“My seven-year-old son woke me up a couple mornings ago because he couldn’t find Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts,” said Fries, speaking to Eurogamer.

“As you might imagine, he has lots of games to choose from in our house. But that’s the one he wanted to play. That game, of all the games. It says to me that there is still some magic left at Rare.”

Former director of gameplay at the studio, Phil Tossell, also believes there’s some talent left at Rare today.

“A lot has been made by press and fans of the fact that many old-time Rare employees are no longer with the company, and that how somehow as a result that there’s no talent left there anymore,” he said.

“But I can safely say there are still many talented people there and I wish them continued future success. My only regret is that some of the cool prototypes we were working on never got to see the light of day.”

Fries was in charge of Microsoft Game Studios when it paid $375 million for Rare in 2002, buying stakes from the Stamper brothers and Nintendo.

Since the buyout, the studio has edged away from the core games it’s best known for, such as Banjo Kazooie and Perfect Dark. In the past few years, the company’s worked on Kinect projects, such as Kinect Sports and Avatars.

Read the rest of the feature at the link.

Andrew Dennison, a former Codemasters employees, has been appointed as software director, while Peter Ridgway, another former Codemasters employee, has been hired on as technical art director.

Rare has also brought on Jon Vincent as audio director, a position he held previously at Ubisoft Reflections. Also hired as executive producer was Danny Isaac, Relentless Software’s former studio manager.

“Everyone at Rare welcomes the skills and input of some of the industry’s most exciting people as we boost an already strong talent base with these latest hires,” commented Rare’s senior studio director, Craig Duncan. “This is the latest step in Rare’s continued evolution and we have plans to further augment our team over the coming months.

“As a first party Microsoft studio, our mission is to attract the brightest and best talent in the business; these four appointments demonstrate that we are well on our way to achieving this.”

The new hires were brought in to fill out the firm’s Kinect development team.

Thanks, Edge.

Sequel’s out on October 28 in the UK for Xbox 360.

“It’s just nostalgia from when you were a child and you went to an arcade. You’d just all gang up on us and hunt me down if we made one wasn’t what’s in your head,” Tilton, now a designer at the independent Starfire Studios, told Eurogamer of calls to revamp Killer Instinct.

“It’s the same as GoldenEye and the first Perfect Dark. Games you played ten years ago, you had a great time playing them. It was probably at a certain time in your life when maybe you were a student or a group of friends came round your house.”

And if developers pander to the fanbase and make a faithful reproduction, Tilton said that the games “don’t hold up” to modern, big-budget productions.

“It’s almost like you need to do a World of Warcraft to it. You can’t just have the traditional thing. It’s like, how can you make it more accessible in a way,” he said of brining back old IP.

Tilton and three colleagues left Rare to start their own studio, and the designer feels Rare is trapped by the pressures of triple A development.

“You can understand the anger of the fans, that they feel they’ve been deserted, but there are two sides to it,” he sympathised.

“It’s just because games are so expensive to make now and management guys’ careers are on the line if they back the wrong one, if they suddenly spent $30 million and got no return for it, that all these extra people have to get involved.

“Things change. Back then a game cost $2 million to make. Nowadays a game costs $20, $30 million to make, and then they add probably the same amount in marketing. It’s a huge risk. Perfect Dark Zero, from a development cost, made four times its money back. The early games made a stupid amount of money back. Like GoldenEye and Donkey Kong, because they cost so little to make.”

Tilton also commented that being locked down to specific, sure-bet projects and enormous team sizes mean individual staff get less input into each game.

“If we did a new Killer Instinct – obviously we don’t own the IP – if we were to make that game nowadays, the original team was six, seven people over the space of a year. Now, you could see how instead of one designer putting in all the moves for all ten characters, you’d have at least a designer per character,” he explained.

“You would definitely end up with a better game. Absolutely guaranteed. But maybe not everybody on the team would get the creative satisfaction from it. And it might not make its money back. That’s the dilemma.

