Things are looking slightly better for fans of Rare Ltd., as Microsoft has announced that the long established game studio will be bringing back one of their ‘historic’ intellectual properties for the newly revealed Xbox One.
In an interview with Polygon, Microsoft Studios Corporate Vice President Phil Spencer stated that a new game from the veteran game studio is one of the fifteen exclusive titles to be released within the console’s first year. While Spencer did not go into details about the game, he did hint that more news will be revealed during this year’s E3.
Here is Spencer’s statement:
“Fans of Rare and Rare IP I think will be pleased with what we’re going to show at E3. We had a limited amount of time today and a lot of story to tell. But Rare remains an incredibly important part of our development capability. That historic IP that they’ve built I think can play a real important role on Xbox One.”
Created back in 1985, Rare is best known for their work when they developed games with Nintendo, creating classics such as Battletoads, Goldeneye 007, Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark and Killer Instinct. Purchased by Microsoft back in 2002, the British studio retained the rights to the last three franchises listed and created various titles since then such as Kameo: Elements of Power and Viva Pinata.
Rare’s last game based off one of their established brands was Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. Fans and critics alike were quick to point out the fact that the vehicle building and driving gameplay was an odd addition for the classic series that originally focused on platforming and exploration. The studio has also released updates of several of their popular Nintendo 64 titles on Xbox Live Arcade.
In any case it will be interesting to see what Microsoft will unveil for the Xbox One at this year’s E3 considering the significant absence of any exclusive title details from the reveal press conference.