Edge: Rare working on original XBLA game
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Feb 5th 2007 at 12:15PM }
According to a news article on CVG, the latest issue of the UK's Edge Magazine contains mention of Microsoft-owned developer, Rare, working on a new and original Xbox Live Arcade title. Holding the reins of the mostly mysterious steed is one Nick Burton, who was previously involved with Starfox Adventures and the more recent Kameo: Elements of Power.
Burton is collaborating with a team of ten others on the unnamed game which may or may not feature disturbingly proportioned, anthropomorphic characters.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
sheppy @ Feb 5th 2007 12:27PM
Maybe if they work with smaller budgets and less pressure to "more consoles," they could possibly recapture their previous magic. Of course I would be more than thrilled with three simple words...
Blast Corps 2...
Matt @ Feb 5th 2007 12:40PM
Rare gets a bit of a bad rap. Perfect Dark was a disappointment, but Kameo was decent, and Viva Pinata is digital crack. It's good to see some high profile developers working on XBLA games. The current crop of 80's arcade rehashes and uninspired indie games leaves a lot to be desired. Perhaps it's just me, but XBLA, at the moment, seems to be made up of little more than time wasters.
Keif @ Feb 5th 2007 12:47PM
Rare is crap now, all their good people left and formed their own company when MS took them.
I really dont see why people keep roting for rare, they have not been relevent since the N64 days
Virtua Fanboy @ Feb 5th 2007 11:09PM
3. Rare is crap now, all their good people left and formed their own company when MS took them.
I really dont see why people keep roting for rare, they have not been relevent since the N64 days
Posted at 12:47PM on Feb 5th 2007 by Keif
"roting for rare" huh. Maybe you should go apply for a job there if thier so bad.
sheppy @ Feb 5th 2007 12:55PM
You know, I got a copy of Viva Pinata for christmas and it's just sitting around. This was given to me by the same person who thought everyone loves Animal Crossing and Sims. I've been tempted to try it but I'm worried it's just another pointless, never ending sim game.
Covenant @ Feb 5th 2007 1:38PM
PDZero was disappointing, but I love Kameo, and Matt is right: Viva Pinata is digital crack. Addictive as hell. Why it hasn't sold better is a mystery--it was easily one of the ten or twenty best games released last year. Rare has stumbled a little, with Conker: Live and Reloaded being an OK re-hash, and Grabbed By The Ghoulies just plain sucking. Maybe a renewed focus can help them make more consistent games.
Matt @ Feb 5th 2007 1:00PM
@ Sheppy
If you don't like Sim games, you're probably not going to like Viva Pinata. The best way I can describe it is a combination between something like the Sims and a Tycoon game. For some reason, people toss around Animal Crossing comparisons a lot, but I find almost no similarities between those two games.
Like I said, if you don't like those kinds of games you won't like it. But for what it is, it's excellent.
Chris @ Feb 5th 2007 1:42PM
Rare games have always been crap. Sometimes fun, but mostly crap. They used to produce the best graphics on any system they worked on, but since they don't really have that going for them, people finally see that the games have no substance.
Jake @ Feb 5th 2007 1:34PM
I have Viva on Gamefly rental right now, don't quite get it. What part is the fun part? Played it a couple of hours and was only mildly amused. But, the first time the Wirlms or whatever did their disco love dance was pretty damn hilarious.
I think I can tell that the game is good from playing it, but it certainly doesn't do much for me personally. My gf didn't even really like it. Maybe I'll give it one more try before returning it.
A Rare arcade game sounds somewhat intriguing. I am not a fan of arcade, psn, or VC in the slightest, but an original Rare game always gets me a bit excited. It's tough to see the second best developer of all time just clawing and scratching to get by.
MoonfirePewPEwPEw @ Feb 5th 2007 1:39PM
There was a reason why Nintendo sold the company people, they started to not pull their weight even during the late N64 days, before all their good "talent" left even. What you have now, is a shell of a former company that actually put out decent titles. Rare should had just died a long time ago, while they still had some respect in the industry.
RogueStorm @ Feb 5th 2007 2:56PM
My vote is to revive the RC Pro-Am game for XBLA. RC Pro-Am kicked ass back in the day and would kick ass now if updated properly.
Je2037 @ Feb 5th 2007 1:48PM
You know I'm starting to like this whole downloadable games thing. It could really open the doors to innovation and creativity not to mention lower price tags, which kind of makes me wonder... Why haven't developers caught on to the fact that if you make cheaper, simpler games that are fun and have tons of replay value, you can charge way less, which will make the games stand out among their $60 rivals on store shelves. Burger King case-in-point and those games were terrible. I'm thinking along the lines of geometry wars, flow, whatever, but you know - in stores for 5-15 bucks new and not just on XLBA.
J.Goodwin @ Feb 5th 2007 2:11PM
A ten person team? That's a lot of guys...
You've got your project lead, a programmer or two, and how many freakin' artists do you need?
Martez @ Feb 5th 2007 2:17PM
If it's anything like Kameo or Starfox Adventures, count me out.
Like Sheppy, a Blast Corp 2 confirmation would change my tune right quick.
sheppy @ Feb 5th 2007 2:17PM
Gamasutra had an article diretcly tackling your question not so long ago, Je2037. There are a couple problems in this market, currently.
The first one being that digital distribution is still not largely trusted. Points cards and such go a long way to helping that image but in the day and age where every other news report is trying to scare you about identity theft and every bank or credit card keeps peddling consumers with the worst case scenarios as common accounts, there is still a large amount of mistrust with those channels.