“Once the COD guys have made an amazing game with this many people, it raises the bar. You have to compete against that. It’s like an arms race. Once you get in, you’re in it. It’s even a marketing arms race, where they spend more and more money to get the games out because they know you can make a $200 million bet and make $400 million back, and that’s probably better than doing ten games for $20 million and not all of those making their money back.”

Perhaps the financial stifling of creativity is what motivated the four ex-Rare developers to break into independent, downloadable arena.

“Because the budgets are a lot smaller you can take more risks. The people making the decisions are more comfortable because there’s less risk,” Tilton concluded.

Starfire Studios has just announced its debut release, an XBLA twin stick shooter called Fusion: Genesis. Rare, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft, is working on Kinect Sports: Season Two and is reported to be focused on the motion control device.

The mag’s latest issue (via Silliegamer) that Lionhead and Forza developer Turn 10 are working on launch titles as well for the next-gen.

Rare has had a mostly Kinect output as of late with Kinect Sports and elsewhere, but did have Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts long before then.

Lionhead, meanwhile, has seen two Fable games come out on 360 this gen, with the Kinect-centric Fable: The Journey coming next year. The studio was also working on the revolutionary-looking Kinect title Milo & Kate, but has since been canned.

For Turn 10, two Forza Motorsport games this gen has come from the studio, with a third set to debut on Xbox 360 in the US next Tuesday and the UK next Friday.

A E3 2012 unveil of the next Xbox has been rumoured several times this year, although nothing has been confirmed as yet. Obviously.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

Speaking in an interview with Industry Gamers, Henson said the firm has “changed and evolved,” over the years and because of it, its “focus is different.”

“Fallen off the map is interesting when you sell over three million units,” he said regarding Kinect Sports. “I like that falling off the map. It’s great success in this industry. If you look at what Rare has done, 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.”

Henson goes on to say Rare has “delivered as much” to Xbox 360 as a platform as other developers.

“With the success of Kinect Sports and what I believe will be a successful Season Two, I think Rare lived up to its potential,” he said while noting that Xbox Avatars “goes far beyond anything the studio has ever done”.

Kinect Sports: Season 2 launches on October 25 in the US and October 28 in Europe.

Thanks, CVG.

Speaking to VG247 at the Microsoft gamescom 2011 Play Day Event, Rare staffer and Kinect Sports producer Harry Robinson explained that he believes the game still comes from the same place spiritually as titles like Banjo Kazooie.

“I can’t really talk about what projects we’re working on and what we may or may not do in the future, but in my mind I still see Kinect Sports – and Season 2 – as a Rare game at heart,” he said.

“It’s, y’know, a game that everyone can enjoy – it’s family friendly, fun, and we put our little elements of humour there – stuff that’s traditional to Rare – so I personally don’t feel like we’re not developing a Rare game – I think we are. It’s hard to say what we’ll make in the future, really.”

Kinect Sports: Season 2 isn’t a solo Rare project, though, and also sees Canadian developers BigPark – previously seen working on Kinect Joy Ride – join the crew. “The entire Kinect Sports team at Rare is working on this – but BigPark are working on additional sports,” Robinson explained.

“At Rare we’re working on four sports and the main menu system, while BigPark are working on two sports – American Football and Skiing – we’re working on the other ones.”

“We’re still a large studio and we’re working on all sorts of bits and bobs aside – there will be more from us.”

Kinect Sports: Season 2 launches on 25 October in USA, 27 October in Asia, Australia and New Zealand and the 28 October in Europe.

Check out gamescom screenshots below.

Speaking in an interview with Eurogamer, Henson said he doesn’t get tired of being asked when Rare will develop a core game again, because what it is doing now is “bolstered by the history,” of the company.

“I don’t get sick of it at all. One of the great things about Rare is it’s got this great heritage and history people have passion around,” he said. “I grew up on Rare games. I would like for people to really understand our future is bolstered by the history we have, but we’re buoyed by the innovation that’s ahead of us.

