Great move by Microsoft

[JustLikeHeaven1]

Microsoft announced two ways to get into the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta...please read the link below.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/752/752946p1.html

The great move I am talking about is included an invite to the multiplayer beta through the purchase of Crackdown.  What an ingenious way to boost sales of game!  That game will probably sell more than the Zone of Enders game that came packed in with the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo.  Its a great marketing move and its getting the hype machine for Halo 3 moving fairly early in the new year.  Well played Microsoft!

In not so good news...Chris and Tim Stampers (2 of 3 founders of Rare) have left the company.  This can't be good for Rare as the Stampers Bros are some of the most creative designers in the biz. 

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/753/753008p1.html

[feilong801]

An interesting note on the Rare thing. Some people in the industry (Phil Harrison, as reported on Kotaku.com today) believe that the huge deal they received from Microsoft when they bought them caused them to lose focus.

 

It was certainly something I noticed, when Rare took such a long time to produce Perfect Dark for the 360, and only produced an average FPS shooter.

 

-Rob

[bluemonkey1]

The Stamper brothers were the managers of the company.  Managers of a large software development company typically have little to do with the day to day creative elements.  Not to mention that maybe they want to retire, sounds like a good move for them to me.  Anyway let's not forget that PDZ and Kameo were both GameCube games so the blame mostly lies on the switching of several hardware platforms.

[JustLikeHeaven1]

[QUOTE=bluemonkey]

The Stamper brothers were the managers of the company.  Managers of a large software development company typically have little to do with the day to day creative elements.  Not to mention that maybe they want to retire, sounds like a good move for them to me.  Anyway let's not forget that PDZ and Kameo were both GameCube games so the blame mostly lies on the switching of several hardware platforms.

[/QUOTE]

 

The Stampers bros held the titles of Studio Director and Creative Director.  I tend to think they had a little bit more to do than walk around making sure everyone was doing their jobs.  Besides I don't think Rare is that big of company...Also I don't think they are going to retire as their reason for leaving was to "pursue other opportunities".

 

I think Rare has produced top notch games for a long long time.  I don't know why you are implying that Kameo and PDZ are bad (you have said many times on these forums you think otherwise)...they both were critically well recieved.  The only clunker that Rare has released on the consoles was Grabbed by the Ghoulies.  The rest of the games were in the B to A range in my book.

 

Rare will probably be fine, but it will be interesting to see where they land.

[bluemonkey1]

I think they are both awesome titles.  But a LOT of people on this forum disagree.  And yes they do both have flaws in them, I think they are great not perfect.  I disagree about the severity of those flaws however and see more pros than most on this board do.  My point is that whatever your view on the merits of the games whatever failings you perceive them to have would be in some way caused by both being rewritten twice.  Yes they did hold those positions, but that's no different than the Tech Lead or any other direction role.  They make the big decisions about which routes to take things, but they don't sit down and design characters, they don't write the netcode. And those positions are typically still group based.  The decisions they make are based on meetings between a number of deputies and department heads.  So they are not the shsining souls carrying the company, most the people working there are very creative individuals and Rare is still quite a reasonable size, have you seen their offices?

[JustLikeHeaven1]

[QUOTE=bluemonkey]I think they are both awesome titles.  But a LOT of people on this forum disagree.  And yes they do both have flaws in them, I think they are great not perfect.  I disagree about the severity of those flaws however and see more pros than most on this board do.  My point is that whatever your view on the merits of the games whatever failings you perceive them to have would be in some way caused by both being rewritten twice.  Yes they did hold those positions, but that's no different than the Tech Lead or any other direction role.  They make the big decisions about which routes to take things, but they don't sit down and design characters, they don't write the netcode. And those positions are typically still group based.  The decisions they make are based on meetings between a number of deputies and department heads.  So they are not the shsining souls carrying the company, most the people working there are very creative individuals and Rare is still quite a reasonable size, have you seen their offices?
[/QUOTE]

 

I wish I could see their offices...you have no idea how badly I want to travel to the UK...

 

I am going to take your word on what they do, as you seem pretty informed on it.  I just assumed that they still got their hands dirty.  Oh well...I hope Rare continues to produce top notch software.

 

Wouldn't it be funny if the Stampers Bros started making games exclusively for Nintendo again?  I know it would never happen, but it would be quite hilarious.