The last Summer of Arcade release won't get proper online play until the game comes to other platforms.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is scheduled to launch on the Xbox 360 in a little over a week as part of the Summer of Arcade promotion on Xbox Live, while the PS3 and PC (via Steam) versions will be out on September 28th. It may look like the PS3 and PC players are getting a lousy deal with the later launch date. However, that 360 version of the game will launch without a key gameplay feature that will eventually be present in the other versions of the game: online co-op.
Developer Crystal Dynamics has confirmed to Joystiq that Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light will not initially ship with its online co-op functionality. While the game does still support offline co-op, players who buy Lara Croft on the 360 will have to wait until September 28--the launch date of the other two versions--for the free patch that will enable online co-op support. Those other versions of Guardian of Light will launch with the online co-op in the download, so only the 360 release looks to be affected by the delay of this feature.
Your thousand-year-old guardian friend can still play with you, but he'll need to be on your couch. When was the last time you can remember online play being patched into a game post-release? I remember when Fable II had its co-op mode added through a day-one (or close to launch day) patch, but that was hardly as integral a feature to that game as the designed-for-multiplayer co-op action in Guardian of Light. We'll see if Lara Croft's downloadable debut still stands up without its online mode when it launches on the 360 on August 18.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is scheduled to launch on the Xbox 360 in a little over a week as part of the Summer of Arcade promotion on Xbox Live, while the PS3 and PC (via Steam) versions will be out on September 28th. It may look like the PS3 and PC players are getting a lousy deal with the later launch date. However, that 360 version of the game will launch without a key gameplay feature that will eventually be present in the other versions of the game: online co-op.
Developer Crystal Dynamics has confirmed to Joystiq that Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light will not initially ship with its online co-op functionality. While the game does still support offline co-op, players who buy Lara Croft on the 360 will have to wait until September 28--the launch date of the other two versions--for the free patch that will enable online co-op support. Those other versions of Guardian of Light will launch with the online co-op in the download, so only the 360 release looks to be affected by the delay of this feature.
Your thousand-year-old guardian friend can still play with you, but he'll need to be on your couch. When was the last time you can remember online play being patched into a game post-release? I remember when Fable II had its co-op mode added through a day-one (or close to launch day) patch, but that was hardly as integral a feature to that game as the designed-for-multiplayer co-op action in Guardian of Light. We'll see if Lara Croft's downloadable debut still stands up without its online mode when it launches on the 360 on August 18.
Wow, that looks like a pretty big FU to Microsoft. Release a gimped version to take advantage of the Summer of Arcade instead of actually getting things right?
Hmmm online co op not in at first and already announcing three dlc packs that will probably be overpriced. Can't wait to download the demo play it for 2 min laugh at it being bad then delete it forrrever.
No online co-op doesn't bother me in the slighest. Offline same couch co-op is a million times more fun and there are very few games these days that let you do that.
Trine didn't have online co-op either. You'd think in this day and age that if somebody is making a game where co-op is a big deal, making sure it works online would be be a pretty high priority.
If they're dropping something that important to meet their Summer of Arcade date, how rushed is the rest of it going to feel?
I can't imagine Microsoft is particularly pleased about this. Curious how many XBLA purchases they're gonna lose as a result of this.
I'll wait for online co-op to buy it but by then, who knows, maybe I'll buy it on PSN instead - or more likely, I'll have just totally forgotten about it.
I hope the people involved are embarrassed, because they should be.
Man, I guess the deadline wasn't met. Perhaps they don't want to sell any copies on the 360?
I would have to say this is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard happening.
Then again, I wouldn't play online anyway as I have a willing girlfriend who has a thing for Laura Croft. You know, because she wants to play and stuff.
Seems like they're rushing it out, just so Microsoft can say they did it first. Well, when the main draw of the game is frickin' coop, that's an awfully noticeable thing to leave out. Essentially, the real game will be coming out on both systems pretty much the same time. So much for "timed exclusive".
I think this is going to hurt sales and maybe reviews also as the game was constantly being advertised as a coop experience. I don't know what to make of the game yet as I obviously haven't played it but this is still a shame.
Couch co-op may be better, but my primary co-op partner lives 3000 miles away, and I know I'm not alone in that. Without a good way to get a feel for the co-op in the trial, I'm skeptical that I'll *ever* buy this game.
That's honestly one of the stupidest things ive heard a company doing in a while.
"yea so we're going to release this game as a part of the SUMMER OF ARCARDE!.HA!...just you only get to experience only half of the experience because we don't want to alienate the people who can't play the game on the console yet anyway"
The real question is this. Will anyone even give a shit about the game enough to keep playing it after september 28th?
It not like you can play co op across the different platforms so to delay it on the 360 just to release a patch later on to go along with the other versions make no sense. Also doesnt help that most peoples attention for arcade games lasts like a week at the most, so to release a patch adding co op a month later, no ones really gonna care.
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