“It’s interesting when people ask questions like, well, will you do this kind of game or that kind of game? Some of those things I find limiting in terms of what the experience is. If you go talk to just an average person about what we’ve done with Kinect or Kinect Sports, honestly, it’s magic to them. They cannot get their head around the idea they’re moving and then there’s an avatar on the screen doing the exact same thing. Turn that into a sport and a whole bunch of activities with skill ranges and refined movement and big movements and it’s an incredible thing.

“Hopefully people get as excited about that as we do. We know there are millions of customers out there that are getting excited about it.

“When I get questions like that, hopefully people get the sense what really excites me is what we’re doing now and how we’re driving and leading innovation.”

Rare is currently at work on Kinect Sports 2.

“I’m not going to give you the exact date you’re going to have a holodeck in your room, but think about that for just a second,” Henson said at Develop yesterday, as reported by Eurogamer.

“Think about the movies we all grew up on and the things that inspired us in lots of different ways to create the kind of entertainment to do. We’re down that path. We’re absolutely down that path right now.”

Henson said he couldn’t date the holodeck revolution, likening it to the slow, gradual uptake of HD television – a process still ongoing many years after the technology’s launch.

“When will the holodeck happen? It’s going to be a journey. I don’t think there’s going to be a date.”

Interestingly, Henson was dismissive of new hardware, suggesting software and services will lead games into the future.

“When’s next-gen? When’s next-gen? When’s the new Xbox Live? When’s the new Xbox?” he said.

“The power of software, the power of services, and the power of platforms is that it’s always now. We continue to build on them, continue to innovate, continue to push, and we continue to build magic.”

Thanks, IndustryGamers.

[image]

“[Rare's] working very hard on a big demo at E3 that will involve the voice aspect far more during gameplay,” a source told 123Kinect.

Kinect-reveal rumours have come thick and fast the last few weeks; Microsoft is said to have ten non-sequel titles set for a showing.

Kinect Me and Kinect Fun Lab have turned up in classification listings, with trademarks corroborating more listings for several Fusion-branded titles.

Fusion, eh? Like, a fusion of two control methods – voice and motion? Hmm! Very interesting.

That VideoGame Blog

• The Portal 2 soundtrack is now available for download.
• Here’s a fun little video which mashes up the best quotes from your partners in L.A. Noire.
• For $20,800, you can get a glasses-free 52-inch 3D TV in Japan.
• Boulder Dash-X is headed for a summer release. Check out the trailer.
• Shots of a knife and other normal tools used as weapons in Dead Island are here.
• Ex-Rare man Christopher Seavor has said this about Nintendo beating the others at E3: “Nintendo will rape them… RAPE. Hare, meet tortoise. Tortoise, this is hare. “Hare…….”, said the tortoise. “Here’s a big f**k you!”
• In Tokyo Jungle, you will play as a lion and as a sika deer.
• Shots of characters in Knight’s Contract have emerged.
• D3 has released a new Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon trailer.
• Aion has been patched as promised last week and a free trail is now available.
• Here’s a nifty video for Realm of the Titans.

Eurogamer is reporting that Kinect Sports 2 is set to be unveiled for a Christmas launch later this year, with another title for the motion camera in development at Rare. The second title won’t use familiar characters from past franchises, such as Banjo.

Meanwhile, Dance Central 2 from Harmonix – which was already confirmed to be in development as far back as November last year – is set to have a Christmas 2011 launch exclusivity period.

Announcements will also be made regarding two new titles from a developer who has already launched titles for Kinect, although it’s unknown who that developer is.

Two new studios have also opened and are working on Kinect titles, according to the site: one in Soho, London and another near Microsoft’s HQ in Redmond, Seattle.

Another recently opened studio in Vancouver is thought to be working on a core FPS for the controller.

The Kinect announcements will “serve the hardcore,” according to one of the site’s sources.

