Microsoft, Square Enix "very happy" with Rise of the Tomb Raider, despite reported sales

Microsoft and Square Enix are both "very happy" with Xbox timed-exclusive Rise of the Tomb Raider, director Brian Horton has reassured.

Responding to fans on the Tomb Raider forum in a thread discussing unofficial reports of the title's sales, Horton said his team was focusing on the game's positive reviews and fan feedback (thanks, NeoGAF).

There has so far been no official tally for Rise of the Tomb Raider sales from either publisher Square Enix or platform holder Microsoft.

Horton did not comment specifically on the game's sales performance, but responded to the suggestion that the reported numbers reflected "poorly" on developer Crystal Dynamics.

"I didn't mean to go off topic or patronise, but there was suggestion in the thread that the reported sales numbers reflect poorly on the dev team," Horton wrote.

"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."

Elsewhere, Horton reiterated:

"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 overwhelming 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."

"The dev team is not responsible for sales and therefore we look to reviews and releasing on time to gauge our performance," he concluded. "We accomplished these goals. The press considers Rise of the Tomb Raider a high quality game based on the scores."

Rise of the Tomb Raider launched a little over two weeks ago. It arrived in fourth place in UK all-formats chart, below fellow new entry Fallout 4, plus Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and FIFA 16.

85 per cent of copies were sold on Xbox One, with the remaining 15 per cent on Xbox 360.

UK numbers company Chart-Track does not publicly disclose sales figures, but it is fair to say that Rise of the Tomb Raider faced stiff competition from the launch of Fallout 4 the same week.

It is also fair to assume Square would not wish to disclose sales numbers that would invite comparisons with the Tomb Raider reboot, which was not a console exclusive and launched simultaneously on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Rise of the Tomb Raider will also launch for PC and PS4, although not until next year.