MS to cut jobs at Rare

[YankeeH8er]

http://www.developmag.com/news/31306/Rare-restructures (http://www.developmag.com/news/31306/Rare-restructures)


Quote:
Development pipeline at much-loved Microsoft-owned British studio under review with possible job losses

Microsoft has confirmed to Develop that its UK studio Rare is currently undergoing a 'review' that could lead to job losses.

Coming as part of the organisational refocus already announced by Microsoft Game Studios in January, the move will see the world-renowned studio focus on three new areas, a statement said.

These are: "1) Expand the Xbox 360 customer base by delivering experiences that allow our customers to interact with our content in new and innovative ways", "2) Better support efforts to extend the appeal of Xbox LIVE as a social entertainment network to drive greater adoption across the Xbox 360 customer base" and "3) Continue delivering AAA gaming experiences that excite both our current and future customers".

The studio had already helped out not just on developing titles such as Banjo Kazooie for the 360, but also designed the new Avatar system for Xbox Live.

The Microsoft statement adds: "As we restructure to successfully execute against our shared strategy within this framework, we will be implementing a new approach to current projects in the pipeline that could serve as an industry-wide model for how to achieve a more efficient and scalable development process.

So sad, even though none of the Rare 360 games have been big sellers they have all been really good games. PD:Z still has the best designed MP of any FPS ever. Kameo was great for a launch game, and BK:N&B is a really fun game. I wish I had the time to invest to really get into it. I hope they announce PD 2 at either GDC or E3 this year.

[KANG the Crybaby]

The problem with Rare is, some of their appeal was lost after the 90s ended AND after they didn't have Nintendo's family friendly userbase to sell games too.

I guarantee you had those 360 games they made came out for the Wii they would be million sellers easily.

[YankeeH8er]

Oh I am sure they would, but I think a bigger problem for Rare is that they make cute looking games that are super hardcore. You wont find a more hardcore FPS on colsoles then PD:Z, and VP is a super hardcore game as well. There is so much depth to BK:N&B, I think the problem is people that like the visual style of their games are turned off by how complex they are, and the people that would like that complexity are turned off by the visuals. Some one of GAF claims that Rare has 4 360 games currently in development so hopefully those will all get announced soon.

[KANG the Crybaby]

is PD:Z worth pikcing up? I've never played it, is the single player good?

[YankeeH8er]

The sp is okay, it is brutally hard on the higher difficulties, and it can be hard to know what you are supposed to do in different parts. Co-op is amazing, you and your partner would have different things to do in different parts of the map and you would have to work together. It was so well desinged. MP is where it shines though. The maps are all scalable, you can play against bots in all but one mode, you can set the bots to all have different personalities, there are tons of weapons, each with aboth a secondary and a tertiary fire mode. There are so many different game types, there are standard ops like deathmatch and capture the flag, and then dark ops where you earn money and buy weapons in between rounds like counter strike. There is no jump!!!! It has this amazing analog zoom, which more games need to copy, if you are unarmed you can run up to an enemy and steal their gun. It really is an amazingly well made mp game. Definitely worth checking out, I think that there is an mp demo on marketplace that lets you play against bots. Check that out and see what you think.

[DarthArcturus]

yeay no jump button! :D

[Conjoshus]

Honestly, I can't think of a bad Rare game this gen.

Perfect Dark Zero = Really good
Kameo - fucking amazing
Viva Pinata - really good
Jetpack - Really good
Viva Pinata 2 - better than the first
Banjo 1 - Still awesome
Banjo 3 - absolutely fucking amazing

Too bad (as mentioned above) too many people are turned off by the visual style. I'm tired of only shooters on the Microsoft consoles. They are trying to expand the user base, and Rare is a must to keep around for that.

[Bruhaha69]

I'd love another Kameo or at least another action adventure game from Rare

[YankeeH8er]

I am really surprised that they have not made another XBLA game after Jetpack. I thought that game was really well received. I heard one of the groups at Rare that is done for sure is the DS group, so maybe they can take people from that and get them working on some new XBLA games.

[Hunter]

it sucks, they have put out nothing but quality. People are so fucking stupid.

[Bruhaha69]

Kameo still looks damn good. That water village.....go in there and do a first person look at the rocks near the waterfall with all the octopus people leaping off.....it looks great. Some of the best textures the 360 has had.

[YankeeH8er]

It is crazy how much is going on on-screen during the huge troll battles.

[Bruhaha69]

i wish they had more battles like that or that you could revisit them anytime you wanted. I really liked Kameo. Definitely a great launch title.

[Conjoshus]

Hell yes at all the responses above.

I remember shortly after the 360 released, they said regardless of how well Kameo does, it deserves a sequel. I guess they are letting us down on that one :(

[Luminous]

I had Kameo, sold it without finishing it, but just re-bought it at Circuit City (paid $8.50 new for it). All you jerks talking about it made me want to get it again.