Back in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, Rare was one of the most well respected developers in gaming with titles like the Donkey Kong Country series and Banjo-Kazooie. However, since being purchased by Microsoft years ago, the company has been stuck on less than standout games as a rule, with no chance to replicate their platforming success in the past.
Their most recent release was Kinect Sports Rivals last month, which has sadly not sold as well as hoped so far, and now it has been revealed by Eurogamer that the company has laid off somewhere under 20 employees. Microsoft did not said specifically why these layoffs occurred, but the lackluster sales of Kinect Sports Rivals is speculated to be at least a part.
Kinect Sports Rivals isn’t a bad game. Rare thought they were taking a giant leap forward with it when they were actually taking a giant leap back. Kinect Sports 1 was fantastic with just basic easy to learn sports that everyone can enjoy. Kinect Sports 2 was good, but the sports chosen were not as complimentary to it as the ones in 1 were. With Rivals, it had it’s share of good and bad.. they tried new things that people just didn’t care anything about. I think it would have been a smart move to make the game more multiplayer friendly, but include all the sports in Kinect Sports 1 & 2, graphically and motion sensored enhanced with the power of the Xbox One. The game would have been a massive hit, especially if they could have released it as a launch day title. Unfortunately, they dropped the ball.