Rise of the Tomb Raider now available at the Windows 10 Store and Steam

Who cares, now it looks great. 10 is the future

Lot of duplicates there.

Depends...Now it needs more games, and I'm not too sure about that since every AAA developer has their own app Origin - EA, Uplay- Ubisoft etc.

Can't say I hate Steam, but I hate the Store fanboys (where you buy, Steam or other) Store fanboyism must be the most pathetic form of fanboyism.
I will be supporting AAA games on the WinStore first because I think it will be better for me in the long run to have more outlets. Plain and simple.

I'm From Jamaica, and games get a decent markup when they get here, and if you want to shy away from blatant piracy an option like this is a good "cheaper" way of getting the game. I'll definitely support the MS store. I've had negative experiences with Steam so I hope MS Store option delivers

You get Xbox achievements and support with store games, so I love that. Also its sandboxed as is the nature of store apps which can be good for your system.

There's been a couple of updates to the store this week, probably trying to prep for this but looks like this dl progress has come unexpected...so I suppose we'll get another one. =p

thats so odd, obviously everyones got an opinion, just never heard anyone say they hate steam, and actually would rather buy a game from the windows store lol

Can this run on the Surface 3?

Probably but on low and at 720p.

No, it will not. The post clearly says what the minimum requirements are. My couple year old Alienware PC won't run this, a Surface 3 will definitely not run this. At least, not if you actually want to play it and enjoy it.

of course it will run! It doesn't have to be 60FPS to be playable. come on.

If you saw Dan's tweet just now, you get let off. If not, you get a slap across the face ;-)

What tweet? My next question would be if my Surface 2 could run Crysis 3 at 1080p 60fps ;p

4K or GTFO

4K is overrated.

minimum specs state: Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 650 2GB or AMD HD7770 2GB so not recommended.... you may be able to at a low resolution and everything set to low, but why bother at that point?

It also says i3

you need 6GB RAM...don't think the 3 has it. I'm worried if the SP3 won't do because of no Graphics card =[

Pro 3 ...yes

I'm glad they acknowledge here that the store is terrible with large downloads currently.  I've seen many of the same issues with a certain beta that is a 15GB download.

£41.00 . Does it work in surface pro 3

Cool. If I want a game and it's on the Win10 store... I'll be buying it. Valve keeps on pushing new stuff down my throat and I'd prefer only one company to do that instead of two.

Nobody is shoving anything down your throat don't get excited.

Download size is 26.04GB, for those that need to keep track of bandwidth.

Similar in size to the XBox One version.

It's kind of sad that the Windows store has these issues still.  If MS wants it to be taken seriously, the Store should be able to correctly show download progress, regardless of the size. 

You'd think, this being the first AAA game to hit the Windows 10 Store, that they might at least try to match the price on Steam. Currently I'm looking at it and it's £35.99 on Steam and £41.69 on the Windows 10 Store. So that's over 15% more expensive. If they're going to be charging console prices for PC games this is very quickly going to go the way of GFWL.

I would say that Project Spark is the first AAA game to hit the Windows Store. Nevertheless, yes, you're right that the Windows Store should have pricing parity with other digital stores on  PC. It's also a missed opportunity for them that they didn't secure timed exclusivity for the PC release (Windows 10 Store only for a month or something) and they didn't institute cross-buy and cross-sync with the Xbox One version.

Cross-Buy would persuade a lot of people to buy from the Store I think - Also...Games with Gold for PC?

Progress bar UI issues? How embarrassing.

meh

**** Steam. Buying it from the WS.

Well remember what happened to Games for Windows. Soon you'll be saying "**** WS".

I won't. I've always had a sense of hatred for stream since the beginning for no apparent reason. Btw, the Windows store version is built upon the newly proposed universal platform.

True. But MS are notorious in doing a complete 180 in their business decisions.

True, but most of the 180s performed are in the mobile field and this is the last year I'm going to support that. If they don't make me happy, I'll just get an iPhone and transform it to the so-called “iPhone Pro”.

But what's the point of UWP for games designed for PC? There's no benefit, you won't be able to play on your phone, not to mention that Surface doesn't have enough processing power to at least render it in 720p on medium. Steam is great platform for gamers, not ideal, but great and, albeit slowly, evolving.

