https://www.rare.co.uk/news/20-years-of-banjo-kazooie
Amazing figure. I think I will get this one.
And Sea of Thieves figurehead.
Amazing figure. I think I will get this one.
And Sea of Thieves figurehead.
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Microsoft Studios |OT2| The Best Is Yet To Come
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Yea, I remember that. I had so much fun playing that game.
GS alum here. GS worked on many Kinect related initiatives including Kinect Adventures, Kinect Funlabs,etc.
We were an incredibly talented team full of carefully recruited industry veterans (people from god of war, mass effect , films like spiderman,etc)
The initial plan was we were to just help the Kinect initiative and thus we shipped KA. We were then supposed to move to a new ip on the next Xbox (which would become Xbox1)
Instead we worked on additional Kinect content, then had to help our publishing side with Kinect Star Wars. Then GS was broken up into multiple project teams. We focused on interactive tv initiatives then hololens.
As the project teams grew they were simply branded. Not full blown studios the way Good Science initially was. As hololens became the focus , gaming subsided and many game focused people left. The branded project teams mostly were prototype teams. Eventually the entire group (NEXT) was moved out of the Xbox organization into Windows.
As of today the entire group has been disbanded and work moved to other teams per reorganization announcements you can find online.
Thanks for the info, can you say anything about what was intended to be a new IP for the XB1? Any details on what was being planned?
That was going to be our team's focus. Internally at big companies it works pretty similar to if you were pitching a publisher from the outside.
Lots of brainstorming, concepting, prototypes, alignment with broader business and portfolio goals , then narrow in on something the team would be excited about making.
https://www.rare.co.uk/news/20-years-of-banjo-kazooie
Amazing figure. I think I will get this one.
And Sea of Thieves figurehead.
They have one of a gold hoarder right now:
No as I mentioned before they sold people on one thing but the business pushed it in a different direction. This happens all the time especially at bigger companies. It was a huge hit on morale which is why most gaming focused people left the group as soon as they could once it was clear things were not headed in a direction they expected career wise.
Cell was powerPc based, sure the SPEs required tight memory control, bytes to be aligned and all that but that was mostly due it's memory layout. It's not a huge departure from PS2 co processor, in fact it was simpler because on Ps3 you could use regular c++ code.
But I would say even Ps3 was tame compared to consoles prior to it. Consoles using custom processors with unique instruction set (even though it was a simple instruction set) was the norm, as were on the Gpu side. Having consoles relying on DirectX and Opengl was also a huge plus from previous gens (N64 for instance had a very complicated graphics api, and the one used by Nintendo was better than the ones 3rd parties got)
:(
hopefully with the perceived new direction for xbox, we can see these situations actually follow through.
so it's like the huge success with Kinect adventures was an obstacle and the the business thaught that you were the perfect Kinect and experimental things team?
This give me the idea that devs like you hates the variuos gimmick that companies tries to push, correct me if I'm wrong, but I found interesting the idea that what the companies think are the future, like Kinect, vr, HoloLens,touch and so on, are not appreciated by the devs who prefers more traditional games(I'm one of the fews interested in both so I understand why are created games gimmick focused, and makes me a bit sad that a game I loved like KA frusrated its own devs and was Always thought like a sacrifice for creating a new Ip)
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Daniel Cook must have been one of those people. As a big fan of Tyrian, and his blog at the time, I was really surprised and delighted to see him working at Microsoft, but he got fed up quickly, and didn't have many nice things to say about the suits running the show.
EDIT: I think I worded that wrongly. I didn't mean to suggest that he was in Good Science - I have no idea where his actual post was - but just that he was one of disillusioned gaming people who left Microsoft around that time.
By the way, I liked Kinect Adventures quite a bit, finished the campaign and all. It's a shame that things had to end that way.
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This project sounds very similar to Destiny and Anthem in its scope. I will admit MS should have done something akin to a MMO years ago given their specialty has always been online games.
Maybe we'll see something in the future.
Sort of. At times the business requires something and they look around and go why not that team?
Some leaders are able to talk their resources out of it, other leaders can't as they have nothing else for their teams to do. Some leaders see it as an opportunity to further themselves by agreeing to do what noone else is willing to do at the company at the expense of those under them. At a certain point you may have lots of people under you, budgets get cut, so its either shift your resources or they get laid off. That is a big challenge at a company like MS where gaming is not the core focus of the company.
The other thing is people have careers just like any other medium. Kinect was interesting but moreso for people who were devs, and UI/UX. If you were an artist or a game designer those type of games just don't translate well when it comes to your portfolio and experience. Kinect games were driven by tech, so while your other industry cohorts are working on new high fidelity art for next gen you are doing KA. Just doesn't add up. Now some people didn't really care, as they were somewhat done with their careers (gaming, film), and were fine with trying something new.
I worked with Daniel. Super smart guy. He left MS before the kinect train began. He was part of the 1vs100 team only he was working on another game that was in production at the same time. It was pretty cool, but was never released. Daniel was very adamant that MS was going the wrong way by always focusing on marketing the same type of games like Halo/Gears. Not everyone is into to shooting up things and he really believed in making games that were different. The 1vs100 team was also a really special team, full of people willing to take a different view on what gaming could be.
Oh man, how fantastic a actual remaster or new game of Banjo could have been. Missed opportunity.
