Tomb Raider episodes confirmed for Xbox 360

By Tom Bramwell Published 18 June, 2007

Downloads start in September.

Eidos has confirmed that it plans to release Tomb Raider Anniversary on Xbox 360 as a series of downloadable episodes starting in September.

The content - Xbox Live's first ever serialisation of a full retail game - will be made available for owners of Tomb Raider Legend to purchase through Xbox Live Marketplace.

In September "Episodes 1 & 2" will be offered along with a free training mission ("Croft Manor"). The following two episodes will arrive "shortly afterwards".

Eidos then plans to release a full retail version of Tomb Raider Anniversary "later in the year" that will put it within reach of gamers who didn't buy Legend.

Tomb Raider Legend owners will have to pay 2400 Microsoft points (GBP 20.40 / EUR 27.91 / USD 29.99) for all four episodes.

Jane Cavanagh, chief executive of Eidos' parent company SCi, said the episodic approach was part of the publisher's strategy to grow its presence in online and digital distribution.

"Lara has always been at the forefront of technology and this world-first initiative with Microsoft really highlights that fact. Ultimately we also intend to make the title available at retail so that it reaches the maximum possible audience," Cavanagh said in a statement.

Tomb Raider Anniversary is out now on PlayStation 2 and PC.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (41) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • LeD #1 5 years ago

    So that's actually quite cheap, only you don't 'own' the product really, can't trade it in etc.

    /ponders

  • DUFFKING #2 5 years ago

    Wait - that's 2400 overall, right? When they're all added together?

  • KingOfSpain #3 5 years ago

    Will you need the legend disc or just a old saved game? Iv bought TRL but completed traded it in. I really dont want to buy it again.

  • S.J.Rogers #4 5 years ago

    Sounds like a good deal...

    Better if my 20gb hard drive was not full to the brim...

  • kissthestick #5 5 years ago

    wonder how much space this uses

  • Der_tolle_Emil #6 5 years ago

    Nice to see it finally being confirmed for a 360 release. I wonder though for how much the retail version will go. The DLC seems reasonably priced but I like holding something in my hand so I would really prefer to buy the disc version. Hopefully it will not be all that much more expensive than the DLC with the other versions being quite cheap also.

  • S.J.Rogers #7 5 years ago

    TRL is only £13 in HMV...

  • IAmBatman #8 5 years ago

    I'll wait for the disc version, thanks.

  • Dizzy #9 5 years ago

    Cheapo... nice

  • woodnotes #10 5 years ago

    Why not scrap the whole 'requires Tomb Raider Legend' thing. Talk about limited market potential.

  • Steroyd #11 5 years ago

    Well at lest people got their wish... I guess.

  • LeD #12 5 years ago

    Ha, I missed out the fact that you need to own TR:L, which I sold as it was cack. Well they can fuck right off then.

  • asphaltcowboy #13 5 years ago

    The question is, when they do the "full retail release" later in the year... is that gonna be £40?!

  • Frogger #14 5 years ago

    Why limit the acces to the Legend owners ???
    Weird marketing logic.
    It will be on PC then...

  • bushwod #15 5 years ago

    Why limit the acces to the Legend owners ???
    Weird marketing logic.
    It will be on PC then...

    Perhaps it uses the engine to keep the donwloads smaller? Does seem odd though.

  • banjo21 #16 5 years ago

    and TRA is only £20 in your local Asda/Tesco/Sainsbury - so why go out and re-buy TRL for £13 so you can buy TRA for £20. Thats minimum £33 to play it 4 months later than on PS2 or PC.

    Bonkers bonkers idea.

  • trav #17 5 years ago

    Unless there is some serious graphically effect changes on the Xbox 360, might as well just go out and buy the PS2 version.

    You'll have it now and have it on a disc.

  • Aretak #18 5 years ago

    What's Microsoft got to do with it? This is Eidos' decision.

  • DB2k #19 5 years ago

    why the shit bags is this so expenisve on digital distribution when you can buy it with a box etc for less on other systems?

  • m0thr4 #20 5 years ago

    I've been playing the PS2 version of TR:A (on the PS3 though) and it's definitely worth the £19.49 it cost in Asda. I was expecting the graphics to look horrible compared to TR:L on the 360 but it actually looks very similar.

  • krudster #21 5 years ago

    Don't want to say I told you so or anything :)

  • Darren #22 5 years ago

    £20 for all four episodes is fine by me although I'll wait for the retail copy as I prefer to own a boxed copy on a disc with a manual for £30 personally as HDD space on my 360 is rather limited to say the least. I'll be upgrading to the 120 GB HDD at some point anyway (when is it out by the way?) but at least Eidos aren't forcing people to buy one because of the size of the download... having the option of a disc is always a good thing in my opinion.

  • Penguinzoot #23 5 years ago

    Couldn't wait for this. Currently playing through the PC version using the 360 gamepad and the new wireless accessory thingy. Works really well too.

  • zozart #24 5 years ago

    £20 for a full Xbox 360 game (albeit without box/disc). Bargain! I've already completed it on PC but I'll be buying this. Great timing leaving it to September too... I'll be ready to play through again by then (and get the achievements).

