With 'Shadow of the Tomb Raider', Square Enix is no longer holding back, but going all out, at least as far as the budget for the action-adventure is concerned.
As Eidos Montreal studio boss David Anfossi recently revealed, around 100 million US dollars are earmarked for the title, of which up to 35 million US dollars are reserved for marketing alone. For a purely story-driven game, that's an enormous amount, far more than God of War or Detroit: Become Human have recently consumed.
Square Enix apparently has enormous confidence in the title, hoping to recoup the investment through the game itself and post-launch content. Eidos Montreal, however, feels somewhat pressured by these immense costs and can only hope the game ultimately turns a profit. To ensure this, they have invested additional resources in experimenting with content to see if the game can be sustainable in the long run.
“We need to try new things, gain experience and learn.”, so Anfossi "We're conducting tests, we're learning, and we're figuring out how to apply that to our games, but we also have to consider the fans. Online doesn't necessarily have to mean multiplayer. It could, but it could also be something else. It could be a single-player experience, but online. For me, online doesn't mean we're forgetting the single-player experience. It could be part of that experience. Or it could mean we're trying out multiplayer things at the same time."
Whether these risks will actually pay off for Square Enix and Eidos Montreal will be seen from September onwards, when Shadow of the Tomb Raider is released.
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