging and the story more riveting than the 2013 reboot effort. It is worth purchasing for any Xbox One owner, and even a great choice to buy the console if gamers do not already have one. Surely, this holiday season success for the Xbox exclusive line-up is indicative of the progress towards a better reputation and marketing push for console sales and future titles.