When Microsoft purchased Rare last year, one of the things it highlighted was its established series. Having paid such a high price for the renowned codehouse, Microsoft naturally wanted to exploit its past work to the utmost. Shortly after its acquisition, it therefore organised a restructuring of the company where high-profile franchises such as Perfect Dark and Conker were prioritized over more experimental titles.
The first game to suffer from this change of focus was the top-secret MMORPG we reported on last year. Codenamed Quest, it was a massively multiplayer online space shooter led by Mark Edmonds, Duncan Botwood, and Chris Seavor in the programming, design, and art roles respectively. Despite having been in the works for about two years, development on the game was progressing slowly, largely due to its lack of distinct direction with regards to design. With the Xbox already being overcrowded with MMO games, Microsoft thus decided to cancel the title and relocate the 13-strong team to more important titles.
Microsoft, it seems, really wanted a new Conker title on the Xbox. With the original CBFD team having been disbanded four months after having started work on a futuristic racer titled Arc Angel, the company decided to reinstate Seavor as the lead designer of the newly-formed Conker: Live and Uncut team and provide him with several of the Quest team members. The remainder of the defunct team was relocated mainly to the slow-moving Perfect Dark Zero project, most likely including Edmonds and Botwood, who were formerly in charge of the original Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64.
Furthermore, Raretopia has heard rumblings indicating that the unannounced racer Sabreman Stampede was recently cancelled. While we have been unable to verify this rumour, it is supported by the fact that the Stampede lead designer ( who also headed BC, JFG, and MSUSA) resigned from Rare earlier this year and that Stampede people have appeared on other Rare teams.
Lastly, we have been informed that Rare´s handheld division has lost several members to other Rare teams. Whether this will eventually lead to a full discontinuation of the handheld team is unknown, but rest assured that it will at least result in fewer GBA projects from Rare in the future.
On a brighter note, all the fans being disappointed in Rare´s lacklustre X03 showing will doubtlessly be pleased to know that they might not have to wait till E3 for new information on Rare´s upcoming Xbox titles after all. Allegedly February 2004 will see the return of Microsoft´s International Games Festival, and according to a Rare insider we spoke to, this is the event to watch out for as it will act as a primer to E3 2004.