I agree with most of your point, but what does Surface have to do with it? All new computers have Windows 10.

Just that if you have it UWP won't magically make it run on such hardware. :)

Maybe future proof the game? Who knows, in a couple years we might get phone hardware powerful enough to run it, just like how we now have the older GTA games running on our phones. If not phone hardware, then at least the Surface Pro and Surface Book lines. Less work for the developer in the long run I guess :P. Would be cool if it turns out that both systems are utilizing the same or somewhat similar code considering both are running Windows 10.

Benefits -
1) Future - Being non-mobile albeit being built upon UWP lays the foundation of bringing it to the WM first. It will be easier for devs to bring the mobile variants of these games to WM first (when the HW catches up. Eg - Bioshock for iOS or (insert any game you know of)
2) UWP - It only encourages devs to write more and more UWA's. We want that, right?

I would ask why...but you said no reason. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

Remember when the threat of the new Windows Store selling AAA games is what had Valve take an anti-Windows 8 stance before it even came out? Turns out they had nothing to worry about. But now it's final happening.

Proof that no matter what, every company hates competition. They would rather have a monopoly than have to innovate all the time to make better products and outsell the competition.

So creating a whole new SteamOS and giving it away for free isn't trying to innovate?

No it isn't. They didn't create a whole new OS, they reskinned a Linux distro and threw in their crappy nagware into it by default... They even failed at making a distro that was good enough for games, as most popular distros still beat the crap out of steamos when it comes to gaming performance!

The irony in this comment is hilarious

Are all the settings available in the Windows Store version? 

Nice game to push the store in a new level. I hope to see allthe promised and more games pushed soon, fable, killer instinct, gigantic, gears of war. I dont use steam and never will, so this makes it nice... better than steam, since i wouldnt need to install a crappy software like steam on my comp. 

Apart from publishers or developers that have agreement with MS, there won't be that big of an interest in Store. People that do buy big releases either use steam or other game centered platform. Plus, it's money and time to make regular and UWP versions and support them. Why do you say that steam is crappy?

"Apart from publishers or developers that have agreement with MS, there won't be that big of an interest in Store." Source? "People that do buy big releases either use steam or other game centered platform." So it's time to change that... At one time anyone that moved either walked or rode a donkey... "Plus, it's money and time to make regular and UWP versions and support them." Ah, yes. Because it's perfectly free to make it for Steam!

1. I dont have source, but it's hard not to notice that only RotTR came out and games that are either published by microsoft or developed in partnership. 2. Em, well you have origin, uplay, gmg, gog and others for that. And you can get them for other versions of windows or OSes from there. I really see no benefit buying from widows store. And to be frank, xbox app and achievments are useful to those that play on xbox. There's absolutely no benefit to pc gamer. 3. Well, steam version is main version with steamworks integrated. This is version bringning in the most amount of money. Not really sure people would go to windows store, mainly occupied by apps, to buy a game. That's the reason Microsoft couldn't get exclusivity for Store version, IMHO.

1. Also not hard to notice that Windows 10 hasn't been out nearly long enough for most devs to come up with anything big. 2. As I said before... It's time to change that. All you're doing is restating yourself. No, they're quite useful to PC players too, actually. How about the real-money tradein, hm? 3. Once again, it's time to change that. Just because it's the way something is now doesn't mean we should just accept it and sit around letting it be. For me, the benefits of it running from the Store are tremendous; none of the dumb registry stuff, much, much faster startup times, very nice, tight integration with Xbox friends...
 

1. Remember times of Games for windows - live? Yeah, that same had been said about Vista and 7. No faith in Microsoft. And frankly there's enough stores already. Steam is great one, albeit slowly evolving. 2. Change what exactly? Amount of options avaliable? How is it useful if you're not tied to xbox ecosystem(no friends. etc.)? You mean like when you sell cards or other staff via market on Steam and can buy games? I don't see anything like that in store or in xbox app. 3. What registry stuff? Start up times change if you change your hardware for better one, not because you change store. Store version doesn't magically become less demanding hardware wise. Once again, most pc players don't have xbox friends as they don't have xbox, so what's the point?

