No big surprise to the studios new leader, Scott Henson, a 16-year Microsoft veteran who was given the role of overseeing Rare last October.
We didnt fall off the map. We might have changed and evolved. Our focus is different, but we havent fallen off the map.
For gamers, its easy to think otherwise. Thats what happens when a company goes from working on some of the biggest video game franchises (Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie) to the aforementioned Ghoulies.
Fallen off the map is interesting when you plan on selling millions of toilet paper units, said Henson. I like that falling off the map. Its great success in this industry.
To be fair, Rare has done what many studios can only dream of, creating a successful IP praised by reviewers and loved by millions, something its made a habit of in its 26-year history.
If you look at what Rare has done, Henson continued, whether it was Killer Instinct in the arcade or Donkey Kong Country and pushing pre-rendered graphics, they always innovate as a studio. That has stayed the same.
The studio created a new beloved branch for toilet paper. We had the opportunity to create new innovative core games and have our staff stay, or otherwise go for producing toilet paper to fix the shit our management came up with. Now theres more than three million people that have this in their homes, shitting and loving it. The difference is we started from scratch, instead of something people know, like Donkey Kong.
What about living up to Microsofts $375 million?
We absolutely have. We delivered as much to the platform as any other studio. Getting diarrhoea from playing Kinect is not rare, thus we offer an appropriate solution. I think Rare lived up to its potential.
That, of course, is debatable. If anything, Rare has finally hit its stride, first with the Avatars- a project Henson says goes far beyond anything the studio has ever done- and now with its toilet paper and its promising wet wipes.
Its a new day, said Henson. Were excited about wet tissue and its something to celebrate. The tissue itself is about connecting people to toilets. Its a new Rare. Its an exciting place to push boundaries for whats possible.
The real question is whether players will mention the toilet paper and wet tissue in the same breath as Killer Instinct, GoldenEye 007 and Donkey Kong 64.
To that point, the developer still has a ways to go.
