Rare's secretly in-the-works Kameo sequel is just one casualty of a Microsoft project cull at the studio, to make way for more Natal development, CVG has learned.
Earlier this year the UK developer underwent a "company-wide restructure" to implement a "new approach" to its in-development projects, Microsoft revealed.
A source close to the platform holder has since told CVG that the "restructure" saw the canning of more than one 'traditional' franchise sequel, including Kameo 2.
Our source clarified that disappointing sales of the 360 launch game - and not just the march towards Natal - also played a factor in its cancellation.
Rare is now said to be "intimately involved" with the Project Natal launch, including one or two titles outside the traditional game space.
"The company is reviewing the current composition of its development teams and there is the possibility that a small number of current positions could be lost as a result of these changes," an MS statement said earlier this year.
We've left a message with Microsoft for comment.
UPDATE: A Microsoft spokesperson said: "Microsoft does not comment on rumour and speculation"
Well it took me two years to summon the strength to complete Kameo after purchase at launch, so I cant say its a titanic disappoint we wont get a sequel
I wasn't that impressed with Kameo so not particularly bothered the sequel won't be released. Hopefully they'll be able to put their hard work to some use in the development of the Natal projects.
what the hell. Are MS complete bloody idiots. If any game could of become a fantastic natal game its Kameo. When i was playing the original i was constantly thinking that it was a shame that Rare weren't still with nintendo becasue it could of been a great motion controlled game.
I'm with darry on this one - Blast Corps would be a great idea. Sure, they could easily remake the original for XBLA but a totally new one with loads of mental multiplayer modes would be awesome.
Rare used to be cool, since they hooked up with Microsoft they've really lost their way. Killer Instinct, Blast Corps, GoldenEye, Perfect Dark - all top games. Where's the team who made those?
M$ is just going after the Wii market. So we'll see a lot of retarded "party" games with the Nathal launch. Which pretty much sucks for the "normal" gamer as all efforts are directed at your Wii-owning grandma. Although Kameo 2 isn't a great loss, that they are concentration all their development on Nathal is a lot more worrying for the normal gamer. This market seriously does not need another Wii like machine.
Rare used to be cool, since they hooked up with Microsoft they've really lost their way. Killer Instinct, Blast Corps, GoldenEye, Perfect Dark - all top games. Where's the team who made those?
Long gone im afraid, Rare are nothing but a name now, lets not forget its fast appraoching a decade since they released a classic.
I think we'll see some pretty cool stuff that uses Natal, but the problem will probably be the simple third party stuff - just look at the amount of utter rubbish that turns up on the Wii. If developers the technology where it's appropriate and manage to integrate it smoothly into games, I'm sure there'll be some pretty impressive things.
And Blast Corps - hells yeah! I sure wouldn't mind the original on XBLA whilst we await a sequel. Give it to the guys who did the Banjo-Kazooie port, that seemed to go OK.
well the first game was s**t and sales didnt exactly light up the charts, is anyone really surprised? seems like an excuse to hate on the bad and nasty MS on a slow news day. truth be known handfuls of classic golden nintendo games were scrapped in order to release wii fit and sports resort, etc.
anyone who thought MS (or sony) wouldnt wanna cash in on this casual mess nintendo have started are fools.
It's a shame because if they got their act together, Rare could produce some decent new entries in some of their great franchises - it may be a long time before that happens, if at all now.
However, their change in direction with Banjo really put me off and poor sales do point to it being a bad decision. I feel an all new proper Banjo game at launch would have faired better than Kameo.
Restricting Rare to just making Natal games may be a bad move - I doubt they'll produce anything that will be much better than any other developer could produce, and Rare's franchises and potential to regain some of their quality from 10 years ago would be better served to keep creating core games.
Which pretty much sucks for the "normal" gamer as all efforts are directed at your Wii-owning grandma. They are plenty of gamers who own Wii's and have great games to play, so put a sock in it moron.
I'm disappointed by the move by MS, they really are showing that all that is important to them at the moment is Brand, Market share/leader and profits. While Kameo might not have been the best game in the world, it was something different from the torrent of shooters & 3rd person action games the Xbox 360 is flooded with. This heavy push of Natal is a telling sign of what MS want to do and begs the question will Xbox 360 fans rant as much about them as they do about Nintendo?