1. Who decides there are enough of stores? 2. How is Steam useful if you're not tied to it? All you're debating is your choice of platform. No, not like that. If you don't know about it, I'm not taking the time to explain it. 3. WHAT!? Sorry, this conversation is on the verge of over. No, it most certainly does affect startup time; not necessarily game startup time, but overrall startup time. I can launch a Windows game immediately. A Steam game has to start up Steam (slow), check for updates (slow), install updates almost every time (slow), then finally boot the game.   You've obviously not even used Xbox enough to argue the point. For the record, I use both native Windows games and Steam games regularly. Xbox just simply gives a better overrall experience. Over and out.

1. Who decides there are not enough? 2. No, I'm debating benefits of distribution client. For now Steam, even if you personally don't like it, is the best. Not ideal, still the best. 3. Steam starts realy fast for me or I don't need to wait for it to start if you make it load on startup. Steam checks updates super fast, installs them fast as well and boots game fast. What hardware are you using that it opens that slow? Yes, I don't own xbox one to talk about it. I don't really see any games of interest to me as of now. Or you're talking about xbox app?  Steam games are windows native and can be launched using exe file in steam folder. :)

What do you have against steam? I own over 200 games on it and have never had an issue. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

I lost 60 games without a refund when my old ISP went belly up and took my email with them. Since then... I recommend everything other than Steam.

Any chance of redeeming the code for the Store version after buying NVIDIA cards? I just bought one and the code only linked to Steam account ...

If it's a Steam code you get given with the card then that's where you have to redeem.

Will this run on Lumia 950XL?

Oh ya.

Nice! DL'ing now.

LMBO!!!!

512MB support?

640, because that's all anyone would ever need.

ah HA...you so funny. =^ D

Still downloading. Phone storage almost full....

I wonder if RotTR will support mods...

If you have purchased the game on your Xbox One can you download it for free on your PC ? I imagined when Microsoft first announced Xbox games coming to PC this is what would be possible.

Probably not because Square Enix is the publisher and I don't believe they will support cross buy. Though hopefully Microsoft will start doing so for the games they publish.

I believe they stated before that Xnox games won't be "Universal" like all other apps. You have to buy it for each platform.

Unless the game supports cross-buy, which is a decision left up to the publisher.

I wish this was possible. If nothing else, they should allow for syncing saved games between platforms so that I can pick up my Xbox One progress on my laptop while away from home. Microsoft, you need to push for more new Xbox and Windows 10 games to support this!

You are right. That is the way that Microsoft can beat both Steam and Playstation at the same time: unify Xbox across devices. Everything is cross-buy, cross-play, cross-sync across Xbox One and Windows 10, via Xbox Live, with stackable Xbox achievements.

@coip, if you have cross sync then say good bye to stackable achievements. Cross buy, don't see that happening any time soon. As more digital outlets = more money :P.

No. You have to buy it.

What are the advantages of downloading the game via the windows store vs. Steam?

The Windows Store includes everything the Steam version does, plus you get Xbox achievements, integration with the Xbox app, slightly better performance due to not needing to keep running steam in the background or overlay, no forced app updates so no worries about being unable to play the game offline, and since its UWP no Windows Registry bloating to worry about (uninstalls and reinstalls without side effects)

Damn, well said.

Xbox achievements are useful if you have Xbox.
There's no performance issues with steam or overlay, plus for those achievements to be recorded xbox app or some kind of software has to run in the background.
Forced updates aka patches are needed if you want your game or program to work great, and you can go into offline mode in steam.
Yeah, like some apps that showed up in store update even though I had them uninstalled?