One of the leading developers of casual games recently did a full on article saying, while they get a lot of sales through digital distribution, the hard copies sent to retailers and sold through catalogs get significant sales and they are constantly thanked by their consumer base for not ignoring traditional channels.
Likewise, while hardcore gamers have gotten past digital distribution fears, the casual gamers have not. iTunes has gone a long way to correcting that issue but we still aren't there yet. Also, just because someone has an Xbox 360/PS3/Wii doesn't necessarily mean they take it online. And unfortunately, that's where the casual gamer material is at.
Right now, you have so very few companies looking at Arcade and PSN as viable sources of income but all it really needs is one killer app. Both Sony and Microsoft are racing to that app and several companies are even dividing their forces to support this new medium. But as of right now, it's still very largely unproven territory. Companies aren't throwing huge budgets at it because it hasn't proven to support huge efforts.
Meanwhile, while Factor 5 is trying to decide just what their 2 PSN games are going to be and while Konami is searching their own profile on IGN saying "Holy SHIT! We made that too? Call Microsoft up and tell them about this one ." it's leaving just a small enough gap to encourage indie developers and bedroom programmers to jump back into that tiny sliver within the industry Windows Vista has tried their best to shut down.
sheppy @ Feb 5th 2007 2:21PM
J. Goodwin, as the ONLY artist on an independantly developed game currently in development, I can officially say "More than you can imagine."
Even mundane things you never thought of when doing your job suddenly take more time than you can imagine. Fortunately, once we figure out exactly how our art assets will be crafted and what formats to use, we'll recruit more. But until then, I'm stretched thin and to hear a small project having 5-6 artists sounds very much about right.
spiritualized @ Feb 5th 2007 2:23PM
"Rare is crap now, all their good people left and formed their own company when MS took them."
I swear this is some net urban legend that's seriously spiralled out of control. Who are all these "good people" that left? Free Radical Design? Why have none of these star programmers made one single decent game yet?
baby sea tuna @ Feb 5th 2007 3:59PM
@ #6
Keep playing. It will all become clear soon.
Digital crack indeed...
sheppy @ Feb 5th 2007 2:50PM
Let's hold the Timesplitters series up next to some Perfect Dark Zero...
Oh yeah, Free Radical sucks...
samfish @ Feb 5th 2007 3:15PM
"Viva Pinata is digital crack. Addictive as hell. Why it hasn't sold better is a mystery--it was easily one of the ten or twenty best games released last year."
It's on the 360.
Are you killing things? If so, is there lots and lots of blood and fire?
No?
Then now you know why it isn't selling.
Twist @ Feb 5th 2007 3:18PM
Blast Corps 2 would be cool as would an enhanced version of the original Perfect Dark. Rare actually has a quite a bit of IP that would be nice to see updated for Xbox Live Arcade. Heck even non-updated versions of RC Pro Am (maybe instead of collecting the letters to spell nintendo they could swap it with xboxlive) or Cobra Triangle would be pretty cool. Better than most of the other Xbox Lame Arcade games that they have been releasing lately.
UnDone14 @ Feb 5th 2007 3:47PM
Come on Rare, give us Killer Instinct already!
Keif @ Feb 5th 2007 3:50PM
"I swear this is some net urban legend that's seriously spiralled out of control. Who are all these "good people" that left? Free Radical Design? Why have none of these star programmers made one single decent game yet?"
No its a company called Zoonami, and they havent released a game yet. though I heard they are working on ds and wii games right now.
fragglefart @ Feb 5th 2007 4:08PM
Rare are awesome, I can't wait to see what they make for the Arcade. Viva Pinata rocks, PD0 multiplayer was a blast, and I enjoyed A-Grading Kameo, Rare are getting back into their stride.
Zuko @ Feb 5th 2007 4:25PM
BATTLETOADS DAMMIT!
All I can say is Yesssssss, any Rare game is going to be awesome, and if it is going to be "original" it should be interesting. A Viva Pinata kart racer or something of that sort would be awesome. If it was a rehash, Jet Force Gemini would also be great. I'm going to be willing to pay 1600 MS points for this arcade game.
Gansly @ Feb 5th 2007 8:19PM
Well, since Gates insulted gamers/Rare's only half decent effort since being purchased (calling Viva Pinata a game for young girls), and the fact that they just screwed up another great game (DKR DS), I don't know why anyone bothers with these washed up losers.
Evan @ Feb 5th 2007 9:41PM
"Burton is collaborating with a team of ten others on the unnamed game which may or may not feature disturbingly proportioned, anthropomorphic characters."
Hah, I wonder if we'll see any "disturbingly proportioned anthropomorphic characters" in Rare's upcoming Banjo-Kazooie game!
Honestly, though, I like anthropomorphic game characters. I grew up with Sonic and Crash.
Virtua Fanboy @ Feb 5th 2007 11:20PM
Sorry for the Caps Lock but, NINTENDO NEVER OWNED RARE!!! They just owned a good portion of the company but not 51%. Anyway I've said it before and I'll say it again, I would pay GOOD money for an EXACT port of the first Killer Instinct. Now that the 50mb cap is gone, (it is gone right?) it is possible to to that. Man if it wouldn't make me feel like such a loser I would probably buy a copy of the Coin-Op and put it in the game room downstairs.
Je2037 @ Feb 6th 2007 9:31AM
@ sheppy - I actually was talking about releasing the games in stores, not through the console internet services. Production costs would go up b/c of the physical copy, so you'd have to charge a couple bucks more, but I personally would rather have a hard copy anyway.