Phil Spencer has confirmed that the exclusivity deal that Microsoft made for Rise of the Tomb Raider with Square Enix has a duration. (Translation – It is a timed exclusive) Spencer when on to say when exclusivity to Xbox ends, “Who knows what Square Enix will do when they duration ends, it’s their game.”

Spencer has indicated that negative reaction to the exclusive deal did not necessarily come as a surprise and they planned to talk about the behind the scenes story that led to it being an Xbox exclusive this holiday season.

Microsoft has forged a long standing partnership with Crystal Dynamics and Tomb Raider over the course of several years. Spencer reminded everyone that they had been on their stage at E3 for a couple of years and the franchise has lived longer on Xbox than any other platform. Spencer says that it was not a case of targeting specific titles and Rise of Tomb Raider was one of the titles that they targeted.

As a platform holder, they are not going to invest in a game that is going to have a PlayStation version. It is simply is business. The investment of partnering on a big franchise title clearly benefitted Dead Rising 3 and their partners at Capcom.

Read more here and also read the Crystal Blog here as well.