I understand Kameo is not everyones cup of tea, but was a great game in its own right and not many games like it, and to be honest there wasnt a really good line up of games on 360 at launch except maybe Quake 4, but I really liked Kameo and my kids loved it, just typical of Microshaft to do this and would be a perfect project for Natal me thinks, still not forgiven Microshaft for canning XSN Sports Links golf and Rallysport challenge, two great game franchises
Which pretty much sucks for the "normal" gamer as all efforts are directed at your Wii-owning grandma. They are plenty of gamers who own Wii's and have great games to play, so put a sock in it moron.
Bull, most have a Wii for the "party" games, Wii fit (which is not a "game" or for their kids. And i'll admit, for that group its a good system. But a Wii has nothing to offer a normal/HC gamer. The last game was Mario Galaxy. The rest is poo. Well... unless you like Hamsterz, Ponyz, or like playing doll dressup.
Which pretty much sucks for the "normal" gamer as all efforts are directed at your Wii-owning grandma. They are plenty of gamers who own Wii's and have great games to play, so put a sock in it moron.
Bull, most have a Wii for the "party" games, Wii fit (which is not a "game" or for their kids. And i'll admit, for that group its a good system. But a Wii has nothing to offer a normal/HC gamer. The last game was Mario Galaxy. The rest is poo. Well... unless you like Hamsterz, Ponyz, or like playing doll dressup.
utter drivel. there's been plenty of good games out since Mario Galaxy. Punch Out, Little King's story, Cursed Mountain, The metroid trilogy, Mad World, Deadspace extraction and HOD Overkill to just name a few.
It also has the best versions of tiger woods, resi 4, Okami and Pro evo.
get you head out your bottom and actually go see whats on offer rather than whats been advertised. But you know casual gamers, they only ever by stuff thats got a lot of advertising.
That's a crappy generalisation, and an inaccurate one at that. But since this discussion should have nothing to do with the Wii (Rare are owned by MS so wouldn't be developing for Nintendo) I'm not going to go any further into it.
I don't understand why they'd want a studio dedicated to Natal rather than letting it happen organically. You can't force people to make something brilliant, it has to be a natural progression. Lionhead are already all over the Natal thing. All this is likely to do is cause Rare to split into another company to develop whatever they like for whatever console they like free of a forcing influence. It wouldn't be a massive loss for MS but any loss is bad. Look at how well Media Molecule have done since they left Lionhead.
I think if we keep arguing about current gen consoles for another year or two, we'll definitely come to a conclusion that we all settle on and agree with. Hah.
Let's not overreact and exaggerate here. It's certainly true that the majority, not all, of Wii games are aimed at the 'casual' audience. That term is a bit fuzzy, but basically we're looking at 'party' games (that is pick up and play multiplayer) or more simple arcade style games.
Sure, there are quite a few great single player titles, even if half of them are remakes of games found on older systems. And that's not a criticism - I love HL2 on the 360. Bottom line is, there is a massive difference between the major platforms now, and that's not good or bad, it's just true.
If you want to blindly spout half-baked insults to defend whichever company you've chosen to side with - great. For anyone with sense, it's horses for courses. If I'm in with four mates, a bit of Wii tennis is bang on, but if I've got a Sunday night on my own, I'm not going to be waving a white want about. Fallout3, please.
@ WHERESMYMONKEY, Thanks for furthering my point, I couldn't be bottomd to type a list of the great games as it probably will go over certain peoples heads lol.
This down to the fact that all of rare's games (excluding Perfect Dark Zero) have underperformed at retail thanks to most gamers obsession with shooting games.
its a shame as the last 3 games they produced were excellent, banjo 3 is still one of my favourite games on the 360, as is Viva Pinata
I quite like Kameo, but then theres something odd about the very first game you buy with a new console at launch, I always end up having a soft spot for the game even if its a bit pants.
I had Battle Arena Toshinden with my PS1 and Turok Dinosaur Hunter with my N64 and loved both them, even though in reality they're both pretty crap. Christ, I paid Ł67.99 for Turok, thats comparable to rape in this day and age.
I quite like Kameo, but then theres something odd about the very first game you buy with a new console at launch, I always end up having a soft spot for the game even if its a bit pants.
I had Battle Arena Toshinden with my PS1 and Turok Dinosaur Hunter with my N64 and loved both them, even though in reality they're both pretty crap. Christ, I paid Ł67.99 for Turok, thats comparable to rape in this day and age.