EG’s also reporting that a brand new open-world Forza title is on the way from ex-Codemasters staffer Gavin Raeburn. This is not the first time open-world and Forza have been mentioned together: a survey for Forza 4 already mentioned the possibility earlier this year.

Microsoft said following the release of NPD data for April that it would triple the output of Kinect titles by the end of the year.

EG has also said that ten non-sequel Kinect titles will also be announced in LA.

MS has refused to comment.

Micrsoft’s press conference takes place at the University of Southern California’s Galen Theatre on Monday, June 6 from 9am PST (5pm BST).

“We’re going to make using your voice much more front and centre – we’ve just scratched the surface on that,” he said.

“The ability to say ‘Xbox Pause’ and it pauses is just the beginning. It’s magic, but it should be just like having a conversation moving forward.

“We’ll continue to advance and continue to make it better for both your body and your voice. I would say we’ve only scratched 10 percent of the possibilities of what we can do with Kinect.”

Rare is now fully focused on Kinect development. Kinect’s voice commands were first show in action at last year’s E3.

Via GAF.

CVG reports Burton described Kinect’s potential as “virtually limitless”.

The incubation software director enthused on the device’s layered infra red sensing, body point tracking and voice recognition, and said future Rare titles would utilise more of the camera’s functions, such as online connectivity.

Burton also commented that the Rare team is quite enthusiastic about Kinect hacks, and regularly tries them out in the office.

Burton’s comments suggested Rare has a different approach to Kinect than many creators, stating the the studio was determined to “make it conform to the player’s control, rather than the other way round”, and that porting core titles like Halo to the device might not work – but a specially designed game in the franchise could.

Kinect Sports was Rare’s most recent release. The Microsoft-owned developer is known for Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, and Banjo Kazooie.

Thanks, D’toid.

According to Unseen 64, Perfect Dark Core was in development by Chris Seavor’s Conker team, as most of the Perfect Dark team had moved on to other projects.

The project kicked off with a tougher, more flirty revamp of series protagonist Joanna Dark, subsequently replacing her with an unnamed male.

Later on, the game morphed into a mech-action FPS, before being canned without ever getting out of the prototype stage. All we have left are the videos embedded below, and a gallery of concept art available through the link above.

The N64′s critically and commercially successful Perfect Dark was followed by a Game Boy Colour spin off and the coolly received Xbox launch prequel, Perfect Dark Zero. The original has since been remade and released for Xbox Live Arcade.

Thanks, Joystiq.

PDCP by u64backup

MPDC by u64backup

Per the official statement handed to Edge: “While redundancies are never easy, these organizational changes are part of Rare’s ongoing strategy and operational planning which typically coincides with the shipment of a title.

“We are working closely with the affected employees to support them through this transition and help them apply for other roles within Microsoft,” said a spokesperson.

According to other sources speaking with Edge, positions in Rare’s 42 person art department are currently at risk and that 19 staff will be let go, which is the maximum redundancies allowed under EU employment law unless Microsoft plans to provide full consultation.

Microsoft has declined to offer up a number of employees affected, stating: “Whilst we’re not discussing the exact numbers involved, I can assure you that it’s far fewer than you’ve indicated and represents a small percentage of the total Rare team.”

Another source claims Rare plans to become primarily staffed by contractors and temporary employees, according to Edge, with the Kinect Sports franchise possibly being shared with Joy Ride dveloper Big Park.

We previously asked Microsoft for comment on the rumors few days ago, and have yet to hear back from them. We’ll send another mail.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

We may have wound down for Christmas and New Year, but the news motored on, dropping a winceworthy headline for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and plenty more.

Deus Ex gets delayed into FY2012 by Square

Square announced in its recent batch of financials that it’s delayed Deus Ex: Human Revolution into fiscal year 2012. It was originally scheduled for a early 2011 release.

Square Enix’s next financial year begins on April 1, 2011.

The reason for the delay is due to “weak sales performance of console game titles that have been newly released during the current fiscal year as well as harsh market feedback regarding a key title.