  • Mr-Brett #25 5 years ago

    i was holding out for the 360 release but i guess i'll either get the PS2 one or the PC one and play it with my PS3 pad.

  • SomaticSense #26 5 years ago

    Are Eidos also going to be giving away free HDDs to go along with this offer? Or do they misguidedly think that 20gigs is still more than enough?

    Why not on a disc for fucks sake!!!!

    edit: Oh wait..... they are doing. Heh.

    Note to self: Read fully before spouting off in future....
    Edited by 1 at 18/06/07 @ 10:47

  • Darren #27 5 years ago

    @SomaticSense - The PC version uses 3.57 GB of HDD space when installed so the 360 version is likely to be around the same size unless it has enhanced next-gen visuals (in which case it'll use double that if the PC version of Legends is anything to go by!). Maybe the downloadable version has been put back to September to coincide with the release of the larger capacity 120GB HDD in Europe?

  • Aurifex. #28 5 years ago

    No way, they can shove it. I want it on disc or not at all. This will end up costing the same to download as it was buying a disc. And you wont be able to trade it in will you.Nope not going to play.

  • DrDamn #29 5 years ago

    The partnernet sizes of the episode indicate they will weigh in at about 1Gb each (matching Darren's estimate based on the PC disc). Given that only 13Gb of the HD is usable this is a big chunk to permanently use up.

  • mechamonkey #30 5 years ago

    I'll wait , the current 360 hdd just isnt big enough to keep games of this size on permanently

    I'm absolutely gagging to play this too but will wait for the 360 disk.
    Edited by 1 at 18/06/07 @ 11:21

  • Furbs #31 5 years ago

    4gb for the lot? :-o I just lost interest. I was hoping the whole reason for needing TRL is that it would remove some of the file size, but I guess in game assets take up more space than the actual engine.

    Oh well, heres hoping for a disc version. Nice idea and price, ruined by the small HDD.

  • riz23 #32 5 years ago

    Anyone who thinks £20 for a D/L only game like this is good value is seriously deluded. The whole point of digital distribution is to reduce overheads on disc manufacturing, packaging, manuals & shipping. I would not want to pay more than a tenner for this rehash that also requires me to own a previous Tomb Raider Game (wtf?). No way. Resist this effort and force publishers to rethink their DD strategies. If we encourage them we will all suffer in the long run.

  • Cyhwuhx #33 5 years ago

    .::: Wait... I need Legend!? Which buffoon at marketing is responsible for that decision!?

  • MBar #34 5 years ago

    Ha, I missed out the fact that you need to own TR:L, which I sold as it was cack. Well they can fuck right off then.

    You want this after thinking Legend was cack? What exactly are you expecting to be different?

    PS: Legend was great. Probably still the 360 game I've played the most of.

  • Benno #35 5 years ago

    game will probably use the tomb raider legend engine to reduce size

    or it could be a sales strategy, one that i found a tad hard to fathom

    either way i am for this, its the future

    /downloads a steam game

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #36 5 years ago

    Nice.

    By making it an addon to Legend, they get to use the 250 achievement points per addon rule, making it the same score for both the 4 episode downloadable version, and the boxed retail version (1000 each).

  • SleepyMagpie #37 5 years ago

    "Sounds fantastic. Anniversary was great on the PS2. But can a Legend 360 owner clear this up for me:

    Is Legend worth buying for the 360?
    I've heard tons praise for the PS2 version. But apparently things got taken out the 360 version and it was simply a port, no next gen features or graphics. I've seen alot of "7s" for Legend 360."

    Uhm, hello? Now I don't actually own a copy of the PS2 version of Legend, but I have both the PC and 360 version and I ended up playing the 360 version. The PS2 version looked and felt inferior to both of these. Both in handling and control, but mainly due to the excellent graphics you got out of the PC and 360 with NEXT GEN graphics enabled, which the PS2 cannot match at all. I ended up playing it on the 360 after I got my 40" Samsung LCD, and also because my PC's ATI X1800XT was straining under the NEXT GEN push at the time (gotta love Nvidia's 8800 series, my new rig doesn't break a sweat running LEGEND). ^^

    360's is THE VERSION of Legend. Go for it.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #38 5 years ago

    Interestingly more than 50% of the comments here are "WHY ONLY FOR LEGENDS OWNERS!" when the article states that there will be a disc release too. Oh well.

    Legends is a great game on the 360. I have no idea about parts left out that were in the PS2 version as I don't own the PS2 version but I am hearing this for the first time so it's probably not true. The graphics are also definetly enhanced. I find it looks quite nice, definetly better than any PS2 game. Remember there's a demo for the 360 version, you should try it.

  • hoathenfold #39 5 years ago

    Lets hope its not full of the same type of bugs that prevented me from completing Legend!!

  • effinwooly #40 5 years ago

    nice and cheap...........fair dues, i bet people still bitch though, shame

  • joeking #41 5 years ago

    Nice one krudster! Well chuffed at this news. Think I'll hold out for the disk release though. Looking forward to it all the same.