Well Done

Rare is a reclusive studio, happy to beaver away on projects and let the games do the talking. When Microsoft bought the company back in 2002 it remained out of the limelight - but following the launch of Xbox 360, Rare's public profile began to rise once again.

The studio demonstrated its commitment to the 360 launch with two titles, Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power, and followed them up last year with new intellectual property Viva Piñata. Today sees the release today of Jetpac Refuelled for Xbox Live - another indication that Rare is working hard to prove it's worth the USD 377 million Microsoft paid for it.

Microsoft publicly labelled Viva Piñata as an example of its efforts to target a younger demographic, and it seemed that if anyone could capture the lucrative kids' audience it would be Rare. But when Viva Piñata was released last December, it failed to enter the all-formats top 40. So how did the studio feel about the titles lacklustre performance?

"We'd obviously like more sales, but we were happy with the game and critically it's gone down very well," says head of production Lee Schuneman.

"We're pleased with the overall support that it has gotten - the TV show, the game - and there's more to come within that franchise. If the sales were there to match that we'd be over the moon, but they're not. Although that doesn't mean we don't believe in the franchise."

Indeed, Viva Piñata was never conceived as a standalone videogame. It was developed alongside a cartoon series from 4Kids Entertainment, and long seen by Microsoft as a wider entertainment brand. With such a commitment from a publisher, the beauty of cross-promotion is that while sales of the game may not have rocketed there's still potential for the game to sell - provided the TV show continues to air and create a steady stream of consumer interest.

"Hopefully, that's the idea," confirms Schuneman. "The TV show has been doing well in North America and it's got pretty good figures. It launched in the UK on Nicktoons and it's due in the rest of Europe later this year. It's a two or three year push, and if after that it's a terrible failure then we'll say fair enough. It's way too early to say more than that at the moment."

Information about today's release, Jetpac Refuelled, was kept under wraps until it was almost ready to appear on Xbox Live. Other downloadable content has been hit and miss for the developer, although all of its titles - from Kameo to Viva Piñata - have benefited from a touch of DLC support.

"We believe in it," says Schuneman. "But it's got to be right. It's got to be the right thing for people that buy it, because we're not into ripping anybody off."

He continues: "We'll do DLC for the right game. We did a load of it with Kameo and we liked doing it; it was interesting from a development point of view. So long as it's interesting and adds something new to the game, then we're happy to do it."

At X06 in Barcelona last year, Microsoft showed the first teaser for Rare's next Xbox 360 project - the latest instalment in the Banjo Kazooie series. As you'd expect from such a well-loved franchise, it's the sort of announcement that has dedicated gamers foaming at the mouth; and it's not just the loyal fans who are excited, either.

"The team that are doing it are the guys that did the original Banjo Kazooie, so they're probably more passionate about it than the kids that have bought the game," observes Schuneman.

"[Creative director] Gregg Mayles had the same position on the original Banjo-Kazooie, he did it on Banjo-Tooie, and now he's doing it again on the new Banjo title. He's passionate to maintain the Banjo vibe and what it was all about, but also to bring in something entirely new, which is going to be interesting. There are elements that are going to be very different; I don't think people are going to expect it."

According to Schuneman, "We've got a lot of work to do on getting the new ideas that the team have come up with to be right and playable and fun. And the team is making good progress with that. There's other stuff that we're doing too and when we're ready to talk about it, we'll talk."

Rare's titles have always had a unique style; you don't need to see the title screen to know you're looking at one of their games. And in an industry where some titles are barely distinguishable from another, it's important to have a clear sense of identity and individual design philosophy. But is there a danger that the staffers at Rare are making games for themselves, rather than a wider audience?

"When we look at all the Rare games, going back ten or 15 years, we've always enjoyed being that country in the middle. Of all the games we've done we've never thought 'This is for the US' or 'This is for Japan'," states Schuneman.

"We've just always thought that we want the biggest market. That was the way with the Nintendo games and it's exactly the same now. We want the UK, the US, the Europeans and the Japanese consumers."

The concept of not targeting a particular audience may have marketing departments sweating over their promotional budgets, but Rare isn't phased. The studio is confident enough to assume that a quality game will find an appreciative audience - regardless of decisions made on spreadsheets.

"We never think, 'Let's make a worldwide product.' But in our minds the approach to design - the approach to playing a game and the feel of it - has always been thought of in terms of mass appeal," says Schuneman.

"We've got a legacy in the UK for creating games with a British sense of humour, but we all grew up on Japanese Manga and Japanese NES and SNES games, and then with our little UK mix we've created games with a worldwide appeal.

"That's part of the Rare appeal," he concludes.