Xbox achievements are useful if you like achievements, or use Windows 10, since you can view them and get any of the extra goodies that come with some of them (like artwork or account pics) that way. If you don't care about achievements or extra goodies like that at all though, they don't provide further value. On the performance side, I said slightly better performance (which is something you can even verify yourself), which is very different from claiming there are performance issues (of which I wouldn't have proof without trying both first myself). The Xbox features on UWP are part of the API just like they are on Xbox 360 and Xbox One, instead of the overlay software approach that Games for Windows - LIVE and Steam use, which means while the Store version simply uses an API call to record an achievement, the Steam version has to communicate with a third-party process running on your computer. On the performance point, let's assume for the sake of discussion that UWP requires the entire Xbox app to run (again, not true, but it's how we would get closest to what steam does). I have checked this in a handful of different machine configurations and both apps consume roughly the same amount of memory and CPU time when in idle. The core difference is the additional background tasks and services steam runs besides the app, meaning both a bigger memory footprint and slightly higher CPU usage. Again, this translates to a slight performance difference, and one that is smaller the better hardware your computer has, but there is a non-zero difference between the two (and this is the point where I remind you again, that while the full Steam app is required to play a steam game, the full Xbox app isn't, meaning a slightly bigger difference on both memory and CPU). I'm not claiming updates aren't important. What I am claiming is that while the Windows Store doesn't mandate games to be updated before they can be played (although the developer / publisher can. Online-only games wouldn't work without a required update anyways :P), Steam does. If Steam knows a game needs an update, it will refuse to launch it even in Offline mode until you update it. And speaking of Steam's offline mode (which requires you to have installed and launched the game once Online, and to have installed the latest update as of the last time you were online), it's still an additional process that is more complicated than UWP's. To play a UWP game offline, you just disconnect from the internet. Not sure what you are referring to with your last sentece, but I'm guessing you're talking about built-in apps that you uninstalled while the Store was trying to update them (probably fresh out of the box / right after the upgrade process). I fail to see their relevance to the Tomb Raider topic though.

Xbox achievments are only really useful to those tied to xbox ecosystem, not to pc gamers. If you play on your xbox one then you won't buy it on pc as well. I, as a pc gamer, has no use for xbox app that I can't uninstall. Plus, you can't get money from selling cards and other stuff on market and then buying games with them in Steam. Artworks and avatars hold little to no value. You can find them on the net. And I will use shadowplay to record videos. You are right, but if you play on pc wouldn't you have good enough parts to not notice it in a slightest? If steam isn't connected then it can't find the update thus not forcing you to update. I'm thinking that version from store will also ask for online first time. Plus, is there really any point to it being UWP? There's no benefit. If store can look for updates to apps I uninstalled and show them to me in the list, then same can happen to game releases, meaning that they leave a lot of traces in registry as well.  

That's just your opinion, that is coming from someone who is already commited to a competitor's ecosystem. Xbox achievements for PC gamers hold the same value as Steam achievements for those who aren't already invested in either. Xbox achievements offer some extra perks (dev and game dependant) that may or may not be valuable to different people. Funny you should mention Shadowplay, a proprietary solution, as a replacement for the hardware-agnostic GameDVR. Again just because you bought into a competing ecosystem doesn't mean this one holds no value. Furthermore, both GameDVR and the Screenshots feature are Windows 10 features, not exclusive to UWP. You can use them without performance penalties even on Steam :P For most gamers there's still going to be a performance difference. Since the PC gamer crowd is obsessed with framerates and resolution, I would say it matters for anyone with anything less than the Recommended specs x2. The average person will probably stop noticing a difference on hardware just above the minimum requirements (the benefits of a lower memory and CPU footprint are extremely dependant on the specific hardware and the game itself... If the last time steam was online it detects an update for a game, even if you don't download it or cancel it, it will refuse to let you play in offline mode until you go online and install the update. In contrast, the Windows Store will simply let you play the version you already have installed, and let you download the update the next time you go online. That's what steam's forced updates means. Also the Windows Store, beyond the download process, doesn't require an internet connection to play your games, ever (that's up to the developer to enforce anything like that within the app, the Store / Windows / Microsoft won't force you to be online. Again, this is the opposite of what steam does). The Store showing you updates to apps you uninstalled has to do with the Store's / Windows' caching rather than some weird update enforcement / app reinstalling feature you seem to be thinking of. If you have automatic updates enabled or the Live Tile enabled, the store will periodically check for updates (in a fashion similar to Windows Update). Depending on your update preferences and network environment, app updates may not get installed as soon as the update is found, but rather saved in the cache for "next time" (anything from later that night to the next time you manually check for updates). Since the store first checks for updates (alongside Windows Update) the first time you go online after installing Windows (unless you disable all automatic updates during installation), there's always a very good chance of preinstalled apps showing up with pending updates even after removing them. For more details on how UWP works (and why stuff like not messing with the Windows Registry is a good thing) there's a handful of videos from Build 2015 you can look up.

