Rare Teasing a Brand New Character

[Squint_Eastwood]

This is a quote from Rares Wikipedia page. Its a summary of their time since Microsofts purchase until now;

"Despite solid reviews, their Microsoft titles sold worse than expected. As a result, Microsoft decided to restructure the studio during the end of the decade.In March 2010, the company opened a new facility in Fazeley Studios, located in Digbeth, Birmingham. Later that year, Microsoft confirmed that Scott Henson, a developer who previously worked on the hardware and software design of the new Xbox 360 console and Kinect for Xbox 360, replaced Mark Betteridge as Studio Manager and that their main focus will be on Kinect. According to Henson: "Kinect will be the main focus for Rare going forwards as it's a very rich canvas. This is just the beginning of an experience that will touch millions of people." Rare's first Kinect project was Kinect Sports, released in November 2010. Despite average reviews, the game was a commercial success, selling three million units as of May 2011.

They didnt set the world on fire sales wise until Kinect Sports. According to Scott Henson, Kinect will be Rares main focus. I hope he was qouted out of context but we shall see.

On another note, Microsoft take a lot of flack for their acquisition of Rare. It was business. If I feel sorry for anybody its microsoft themselves. They seemingly paid for a studio at its peak but then had to restructure it after its games recieved average reviews and poor sales. Still, at least they managed to get the rights to Banjo, Conker and Perfect Dark in the process. Small comfort after the money spent.