Rare responds to Moore’s constructive criticism
Cat fight! Not really.
You may have noticed this past week the airing of ex-Microsoft VP Peter Moore’s thoughts during his time at the company, including the somewhat forlorn post mortem he had for Rare. Certainly what you’d call the greatest traffic-inducing portion of his interview with Esquire magazine (available via The Guardian), the views he shared have certainly caused an indirect communication between industry folk, including Rare themselves.
Creative director Gregg Mayles had this to say regarding their perceived relevance when asked by the MTV Multiplayer blog: “I don’t take much notice about what people say about our games I work on, whether positive or negative. I think you just have to get it clear in your mind what you want to do and try and let that vision come to life” – clearly the method that Banjo was born of. “Obviously, when it’s finished, you can look back and say ‘yeah, that was really successful’ or ‘no, that wasn’t quite so successful,’ but at least I can sit back and say ‘yeah, that’s the game I wanted it to be.’”
Where the issue becomes a little greyer is whether Moore was leaning more (ho ho) towards Rare’s critical success during his reflection, or instead the apathy the 360’s audience has toward their use of colour. Countless failed franchises (hello, Blinx) on the original Xbox is proof enough that the latter can’t be insincere or forced: “It’s more of an organic thing where we look at the games we think people might want to play or try to think of new experiences that people might enjoy,” Mayles agrees. And as for the former – hey, people really like Viva Piñata, so we should be okay.
Despite all this hullabaloo, Moore is regardless pleased with his experience at Microsoft, as was cemented in a somewhat ironic coda to his extended interview. “I worked with a team of people so special and so near and dear to my heart, that not a day goes by where I don’t miss them in some way,” he finishes. “Same with our studios – the flair and creativity of Rare, the sheer brilliance and focus of Bungie, the game-changing team at Lionhead…” A final word was specifically requested by Moore at the realisation that the entire transcript was available to the public, so it’s clear he doesn’t have any contempt for the gang at Twycross. Just a more natural, friendly conversation than usual, free of PR influence. So put away those pitchforks.
Somehow related news
- Burton claims that we’ll see both new and old IP from Rare ()
- Mayles, Betteridge and Cook in the audio spotlight ()
- Mayles on Nuts & Bolts’ cheating and Banjo-Fourie ideas ()
3 Comments
Holy sh*t! My grammar and spelling is all over the place in my last comment. Sorry about that…
Comment by Perfect Dark 0 — 27.Sep.08 @ 9:23 pm
no rare wouldnt get what they deserve in nintendo…. look what nintendo did to them they limited their creativity… one example (stop and swap) they got rid of the memory unit in the 64… then dont forget the face mapper… nintendo would still be holding them back…. truthfully i think rare would still be insulted by people going they were better with n64 than wii if they were still with nintendo… so no mater where rare is theyll get shitty feed back by losers….
so lets just say them being on the 360 gives them a challenge and also the freedom they need to make kick ass games
Well, I guess i’m going for a second opinion here on the whole Moore / Rare issue.
To put his earlier comments on Rare not going with the times, I think from prespective of the Xbox 360 core audience he’s right.
Xbox 360 players don’t understand the level of value that comes with Rare’s oldschool, creative way of developing games and coming up with new concepts.
Look at the Xbox Live Avatars. I’m reading allot of hateful comments on other blogs and forums by Xbox 360 users that think they are to “mature” for the cartoony looking Avatars, without seeing the value and power that the Avatars ad to the games and achievements of the reqeicnition Xbox 360, not to forget the influence on the Live community itself when the Avatars launch with the Fall update.
It’s times like these when I think Rare would still be better of with Nintendo, just so they will get the recognition they deserve.
Comment by Perfect Dark 0 — 27.Sep.08 @ 9:21 pm