Shadow of the Tomb Raider has seen a spike in negative reviews on Steam following a reduction in the game’s price. In the UK, at least, it’s now possible to achieve a whopping 47 per cent discount on the Croft Edition bundle – which includes a wallpaper, skills booster, season pass, game soundtrack, and three weapons / outfits – and as such it can now be downloaded for just £44.34. Similarly, the Standard and Digital Deluxe editions of the game have seen reductions of 34 and 36 per cent respectively.

Understandably, this news hasn’t gone down well with some people, particularly those who paid full price for the game four weeks ago. Conversely, this is great news for those who have yet to experience Lara Croft’s latest outing, and they now have the opportunity to travel to the Peruvian jungle on a bargain basement ticket.

Of course, with Steam being Steam, the controversial news has negatively impacted the Shadow of the Tomb Raider review scores. One person tried to hide their true feelings by stating: “Ripppppppeeeed off for the pre order, thanks guys, half the price for the dlc pack after a month, woowwwww.” Another commented: “Love how this game goes on sale a month after release. Consumers get fkd for pre-ordering.. Probs won’t ever get another TR game now.” So it’s possible that the negative review spike had something to do with the game’s recent discount. Just a hunch 😉

Can we deduce from this that Square Enix is unhappy with how Shadow of the Tomb Raider has been selling? It’s possible, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s been selling “badly”; the 2013 reboot did insanely well in terms of sales, but the publisher still expressed bitter disappointment at the time. (That being said, Tomb Raider 2013 had a development budget of something like $100,000,000, so it needed some pretty impressive numbers to turn a profit…)

Moreover, we have to bear in mind that Lara has been up against the likes of Spider-Man and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey this autumn, as well as other upcoming titles that some people might have been saving their pennies for, such as the now-released Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Red Dead Redemption 2.

But is it cool to spam the review section to make your voice heard? Probably not. Reviews are an important way for people to gauge if they want to purchase a game, so one would hope that a person’s assessment is both thorough and unbiased. Making noise on social media is always a good shout though, and indeed many people have already taken this option. Maybe swing by the official Facebook page and let the team know what you think. (Be nice though 🙂 )

 

Personally, I agree it’s all a bit sucky, but then it’s inevitable that you’re going to pay more for a game at launch than, say, a few months down the line. Admittedly, with Shadow these are quite hefty deductions within a short time-frame, and I must admit I am surprised that the prices have been slashed so soon, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it; it’s just one of those things, sadly.

Anyway, you could always click here and order the game via Amazon on the PS4 and pay full price 😉 At least then you’d be helping to support this website! Thank you thank you.

Alternatively, click here to order it on the Xbox One. Thank you thank you thank you.

How do you feel about the sudden Shadow of the Tomb Raider discount? Are you happy if it means more sales for Lara? Or do you feel somewhat cheated as a consumer who paid full price only a month ago? Let me know in the comments below.