If Sea of Thieves Succeeds?

[Veknoid_Outcast]

ThisGuyFooks said:

Veknoid_Outcast said:

As always, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. There's evidence out there suggesting team leads are given a lot of leeway, and also evidence, in the case of Lionhead or Black Tusk, of Microsoft meddling.

In the case of Rare, however, which is at the heart of this thread, there seems to be a clear history of Microsoft being hands-off, often to the detriment of the finished product.

How would you rate Rare's performance this gen?

According to Wikipedia, the studio currently has around 200 workers.

For the Xbox One they have released:

 

• Killer Instinct (0.11)
• Kinect Sports Rivals (0.62)
• Rare Replay (0.88)

In my opinion, considering the amount of workers they have, this has been a very underwhelming generation for them.

We have to wonder what will Microsoft do with them IF Sea of Thieves underperforms.

 

Right now, Rare is decent at best. Its last great game was 17 years ago. Rare Replay is one hell of a collection, but it's just that -- a collection.

Sea of Thieves is a "put up or shut up" moment for the company. Personally, as an XOne owner and a Rare fanatic growing up, I hope it turns out to be a great.

All that said, I do not think Rare ever made a mediocre game because some exec at Microsoft pushed the studio to do X when it wanted to do Y. I think Rare made some questionable design decisions on its own, and Microsoft was either unwilling or unable to steer them toward greatness. 

There's a line of thinking going around that pushes a lot of the blame on publishers, but I think that narrative will start changing. Studio leads are often responsible for screwing up their own products or introducing ugly business practices. I'm inclined to agree with Mat here: