Rare restructures

Michael French Today, 10:25am

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.

In order to achieve these goals, the company is reviewing the current composition of its development teams and there is the possibility that a small number of current positions could be lost as a result of these changes."

Studio manager Mark Betteridge added: “As the entire industry struggles to address the increasing scale and cost of development, we too have felt a need to restructure our current approach so we can speed development and better manage the scale required to create high quality games. With four projects recently underway, now is the right time to make this change.

"Throughout its history, Rare has demonstrated a willingness to embrace new approaches and commitment to delivering game-changing experiences to our customers. This announcement is no different and builds on that tradition as we work with MGS to make interactive entertainment as culturally relevant in people’s lives as books, movies and television are today.”

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

Wow. With big restructuring, it could affect the release date of those 4 projects.  They are probably bringing them more in line to do most of their work on the NXE.

Why does Microsoft keep cutting jobs in their gaming department?

Edit - It says "could" but it sounds like it is almost sure to happen. I just do not understand why MS is cutting though while I haven't heard about Sony cutting any and they aren't doing as well right now in sales like MS is.

Poor devs.

Rare, let me give you an advice: the best restructuration you may have is to come back to Nintendo.

I assume Ensemble and ACES were dropped because Microsoft doesn't see them as very important for their console, which obviously is a much higher priority than Games for Windows. Bungie weren't cut, but were rather let go. Very literally. They wanted out to keep from being absorbed by Microsoft Games Studio and losing their identity.

I think it's because Microsoft has ambitions of turning MGS into a powerhouse publisher, judging from their actions and also from things that Kudo Tsunoda has said. They seem to think it's more desirable to work closely with third parties to make their "first party" games than to go through all the expense of keeping up a bunch of studios.

I just feel sorry for them. To me it sounds like MS have no idea how to increase market share or audience so are relying on a game developer to do it for them.

Ironically it is a former Nintendo 2nd party that is now competing against Nintendo to make the best "mainstream user friendly" network and software. Basically Rare have got too much weight on their shoulders and i wouldn't be surprised if MS dropped them, after a few more titles, and tried something else.

Question i have is who owns copyright on the avatars?

Who do you think?

Also, it does look like M$ is going to be putting the NXE squarely on Rare's shoulders.  Could be a good thing, could be a bad thing.  I, however, am interested in what is cooking at Rare.

This//I totally agree with you on this bra//seriously I mean Microsoft is trying to become this big giant publisher like EA and such.

microsoft.  rare is 100% microsoft.

I'm not sure I understand the strategy as their actions seem to contradict their intentions.  How do you get to be a big 'powerhouse' publisher without owning lots of studios? I think there's a dimishing number of quality third-party developers that aren't publishers themselves or in some way affilitated with another large 'powerhouse' publisher, and the ones that are available MS runs the risk of them being snatched up.  I'm not sure a lot of developers would want to partner with MS as their publisher as obviously it means exclusivity, for if they were to partner with EA, Sega or Activision for example they could presumably double their profits through benefitting from a multi-platform release.  Who do you see MS turning to for 'first party' games?