Apart from avatars and artwork that can be found around the web, what are those benefits? And that's the problem with PC crowd - you have to be invested to be pc gamer and just by sheer amount of titles avaliable Steam or other stores are a way to go. Though many go for steam as it has a lot of features and the biggest community. It's really hard to sway that crowd to buy games from store that are locked to win10. Once again, it's PC, not console. People come to PC to have a variety of options. Yeah, gameDVR is the only useful thing that is hardware-agnostic. You can get screenshots via Steam btw. So, it's partially useful. :) We are, but there is still not that big of an impact from steam, not at all. That's why I said that if it didn't detect and update, you're free to play without it. And if you're using steam or store you have no problem being online. And I don't see real benefit if you're not developing some indie game that you want to run across all devices.

The performance boost from closing steam is negligible, currently the windows store version doesn't support exclusive full screen, you can't turn off vsync (Which is a nightmare if you have a gsync monitor), you can't use SLI/Crossfire, you can't use third party overlays, there's no possibility for modding. Windows store games are in their current state are not (and shouldn't be) the future of PC gaming.

Thanks for the awesome responses! I appreciate it!

Stream does not affect performance. The big difference is, buying thru the store means you are now locked into windows 10 to play it. Buying thru steam means you get cloud save, and more than likely all OS support (eventually, if not day one). Steam has achievements too if you are into that sorta thing. And steam runs games in offline mode. Don't spew lies. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

Windows Store version has cloud saves too, and support for all future versions of Windows (no need to support ancient versions that came out 4+ years ago :P. And in the case of this game, only Windows is supported regardless of the store you buy the game from anyways). For a more in-depth discussion of the Steam footprint on your machine and the limitations of the Steam offline mode compared to Windows 10's "offline mode", please refer to my reply to MarcoTwigo above.

But there's no point to limit yourself to just windows 10. That's exactly why PC gamers love pc - many options unlike consoles. No point at all.

By that same logic on Consoles you aren't limited to the one console. You could go to a previous console instead. For an apples to apples comparison, with Rise of the Tomb Raider you are limited to Xbox One and Windows 10, or Xbox 360 and Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1. Remember, we are talking about the Rise of the Tomb Raider game in this article, which is only available on Windows and Xbox at the moment :P

No, you're limited to one console if own one. On PC however you can choose from wide variety of games from old sold through gog or steam, to newest releases sold through all the stores that run on different version of windows. And Rise of the Tomb Raider can be played on windows 7 and up if you buy it on steam. Mind you, windows 7 has the biggest market share still. :)

@darkpgr ​ , I logged in just to up ⬆ vote and salute you -- well done.

Other advantages for Windows Store games will be cross-buy, cross save, and cross-platform play with Xbox One versions.. That will be on a game-by-game basis though but hopefully Microsoft pushes this advantage heavily in the near future. I'd definitely pick up some Indies titles from the Windows Store if they were cross-compatible with the Xbox One and Windows 10 PC.

Man! I cant buy the game through my visa and mastercard debit card!
Has microsoft removed and made, purchase through credit card only?
India

I never had debit card option. Just PayPal or credit card.

From personal experience, Debit card issues are usually a problem with your bank, who is blocking credit purchases (they are handled slightly different). The Store officially only supports Credit Cards, so if your bank doesn't like the Debit Card being used like a Credit Card (or they put some lock in your account for it) you would run into issues. I do not have intimate knowledge of Microsoft's payment back-end though so I could be wrong :P

If you're TD call your bank. 60k+ cards glitches and read expired so no payments go through. Happened to me.

I never did have any issue purchasing metrotube using my master debit card(2yrs back). I think they've stopped accepting now!
Well, thank you buddies for the reply.

I wish I had seen this before I left home....I would bought and started the download already... :-(

Sorry, this is Steam only purchase no brainer. Cloud save, and can be installed on any OS. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

Steam is nothing but Skymall for PC games--a parasite and an undeserved monopoly. Many people hope that Microsoft goes all out with bringing Xbox to the Windows 10 Store just so we can watch Steam die like it deserves to.

