Rare isn't Rare because of numerous staff changes that have gone on consistently since they left Nintendo.  It has nothing to do with leaving Nintendo and going to Microsoft, but a lot of staff members have left since then.  This article shows that Rare is continuing to dissolve and further and further.

They've dissolved to the point where it means nothing that MS bought them.  You buy a company for the people that make the company great.  You don't buy for the brand name "Rare."

If their most relevant title is Kinect Sports, from both a fan perspective and business persepctive then they aren't worth much.  Kinect Sports has stagnated too much and hasn't even passed 3 million.  If you need a killer app for a piece of hardware then you want to count on those big name companies like Rare.  They didn't deliver(even on a Wii Sports Rip-off!) and MS still wants to make them the center piece for Kinect.

"hasn't even passed 3 million" Kinect has sold 8.43 million... Kinect Sports is on 2.69 million... That according to ms calculator on windows is 31.338 percent... thats pretty freaking good.

Dance Central and Your Shape is changing the way some people look at dance and fitness games... so they are killer aps to an extent.

Kinect sports was never meant to be a killer app for MS. It was meant to be their Wii Sports, or Sports Champions. It is the game that if you have a Kinect and you want a second game nice and easy, sports is it. Wii sports is built in... you know this dont you, the only place its not is Japan, that is like me saying wow Kinect adventures is selling 1:1 with Kinect... it is in the box. Not one knows how wii sports would have done seperately, in fact it is not that much of a strong seller in comparion in Japan as far as I am aware.

Your last sentence ignores the fact that Wii Sports cannot be compared to Kinect Sports simply for the fact that one comes with the Console/Motion device and one doesn't.

OKAY this is funny. People were praising GT5 sales and comparing them to GT4 which is funny when one was released during the holidays one wasnt. Sales are still sales. The sales are dropping because it is past Christmas... why is this a mystery to sooo many people. After Christmas all sales have been plateauing. This is fact.

When I say Wii Sports I mean the Sports franchise in general.  Kinect Sports is competing with Sports resort. Because they're both non-pack in games so they are more accurate measures for whether people actually want a particular piece of software.

Sports Resort was out while Kinect Sports was in development so there is no excuse for making it seem like it's competing with the original Wii Sports pack in from 4 years ago.  It's a mimic in content direction, but not in sales.  This should clear up the last sentence.

I refuse to believe that MS did not plan Kinect with at least one of their titles being the Killer App.  And I believe it is Kinect Sports because Rare as we now know, is the center piece of Kinect, and Kinect Sports was Rare's main title for Kinect.  If it was planned as an ordinary game it would be a success, but it was planned to rival the Wii Sports series, and it hasn't shown it's might give the plateau

Then say the sports franchise!

Kinect Sports is competing with other Kinect games, when you get the available ground that Wii has on Kinect then compare it to Sports resort. But hey lets play it your way.

the attachment rates on either are 3.4 for resort and 3.13 for sports. Kinect Sports is holding well and truly its own.

MS released 2 launch titles, one came with the game, they wanted to release it before christmas. MS is also very strong on their 3rd party. Games will be coming you just have to wait. The first killer app for Sony was prob uncharted or LBP or ratchet and clank whatever came first, Xbox was Halo, Gears of War, Mass Effect or Bioshock again whatever came first. Killer apps are very very rarely part of a launch line-up.

I will accept the fact that there is no reason why any piece of hardware doesn't have the potential to have a killer app.  I will certainly wait beyond 4 months.  But until then, I say this hardware is only representative of an initial hype, not because of excitement about the sales-dwindling software.

Secondly, I'm not trying to play it my way.  Sorry if it came off that way.  But I think it's clear that Wii Sports is 4 yrs old and with it's latest reincarnation being out way before Kinect Sports came about, the competition was with the only game that proved it was a killer app by not being a pack in - Sports Resort.

Also, this may be an entirley seperate discussion, but why is Kinect not selling in Japan?  Is this because of MS having an already dissatisfactory response in Japan, or is it because there is something different about Kinect Sports than either Wii Sports games.  Because somehow both Wii Sports sold very well in Japan.

It is coming close to the best sold game in Japan for the 360. It is doing reasonably well though for a 360 game/hardware unit.

This hardware is certainly running on intial hype, but that is good, for most of the people who have played it they seem it can last, if their friends and if their friends etc etc see it that will mean more sales.

The whole point of the massive massive massive marketing campaign was to start word of mouth. Whether that has started or whether that is ready to start. When you can start using voice options for the Kinect in places other than the US, UK, Canada and a few other places. Why they didn't begin with that was a mistake they clearly wanted to get it out some time after move, that is why a lot of the software that should have been in it is coming out now, see eye brows tech.

Does there need to be a killer app? Of course, though will it be a launch title? No, does it need to be? probably not. The biggest question and its longetivity is this, will there be enough different games to sustain its success till a killer app comes out? That I dont know

Kinect Sports has sold nearly what microsoft initially expected its kinect device to sell. Thus it is very very reasonable to assume they thought kinect sports would initially sell at max 1million units. There  is no way kinect sports sales aren't exceeding microsofts most rosey early predictions. They are cutting staff most likely because as said sadly they will probably focus on kinect from now on and won't need as many artists.

Eh thats a weird way to put it. The artists they probably cut were simply probably extras that they didnt need for a game. Kinect will need just as many artists haha, but they will need better ones.

We always get these things about MS hiring so there might be one for rare coming up soon. On this case we really don't know.