Rise of the Tomb Raider might feature microtransactions that modify gameplay. According to numerous listings on the Xbox One Store, there are a variety of packs available for Rise of the Tomb Raider that provide additional challenge and benefits. For example, the Gold Pack contains “A set of 5 Expedition Cards, guaranteed to contain at least one Rare Card. Cards can be used in all extra gameplay modes.”
If you read the description of the Wild Pack, is says, “A set of 5 Expedition Cards, each of which will have a highly unique impact on gameplay. Who knows what creative, crazy, or even Rare Cards are within? Cards can be used in all extra gameplay modes.” The fact that you don’t know what the Wild Pack contains means that you can buy the Wild Pack many times and each time it’ll give you cards with different modifiers.
It seems that packs will be priced differently too. Some packs guarantee Rare Cards and others guarantee Uncommon Cards. For example, the description of the Silver Pack states, “A set of 5 Expedition Cards, guaranteed to contain at least one Uncommon Card. Cards can be used in all extra gameplay modes.”
This came as a shock to me to be honest. I guess Square Enix wants a return on their investment sooner rather than later. Limiting a game’s release to Xbox One and Xbox 360 limits initial sales so this is probably their next best solution. I’m definitely not going to be buying these packs, that’s for sure.
João is a games journalist, Senior Editor at XDA Developers. They contributed 156 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: previously reported for Neowin before joining XDA Developers in 2021, where he leads coverage of Windows, Microsoft, and hardware.