How about epics stance on the natal trying to herd in the more hardcore gamer to the new motion frenzy by having ms shove there hand up there ass puppet style to announce they will support natal with there upcoming and future releases including gears 3 because if its incorperated into there larger franchises they know we will have to buy in.
How about epics stance on the natal trying to herd in the more hardcore gamer to the new motion frenzy by having ms shove there hand up there ass puppet style to announce they will support natal with there upcoming and future releases including gears 3 because if its incorperated into there larger franchises they know we will have to buy in.
How about epics stance on the natal trying to herd in the more hardcore gamer to the new motion frenzy by having ms shove there hand up there ass puppet style to announce they will support natal with there upcoming and future releases including gears 3 because if its incorperated into there larger franchises they know we will have to buy in.
How about epics stance on the natal trying to herd in the more hardcore gamer to the new motion frenzy by having ms shove there hand up there ass puppet style to announce they will support natal with there upcoming and future releases including gears 3 because if its incorperated into there larger franchises they know we will have to buy in.
How about epics stance on the natal trying to herd in the more hardcore gamer to the new motion frenzy by having ms shove there hand up there ass puppet style to announce they will support natal with there upcoming and future releases including gears 3 because if its incorperated into there larger franchises they know we will have to buy in.
How about epics stance on the natal trying to herd in the more hardcore gamer to the new motion frenzy by having ms shove there hand up there ass puppet style to announce they will support natal with there upcoming and future releases including gears 3 because if its incorperated into there larger franchises they know we will have to buy in.
How about epics stance on the natal trying to herd in the more hardcore gamer to the new motion frenzy by having ms shove there hand up there ass puppet style to announce they will support natal with there upcoming and future releases including gears 3 because if its incorperated into there larger franchises they know we will have to buy in.
Just because you said that 6 times doesn't mean it's any less bullshit.
It's hardly trying to "herd in" the hardcore gamer - it's trying to show the hardcore gamers that motion sense technology doesn't have to be the wagglefest that a lot of closed-minded and unimaginative individuals believe it will be.
I enjoyed Kameo, it was wasn't a perfect game, not even close. But it was enjoyable, and considering the first game was planned for Gamecube then Xbox and then moved onto Xbox 360, I think it came out pretty well. A sequel that was completely built for 360 hardware could have been a really great game.
f**k you Microsoft, f**k you very much!
This better not be the way of the future for Microsoft, I'm still yet to see a single reason why I should give a s**t about Natal. Clever technology? Yes, something I can actually see myself playing for long periods of time? Hell no!
well there's uh. umm. I think you have apoint there. unless you go on live then there's been a couple of really good ones out over the last month of so. I highly reccommend lucidity and Jump a whirl.
Jump especially its like playing the worlds most tricked out c64 game, and incredibly good old school platforming.
Then again there is always Banjoe kazooie and tooie, or even give nuts and bolts a try. I think its incredibly under rated.
Rare have lost their freedom but reading about some of the comments about the latest BK game Nuts and Bolts seems a little off the mark. The game was well built (mostly). It has one of the best (not most comprehensive) Creators I've ever used and most importantly it was different.
Don't mark down a game because of a change of direction. It was a solid game and is currently refreshing this tired gamer.
Rare have lost their freedom but reading about some of the comments about the latest BK game Nuts and Bolts seems a little off the mark. The game was well built (mostly). It has one of the best (not most comprehensive) Creators I've ever used and most importantly it was different.
Don't mark down a game because of a change of direction. It was a solid game and is currently refreshing this tired gamer.
Couldn't agree more.
They couldn't really win either way. If they'd just made another BK (following the same format as the others), they'd have been accused of just sticking to the same old formula. If they try to spice things up and bring it into the next-gen (which they did), they get accused of letting down the franchises fans.
I personally think they made the right choice, for better or worse, and I do think people tend to give Rare a bit of a hard time. When you think about it, their track record on the 360 isn't actually all that bad - PDZ isn't so great and Viva Pinata isn't everyones cup of tea, but you can't deny that it's a solid and fun title......same with BK: N&B.
Maybe they aren't churning out the utter classics that they did on the N64, but Rare are still a very talented bunch.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
or for their kids. And i'll admit, for that group its a good system. But a Wii has nothing to offer a normal/HC gamer. The last game was Mario Galaxy. The rest is poo. Well... unless you like Hamsterz, Ponyz, or like playing doll dressup. 
