When Square Enix announced and Microsoft confirmed that Rise of the Tomb Raider would be a timed exclusive for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, they left the exact dates of the exclusive's expiration unsaid. The preceding Tomb Raider reboot was a multiplatform hit across the Xbox 360, the PS3, and the PC, not to mention its remastered editions released on the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. To non-Xbox fans, the publisher revealed that Rise of the Tomb Raider would come to the PS4 approximately one year after its publication on the two Xbox consoles as the partnership with Microsoft was set to end, at the end of 2016. The same announcement promised a PC release in “early 2016,” with no further details.

Now, the possible range of release dates of Rise of the Tomb Raider on PC has been narrowed to January 2016 via an announcement on the Steam store. The game's page has also been updated to reflect the new information, although it is still missing key details such as price and system requirements. The reasoning behind the timing of the deal has not been revealed, but it is clear that the PC benefits from its status as a third party to competition between the consoles. PlayStation 4 owners will have to wait until a still-unspecified date in “holiday 2016” to claim their own copies of the game.

Several pieces of DLC for Rise of the Tomb Raider have already been revealed, including two story additions, Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch and Cold Darkness Awakened, and several new alternate outfits for Lara. While the additional campaigns promise to add hours of original gameplay to the Tomb Raider experience, the new outfits will add more unique resistances, upgraded abilities, and even weapons to enhance replay value. Here is Techraptor’s review of the Xbox One version of the game.

Do you think Rise of the Tomb Raider will be published soon enough on the PC, or has the wait cooled the anticipation?