Has Rare Lost Touch With The Gaming Industry?

In an interesting interview this week at 1up.com, Peter Moore, now at Electronic Arts, believes the skillset that Rare holds is a bit dated for our gaming industry. Moore, best known in his role of VP at Microsoft in their Interactive Entertainment Business division, understands how great Rare and their games once were but seems to believe the industry has passed them by.

Looking at their latest Microsoft titles, mainly Perfect Dark Zero, Viva Pinata and Kameo: Elements of Power, it’s not hard to believe his statements as fact. None of the titles have blown away a market full of Grand Theft Autos, Halo’s and other top selling titles. None of their games hit the epic review scores of Bioshock or Crysis. It’s not all first person shooters are taking the big sales numbers; Spore was given rave reviews by online review sites (sans Amazon) and that’s a completely different style of game.

Popcap’s Peggle has had more fame and glory than some of the bigger titles from Rare, probably made with less money. Is Rare a dying breed of developers with no good direction to react to the changing ways of the game industry?

No. Peter Moore is missing a big part of the changes in Rare since their 2002 purchase by Microsoft. The major difference is… Microsoft. Microsoft had plans to make Rare Ltd as successful on their own console as Rare had with the Nintendo 64. Moore says:

“I thought ultimately [Viva Pinata] would be very successful — and you know, Microsoft, we’d had a tough time getting Rare back — Perfect Dark Zero was a launch title and didn’t do as well as Perfect Dark… but we were trying all kinds of classic Rare stuff and unfortunately I think the industry had past Rare by — it’s a strong statement but what they were good at, new consumers didn’t care about anymore, and it was tough because they were trying very hard — [original Rare founders] Chris and Tim Stamper were still there — to try and recreate the glory years of Rare, which is the reason Microsoft paid a lot of money for them and I spent a lot of time getting on a train to Twycross to meet them. Great people. But their skillsets were from a different time and a different place and were not applicable in today’s market.” (1up)

Perhaps if Rare had the ability to pick and choose their own platform for their own desires and innovation they’d have a killer Wii game for the market. Nintendo and Rare had a great partnership in the making of Donkey Kong Country, a product they couldn’t do on their own due to the intellectual properties but managed to create a memorable franchise when combining forces. Imagine, taking Donkey Kong to such awesome levels with a ground breaking and well crafted title with high quality graphics on a low quality system.

What about GoldenEye 007? A game that changed the first person shooter landscape on the console and sold over 8-million copies on a Nintendo platform. Along with their hot back log of titles is that of BattleToads, a game which was well received by reviewers but insanely difficult for gamers to master. Of course, Banjo-Kazooie was another great title from the folks at Rare, most of which was made famous on a non-Microsoft console.

What’s the lesson? Don’t point fingers at the creative talents behind the projects and future decisions when you’re boxed into a single console under someone elses name. For a developer to thrive and grow they need space to do it, they need to be fully able to access all the gaming hardware in the industry. Microsoft tried to fit a round peg and a square hole and paid $375 million to figure it out.

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id Software Interested in Nintendo’s Wiiid Software Interested in Nintendo’s Wii

Nintendo is seeing some great successes with their console — duh. What is the best way to provide evidence that Nintendo has a hit with their new little white console? Perhaps the bright blue eyes of id Software? Originally, it was said that id Software wasn’t really interested in developing games for the Wii, perhaps because it goes against all that id Software has developed their company towards since 1991?

keenid Software has always leaned toward bleeding edge content, pushing hardware to its limits and utilizing technology that has just hit the market. Nobody is surprised when they’re forced to upgrade their computers to play the latest id Software creation to its fullest extent. This is the price for being top dog in graphic engines, but now they’re changing their tune a bit.

Okay, it has to be said, is id Software contemplating a Wii game simply because of Nintendo’s success with the console? The core id Software audience isn’t grandma and grampa or the 10-year old kid next door. But, money talks. We’re not saying id Software is hurting for money although we’re not sure what keeps them floating given their last major title was yet another Quake game launched in 2005 with 2004’s DOOM 3 looking like an old man by now. Everyone is waiting on Rage which was announced in 2007 and still hasn’t been given a release date.

Perhaps id Software could use a little Wii to get their name back in the press, get bloggers talking and net them some fresh cash from a large pool of Wii owners looking for their next tennis game. Okay, nobody is going to believe they’d work on a silly Wii Sports clone but they’ve not announced, yet, what this “exclusive Wii” game will be. Carmack did say the Wii is “out of sync with the developments that are currently going on at id,” which suggests they’re going to be working on a new property or perhaps bring back an old property… Wolfenstein 3D, Commander Keen or maybe some Heretic action?

We’ll assume this upcoming id Software title won’t be 100% kid friendly even targeting a Wii platform. Are they going to develop a title for the Wii simply because they know it will be launched on a console with the largest install base in the world? Or, perhaps its a new found passion that Carmack has developed from sharing the Wii experience with his four-year old boy?

(Thanks, 1up)

Microsoft To Indulge on Hype at E3 2009Microsoft To Indulge on Hype at E3 2009

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(Thanks, Eurogamer)