Remember Rare? Yeah, you do. You know, that wonderful studio that brought us Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, and tons of other awesomely exciting games for the Nintendo 64? Well, if you've only joined the video gaming masses with this generation of consoles, it's likely that you have no idea what Rare is.

Microsoft bought Rare from Nintendo in 2002, and the studio has been a pretty big disappointment since then. Kameo: Elements of Power, Viva-Pinata, Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts, and the few other games they've produced have not been big sellers and were not successful critically. The studio seems to have lost its way.

Peter Molyneux, newly appointed as Microsoft's European Creative Director, wants to change that. GamesIndustry.biz recently interviewed Molyneux about EA's new "Creative Director" title, and asked if that would affect the internal studios' independence. Molyneux responded that he actually wanted to see more independence and identity from their studios, which his new role now has him overseeing. About Rare, he said:

"Actually one of the things I really want to do is help Rare have more of an identity. And make sure the people at Rare are seen more within the industry. I was totally blown away from the amount of talent that there is at Rare, but it's just that they come from a background where Nintendo required them to be this very, very secretive company. I just want to give them the confidence to tell the world what they're doing. I hope you're going to see more from Rare and I want to help them get well known. But you'll definitely still recognise a Rare game."

Molyneux also hinted that he'd like to see a creative director position be created in North America as well, since he feels that they "are more successful when we have creative leaders driving initiatives."

[ Via GamesIndustry ]

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