Tomb Raider Anniversary as Series of Xbox 360 Downloads
Eidos announces first full retail-version of game via Xbox Live
Eidos is bringing Tomb Raider: Anniversary to the Xbox 360 later this year (September) in the form of four downloadable chapters released via Xbox Live Marketplace – the first time that a a serialisation of a full retail game has been made available in this way.
Jane Cavanagh, Chief Executive of SCi Entertainment, said in a statement, "We have created this version of Anniversary specifically for digital distribution as episodic content. This is part of our strategy to grow our presence in online and digital distribution as we believe there are huge growth opportunities arising from this delivery format and we intend to capitalize on the increasing demand for digitally downloaded content."
Episodes 1 & 2 plus a free training mission called "Croft Manor” are set to arrive on Xbox Live in September, with Episodes 3 and 4 following soon after, at a total cost of 2400 Microsoft points (£20.40) for all four episodes.
An old-fashioned DVD containing the full retail version of Tomb Raider Anniversary for Xbox 360 is also scheduled for release later in the year.
By 2010, the market for digitally downloaded games is expected to be worth $289m (£146m), with the nascent "games-on-demand" market expected to top $104m.
Rob Murphy, finance director of SCi, told today's Independent newspaper that selling directly to a consumer increases the return the company makes on a game by up to 20 per cent while also providing valuable information about the consumers buying the new Tomb Raider games and that the company is preparing to sell other games in this way if the Tomb Raider test works.
Read what we thought of PS2 version of Tomb Raider: Anniversary in our recent review.
Jane Cavanagh, Chief Executive of SCi Entertainment, said in a statement, "We have created this version of Anniversary specifically for digital distribution as episodic content. This is part of our strategy to grow our presence in online and digital distribution as we believe there are huge growth opportunities arising from this delivery format and we intend to capitalize on the increasing demand for digitally downloaded content."
Episodes 1 & 2 plus a free training mission called "Croft Manor” are set to arrive on Xbox Live in September, with Episodes 3 and 4 following soon after, at a total cost of 2400 Microsoft points (£20.40) for all four episodes.
An old-fashioned DVD containing the full retail version of Tomb Raider Anniversary for Xbox 360 is also scheduled for release later in the year.
By 2010, the market for digitally downloaded games is expected to be worth $289m (£146m), with the nascent "games-on-demand" market expected to top $104m.
Rob Murphy, finance director of SCi, told today's Independent newspaper that selling directly to a consumer increases the return the company makes on a game by up to 20 per cent while also providing valuable information about the consumers buying the new Tomb Raider games and that the company is preparing to sell other games in this way if the Tomb Raider test works.
Read what we thought of PS2 version of Tomb Raider: Anniversary in our recent review.
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