“We therefore have decided to spend additional time to further polish our upcoming game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, resulting in a shift in release timing from our prior plan of the current fiscal year to next fiscal year.”

Get the most recent trailer for it here.

LA Noire video shows off mo-cap tech

Rockstar released a new video of LA Noire, showing off the game’s mo-cap technology, MotionCap.

The 40s-inspired Team Bondi title uses the tech to bring out realism and facial detail as never before seen in a game.

Get the video below.

Respawn’s West admits not playing Black Ops

With things getting increasingly heated just before Christmas in the countersuit between Activision and ex-Infinity Ward heads Vince Zampella and Jason West, perhaps the fact that West’s failed to even look at Black Ops shouldn’t come as a big surprise.

West, who went on to found Respawn Entertainment with Zampella following the pair’s layoff at IW last March, told 1UP at the VGAs that he hasn’t touched the shooter.

“I haven’t actually played it,” he said.

As for what Respawn is currently making, West admitted some early concept stuff is already up and running, but said the project is still far out.

“We got some things cooking now, and I saw some awesome stuff last week,” he said.

“I think announcements are going to be a ways off.”

Watch the interview below.

Drs Ray and Greg added to AIAS Hall of Fame

BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk will be inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame when DICE takes place next month, its organisers have confirmed.

It’s the first time a pair have been added into the Hall of Fame, and the honour comes in a year that will be BioWare’s biggest ever, thanks to 2011 releases of Dragon Age II, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3.

Muzyka and Zeschuk will also speak at an AIAS talk at DICE.

“Driving BioWare’s success past, present and future are the amazing family of people we have been privileged to work with over the years and our shared core values of quality in our workplace, quality in our products, and entrepreneurship in a context of humility and integrity,” said Muzyka.

“We’d also like to thank our wives and the families of our employees for their continuous support over the years, which together with the hard work of our great teams continually enables BioWare’s success,” added Zeschuk.

The pair’s awards will be given by Epic president Mike Capps.

Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy dated for March 3 in Japan, new trailer released

Square Enix confirmed at Jump Festa it’ll release Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy on March 3 in Japan.

The publisher also confirmed a PSP hardware bundle for the game.

The title will cost ¥6,090 for the UMD version, and ¥4,980 as a download.

Square also said that the story from the original Dissidia will be unlocked in Dissidia 012 once its campaign is finished.

Its inclusion is due to the addition of a new 3D map system, according to Tetsuya Nomura in Famitsu (thanks, Andriasang).

Get the new trailer from Festa below, via Joystiq.

Conduit 2 gets February 15 US date

The Conduit 2 will release on February 15, developer High Voltage Software told IGN.

We’ll get onto Sega about a UK and European date.

Dragon Age II video shows off combat styles

BioWare’s released a new video of Dragon Age II on PC, featuring the game’s two combat stances.

You can either go for the action-RPG approach DAII’s been heading towards, or you can take the tactical route, where you can pause and give out orders.

Video’s below, via Big Download. Dragon Age II releases on March 8 in the US and March 11 in the UK for PS3, 360 and PC.

Demon’s Souls’ online servers to remain live until October

Atlus has confirmed it’s to keep live the online servers for RPG Demon’s Souls until at least October this year.

It had previously said it would keep the servers open until March at the earliest.

“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. We will support the online servers for Demon’s Souls as long as we possibly can, and we’ll be as transparent about the entire process as possible, hence us constantly updating folks as to what to expect,” said Aram Jabbari of the publisher.

Crysis 2 trailer shows off Nanosuit

EA released a new trailer of Crysis 2, featuring what’s possible in the game with the revamped Nanosuit.

It’s very slick stuff, as you’ll see below.

Crysis 2 releases on March 25 for PS3, 360 and PC. Thanks, D’Toid.

Need for Speed World passes 3 million users

EA confirmed over the holiday break that Need for Speed World has passed 3 million users.

It also announced the addition of a day-and-night cycle for the MMO.

