Microsoft: Rare Currently at Work on New Games

<p>The world of Xbox&&num;8217&semi;s been a quickly evolving one over the past few months&comma; and with so many changes have come more word on one of its most beloved partners&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fresh off a string of layoffs this past April&comma; Microsoft owned UK developer Rare Studios has been largely quiet in the time following the ill-fated release of its <em>Banjo Kazooie&colon; Nuts and Bolts <&sol;em>back in ye olde 2006&period; Since then&comma; the company&&num;8217&semi;s worked exclusively on the Xbox&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Kinect Sports<&sol;em> series&comma; with its latest entry being <em>Kinect Sports Rivals<&sol;em> for the Xbox One&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Combined concerns for the folks at Rare regarding both its layoffs and Microsoft&&num;8217&semi;s own <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;microsoft-offers-xbox-one-without-kinect&sol;">decision to unbundle the Kinect<&sol;a> from its newest console have led to great deal of speculation concerning the studio&&num;8217&semi;s future&comma; but Microsoft&&num;8217&semi;s apparently confident that Rare&&num;8217&semi;s not going anywhere for the time being&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speaking with Eurogamer&comma; Microsoft Studios Europe boss Phil Harrison insisted Rare still had the support of its parent company&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&&num;8220&semi;I&&num;8217&semi;m very happy to go on record to alleviate any of those concerns you might have&period; We are very fortunate in having Rare and Lionhead in the UK as crown jewels of Microsoft Studios&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Harrison continued that Rare was presently hard at work on several new games to be unveiled when the studio felt ready&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&&num;8220&semi;Rare is working on a couple of things at the moment which we will announce at the right time&period; But I&&num;8217&semi;m really excited by the things they&&num;8217&semi;re doing and I believe you will be as well when you hear about them&period; Rare is an incredible talent and they have some very very ambitious plans for the future and we&&num;8217&semi;re supporting them in every way we can&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Eurogamer reported last month that the Twycross&comma; Leicestershire based Rare had let roughly 16 people go following the reported loss suffered from the release of <em>Kinect Sports Rivals<&sol;em>&period; Back then&comma; a Microsoft spokesperson issued Eurogamer the following statement&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&&num;8220&semi;At Xbox&comma; our goal is to constantly create new fun&comma; social and interactive entertainment experiences&period; As part of Rare&&num;8217&semi;s commitment to this goal&comma; we have made a decision to change our development process and methodology at Rare to best support our future projects&comma; this has led to us reviewing the skills and the makeup of our development teams in our business&period;Rare continues to invest in our people and future projects&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Fans may thankfully recall that Rare&&num;8217&semi;s own Craig Duncan had assured Eurogamer that a number of unknown projects were well in the pipeline already&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&&num;8220&semi;I&&num;8217&semi;m super excited about Kinect Sports Rivals and I&&num;8217&semi;m really excited about that launching&comma; but I&&num;8217&semi;m also excited about what&&num;8217&semi;s next for Rare&comma; because that&&num;8217&semi;ll be an important project in the same way&period; Our goal as a studio is to always make great quality games&period; What you&&num;8217&semi;re saying is&comma; will Rare always make Kinect games&quest; What I&&num;8217&semi;m saying is&comma; we will come up with great game ideas and we&&num;8217&semi;ll look at the platform that makes the most sense for those game ideas to be on&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>In the meantime&comma; we can always dream <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;lost-series-microsoft&sol;">about those forgotten treasures<&sol;a> just waiting to be made whole again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Tell us&colon; What long lost series do you want to see Rare make next&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Source&colon; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;eurogamer&period;net&sol;articles&sol;2014-06-19-microsoft-pledges-to-support-rare">Eurogamer<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;