Or maybe all download services can go die in a fire and we can just buy direct from developers/publishers when we buy online so that other companies don't leech money from a sale that they shouldn't have any part in, in the first place.

Steam version can only be installed on PCs with Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or 10. Windows Store version can be installed on any PC with a version of Windows that includes the current version of the Windows Store (Windows 10 1511 and above) And both include Cloud Saves. So if you really need support for an ancient OS and/or outdated hardware... you probably should be playing something else, preferably less hardware-intensive games...  

Steam version can be installed on windows 7 and up, while Store version can only be installed on windows 10. And many people are quite happy with win7 which is not that ancient and has quite the market share. It also works great for games and for gamers.

Windows 7 came out in 2009. By technology standards, that's ancient. Not counting the advancements we have had in Windows resource management (and specially the CPU scheduler to enhance performance of lightly-threaded applications on multi-threaded environments) since WIndows 8. Seeing how the loud "PC Gamer" crowd complains about 3-year-old hardware on current-gen consoles "holding back gaming", you should be really worried about the performance loss and how badly gaming is being held back by an OS designed for hardware from 6+ years ago. If your hardware is old enough to have no use for a modern Operating System, you are probably one of the cases that would gain the most from a lower memory and CPU footprint, just sayin'

It did, but there's not that big of a difference if any at all applied to games. When Dx12 will start to leave it's mark and if it'll live up to the promise then we can talk about benefits of upgrading. :) Midn you, only now we see games utilise Dx11 to it's fullest. Dx12 will really catch on if and when win10 will take all that market share from win7. :) I'm using win10 if you should know, but I skipped 8 entirely. I do admit that 10 loads faster, but I still miss win7 look, even if I'm comfortable with new "vision". Apart from loading time of OS, which was fast on win7 on my SSD as well, I don't really see improvement in games. :)

Well Fable Legends was that big. But it's a closed beta, so that doesn't really count. Plus, I think they've gotten it down to around 14GB now.

They got a reduction in size only because of Molyneux's empty promises.

Well I admit to ignorance in that area; I have no idea what you're talking about. But at least some of the size reduction was definitely due to optimization.

What? He isn't even there anymore... =\

The more people purchase apps and games from the W10 store, the more developers bring their apps and games to W10.

I wish there was an Xbox 1 and Xbox 1.5 with better graphics Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

Waiting for skidrow release ! Yay Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

Why can't I just install a game from a disc any more?

It would take 18486 floppies.

@signal-2-noise, lol!

G2a man

Its too much better wait for a sale on steam or get it on g2a when the price drops. Not worth only for single player. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

I'm looking forward to seeing all that proud Steam users downloading Gears, ReCore, Fable Legends and Halo Wars 2 from Windows Store :-D

I wonderif this would work on the Surface Pro 4 even though it doesn't have a dedicated GPU, anyone know?

Someone on thurott.com said it runs on the Core i7 Pro 4

@LaRae White. Probably, but not with a very high frame rate. If you want playable, your going to have to tone it down alot even then it may not be an enjoyable experience.

I am still butthurt for games for windows live, no store for me. Plus I love having shelves of game boxes; bought the physical version and it comes off with steam redeem code

Good, because the store is totally reliable and doesn't ever stop working. /s

Whereas Steam is so ridiculously secure /s :P.

Since I am yet to get this on Xbox I think I'll get it on pc instead. Windows Store version too. Just to see how it goes. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

Phones with 512 MB RAM supported?

surface pro 4 ain't happeing ......  crashes after initial video...  no return policy ....there goes $50 down the tubes!

I am assuming that things like GeForce Experience wouldn't work with the Windows Store version? Also how about all the graphics settings, and N-Vidia specific enhancements, would they work?

Is there any way to copy W10 app so if I format my PC i can re-install it. RoTR is 26GB n India Broadband sucks.It will take aprx 10 days for me to download.

Anybody knows where does this fils install? I downloaded it but wasnt asked where to install?

There will be a folder "WindowApps", Probably in  OS drive. You can also move the game to another drive using the inbuilt AppManager, But even if you find the folder Good luck opening that.