Three New Year s Wishes For Xbox

Interestingly, Rare didn't have anything else to say about how Sea of Thieves would be monetised after its launch next year. All Mayles could offer in that regard was a broad design philosophy that hints towards a content release plan similar to that of Destiny or other long-term investments like The Divisi


At E3, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer proudly declared 2015 as having the strongest lineup in Xbox history. With heavy hitters released such as Forza Motorsport 6 , Halo 5: Guardians , Rise of the Tomb Raider , and more, it's a claim that's hard to argue w


One of the hottest games coming out of Microsoft's E3 2016 presentation has to be Rare's open-world pirate adventure game Sea of Thieves . The multiplayer-focused title awed audiences with its gameplay demonstration, revealing a deep and nuanced engine that lets gamers occupy roles as important as a ship's captain and Seaofthievespedia.Com as seemingly trivial as the drunken accordion player. It's not much of a stretch to say that fans of pirates and co-operative gameplay have been utterly entranced by what Sea of Thieves has put on offer so

The "new" Rare, as well call them, just made a compilation of "Old" Rare’s successful games. The creation of "old" Rare titles in a single compilation was an intentional move created by Microsoft’s very talented marketing team in order to make gamers remember how awesome Rare used to be back in the day and then, Oh wow! A new game by Rare is coming out.


Naturally, then, gamers have been eager to find out exactly what the online component of Sea of Thieves ' multiplayer would entail. Unfortunately, those expecting that the title would be free-to-play once initially purchased are going to be sorely disappointed. Sea of Thieves design director Gregg Mayles shot down the idea of a free multiplayer experience in an interview with Eurogamer at E3 2016 yester


While all this should be taken with a grain of salt, it's easy to see why a Rare and Microsoft would be gearing up for an open beta. With the hype surrounding the game right now thanks to the closed-beta and high twitch viewership, not to mention a limited edition controller set to be released, the studios would want to keep riding this high up until the game's release and an open-beta could go a long way towards t

Even though the gaming world-renowned name remains with the company, Rare as we knew it is dead and everything we ever knew and loved about them was laid to rest years ago. I can already hear you now: why is this a big deal? Why does Microsoft purchasing a company that was actively seeking a buyer mean that the old Rare as we knew it is gone? They're still around making games for the Xbox One, with Sea of Thieves on the way, but a huge chunk of their creative development team was lost during the transition from Nintendo to Microsoft and it shows. After founders Tim and Chris Stamper quit in 2007, they were replaced by Gregg Mayles, the current Creative Director for Rare.


After a plethora of leaks and rumors that seemed to confirm its existence prior to its announcement, Assassin's Creed Origins was officially revealed during Microsoft's E3 press conference. Set in Egypt, Assassin's Creed Origins will run at a stead FPS at a consistent 4K resolut


While five years might be a little optimistic for a game that hasn't released yet, Sea of Thieves remains one of the most exciting Xbox One and PC exclusives on the horizon, and if it fulfills the promise it has shown in recent gameplay demonstrations, Mayles just might get his wish after

Rare was a legendary developer back in the golden age of gaming. When the beloved company was perfectly partnered with Nintendo, the partnership went as well together as peanut butter and jelly and through 1994-2001 everything was fine and dandy until game development cost began to gradually increase and Nintendo decided not to provide the company with more capital nor did they buy up the remaining stake that was leftover, forcing the company to search for a potential buyer to stay in the game. In the end we all know that Microsoft purchased the company for $375 million and from that day on Rare was a first-party developer for Microsoft.

Now the current occupation of creative team members in the company rely on one thing and one thing alone to sell their games: nostalgia. The current Rare as we know it relies heavily on gamer's nostalgia of IPs of gaming’s past. It's no coincidence that Rare Replay (an amazing collection of old Rare Games) was released during the same time Microsoft was announcing that Rare was going to be making more "Traditional" games again. Don’t be confused; even though Rare Replay was released on Xbox and marketed as Rare titles, these are in no way a reflection on the current company. The majority of the games seen in Rare Replay were done by employees that no longer exist at the company.


What do you think about Sea of Thieves not being free-to-play? Is it fair for developers to still take this approach to multiplayer content, or has the era of paid multiplayer business models started to fade away? Let us know in the comments be