So how long do we think it will take before we see playground games next project? 2021? 2022?
I don't think they'll have something concrete at least until E3 2020.
I could be wrong tho and they show a CG Trailer next year (which I really doubt).
Imo more people should check out the Xbox Live Arcade remakes first. They run great - especially on the X with 16x AF.
I've played those many times. I wish we got something in the vain of a Shadow of the Colossus remake. The last full retail remake we got was Conker Live and Reloaded, which they actually neutered.
MS has so many IPs they could bring back with a remake/remaster, and not just Rare games either.
they already Has share Even a gameplay at their Vodieo why they Join MS
2.49 as Canceled Project
When asked about the new studios and their plans Phil stated that Ninja Theory started work on a couple of projects once they were done with Hellblade.
Replayed it last year (before I got my X). The game is still a wonderfull collectaton with raunchy humor.
Yeah, besides Playground Games' FH5, I would say that Ninja Theory will be the first newly-acquired studio with a game released.
Only if we're talking strictly Rare games. For Microsoft's games in general the last retail remake was Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, and Halo 2 Anniversary, Fable Anniversary, and Halo CE Anniversary before that.
None of those were full on remakes though, they re-did the assets and the graphics (and they all looked great) but I think SOTC was from the ground up?
Checking wikipedia, more was done to Gears UE than the assets but doesnt really specify about the gameplay being re-done, and Halo 2 Anniversary was referred to as a visual overhaul and the audio?
I may well be wrong about what they did with SOTC, maybe none of them are full remakes, Sony referred to it as a remake whereas I dont think MS used the same language to describe their versions but Wiki say the gameplay is the same, dont really comment on whether that was by design or because they only re-did the assets, audio and controls.
Yep, your right, strange that I forgot about fable anniversary since I am currently playing that. But still, the only games that get that treatment are the top 4 xbox series. I would love to see a Crimson Skies remake (before the sequel comes out), a remaster of mech assault 1, and a real remake of Phantom Dust.
I actually got excited again for We Happy Few.
I loathed the beta that came out 3 years ago( long time, wow)
However, I keep hearing the final version is nothing like that, and it is actually more story driving like Bioshock! Can't wait to see it.
If the final version turns out great, compulsion games was probably the cheapest, and best purchase for MS.
I loathed the beta that came out 3 years ago( long time, wow)
However, I keep hearing the final version is nothing like that, and it is actually more story driving like Bioshock! Can't wait to see it.
If the final version turns out great, compulsion games was probably the cheapest, and best purchase for MS.
The gaming community clearly has a different definition of the whole (and imo unnecessary) "remake" vs "rework" definition fiasco compared to the gaming industry itself. Even a huge upgrade like Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy is referred to as a "remaster" by the publisher and devs themselves. Both Gears of War Ultimate Edition and Halo 2 Anniversary are the most impressive ways on how you can bring back these titles imo - call it rework or remaster, it doesn't really matter. Enhancing every aspect of the game - graphics, sound, multiplayer systems, gameplay tweaks - is how it should be done (and I can't think of any ways enhancing it even further without being a new game basically) - and these two games definitely hit all the right marks here.
I believe that Gears at least was a full on remake, but I also think that it's mostly an academic question anyway. SotC did add some collectibles or something, but Bluepoint made sure to stay as faithful to the original as possible. It's hard to draw the lines, and I'm not sure if it really matters.
Sweet Christmas...
Sunset Overdrive 2 has appeared on Amazon Italy!
https://amzn.to/2tWmHtS
please, let it be!
Sunset Overdrive 2 has appeared on Amazon Italy!
https://amzn.to/2tWmHtS
please, let it be!
Yeh fair enough. I guess regardless of what they did or didnt do, all those games looked great. I think doing something like that for Banjo/Tooie would be really nice though, I played Banjo a few years back for the first time and thought it held up well except the water stuff, would love to see them looking like a 2018+ game to get people excited for a proper sequel.
Not gonna get my hopes up at all. I think that placeholder release date and price say enough.
Gee, what a surprise. Majority have been saying this for years and years. It's finally caught up to them and hopefully, with Spencer fully in charge, acquiring four new studios and starting up a new studio, next gen will be about a lot more than just Halo and Gears. At least, that's what im hoping anyway.
I look at it this way - Gears of War Ultimate Edition was a remaster. Uncharted Collection was a remaster. REmake2 is what I consider a remake because the entire game is literally being remade. Everything else to me is just a remastered port.
I think Sunset Over 2 is way more likely than people might think.
For one, Insomniac own the IP.
Secondly, from what I understand they enjoyed working with Microsoft and the support they were given.
Three, the game is something they referred to as the culmination of ideas in that studio. I'm sure they had tons more planned out for potential sequels.
Microsoft needs more games in the pipeline. Sunset Overdrive 2 should be a great fit.
For one, Insomniac own the IP.
Secondly, from what I understand they enjoyed working with Microsoft and the support they were given.
Three, the game is something they referred to as the culmination of ideas in that studio. I'm sure they had tons more planned out for potential sequels.
Microsoft needs more games in the pipeline. Sunset Overdrive 2 should be a great fit.
Sunset Overdrive 2 a Nextbox launch title? That wouldn't make sense if it was popping up in games databases tho. That, to me, points to it being much further along than what we have been speculating in here. 2019ish.
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