Kinect is to play a ”key part” in Rare’s future says Henson, though he’s ”not suggesting” they’ll be exclusive to it, but it will be a ”centrepiece” to them.
Scott Henson movies to Birmingham in January to take over Rare. He’s worked on the original Xbox, Xbox Live, Xbox 360, XNA Game Studios and Games for Windows Live. He also had a hand in the hardware and software for Xbox 360, and motion tech Kinect.
”Kinect will be a key part of the studio’s future,” he said. ”I’m not suggesting it’s going to be exclusive, but it will be the centrepiece of our strategy for sure, because there is a lot of opportunity there.” Rare is currently working on Kinect Sports.
”One of the assets here is we’ve got this great back catalogue, this great history,” Henson continued. ”The number one asset Rare has is its creativity and its talent and its desire to innovate and push forward.” Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, ViVa Piñata and more.
”We’ll look at those opportunities. Absolutely. You can look at what we’re doing with Xbox Live Arcade and you can see how we’ve taken those classics and refreshed them and brought them to the service. We’ll continue to look at those kinds of opportunities.”
”Don’t just think about packaged goods in terms of opportunities and Rare and how we bring those things to life. We’ll look at all of it and evaluate it.”
”But the centrepiece will be continuing to do what first party does best, which is innovate and look at new experiences and opportunities with things like Kinect and push the boundaries of that. That’s our role and Rare will continue to lead the charge around that.”
Henson sure sounds enthused about his new Rare digs which will hopefully mean some damn fine videogames will come pouring out those veteran doors again.