What? Seriously?

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I feel strangely unmoved. After giving the thumbs-up to Xbox’s showing at E3, their Gamescom conference was a modest affair that kept its head down.

If you missed the event, here are the top five take-aways from their show in Germany.

1. What? Seriously?

It was a benign start; Crystal Dynamics were dragged onto the stage, discussed Rise of the Tomb Raider (following up their reboot which birthed a tiger-murdering icon) and seemed ready to leave without making a mark. Then they announced, almost by-the-by, that their game would be an Xbox One exclusive. The what now?

The best of Xbox One at Gamescom 2014
Lara’s sent many PS4 fans to therapy with her exclusivity announcement (Pic: YouTube)
MORE: Rise of the Tomb Raider is exclusive to Xbox

Calling this a ‘surprise’ would be an understatement of the biggest variety. There was initial confusion over whether this deal was permanent, but due to talk of it being ‘only on Xbox’ during 2015 my guess is that it’s timed. That’s great for execs, advertisers and Microsoft fans. Not so much for anyone else.

2. Annnnnd in the blueeeee corner…


If anything’s leapt up my list of ‘cringe-worthy staging’ during Gamescom, it’d be awkward sports narration of multiplayer matches.

We were treated to this via Evolve’s developers as they ran commentary on a battle against their latest monster, the Kraken. The amusing ludicrousness helped brighten up the show. Especially thanks to them wearing baseball caps backward. Nailed it.

3. Quantum awesome