Developer BlackBox will handle the second of two iterations from the Need for Speed series next year, the other being Shift 2: Unleashed in spring.

Max Payne 3 info “in the coming months,” says Rockstar

It’s been a ridiculous age since we’ve heard anything on Max Payne 3, but it’s still in development, and there’s more info inbound.

The sequel, being made by Rockstar’s Vancouver studio, was left out of Take Two’s provisional FY 2012 line-up after slipping out of the back-half of its FY 2011 line-up.

“We’re still working hard on Max, and we’ll have more news in the coming months,” a Rockstar rep told Kotaku.

Bulletstorm dev diary has a lot of [duck]ing swearing, has profanity filter

EA released the first dev diary for Bulletstorm, featuring producer Tanya Jessen and lead writer Rick Remender talking about the People Can Fly shooter and its story.

It also features the term “dicktits”. That is why you will watch it below. Thanks, Evil Avatar.

PCF producer Adrian Chmielarz has also confirmed the game will have a profanity filter to block out any swearing, although specifically how it would work was not mentioned. The filter works for both subtitles and voice-acting.

inFamous comic will bridge gap between inFamous 1 and 2

Sony, Sucker Punch and DC Comics are to release a six-part series of comics based on inFamous.

The comics will bridge the gap between inFamous 1 and the upcoming inFamous 2, explaining how main character Cole moved from Empire City to New Marais.

The series will be written by William Harms, with illustration done by Eric Nguyen.

More on the US PS Blog.

GT5 gets massive update 1.05

Polyphony released the massive version 1.05 update for Gran Turismo 5 just before Christmas, with the main inclusion being GT Academy for the US.

New seasonal events were also included, as was a “hot car dealer,” improved rewards whilst playing and more.

There’s details on the update at GT Planet.

DiRT 3 video shows off Gymkhana

Codemasters has released a new video of DiRT 3, showing off one of the new additions to the game: Gymkhana.

The video has rally driver Ken Block talking about how it works, as well as some gameplay footage.

Get it below. Thanks, D’Toid.

Dragon Quest VI remake launching in US next month

Nintendo’s announced it’s to release the DS remake of Square’s Dragon Quest VI in the US on Valentine’s Day, February 14.

Its release comes seven months after releasing Dragon Quest IX in America.

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge gets first trailer

Bethesda released the first trailer for Hunted: The Demon’s Forge over the break.

The clip of the inXile dungeon crawler shows off the world within the game, with its two main characters, E’lara and Caddoc, shown at the end.

Hunted’s out next spring for PS3, 360 and PC. Trailer’s below. Thanks, D’Toid.

Tales of Xillia announced, detailed

Namco said before Christmas that the all-new Tales game it announced for PS3 last August is called Tales of Xillia.

It’s the third Tales game that’ll appear on PS3 following ports of Vesperia from 360 and Graces from Wii, but the first to be developed for the console from the go.

As far as producer Hideo Baba is taking it, Xillia is a new era for the RPG series.

“Our goal here is to pool all the know-how we’ve built over the past 15 years and show off a new frontier in the Tales series,” he told Famitsu (via 1UP).

“That’s all there is to it. You might see that even now in the graphics, which are meant to be a contrast in light and shadow. Tales of Vesperia was always meant to have anime-like graphics, so everything’s incredibly bright and colorful.”

Baba continued: “With Xillia, on the other hand, we’re deliberately placing light sources to play up the size of a room and the feeling that the characters are really there.”

For the first time in the Tales series, there will be two main characters, a male named Jude and a female called Mira.

Other details: the game’s world is called Liese Maxia, its battle system is known as the Double Raid Linear Motion Battle System – or DR-LMBS for short – and its viewpoint is behind the back and over the head. Exciting.

No date yet.

Activision has made “horrific mistakes,” says Riccitiello

EA CEO John Riccitiello has told IG that Activision has made some “horrific mistakes”.

“No, I don’t actually feel sorry for the other guys,” he said. “I think they’re making some really horrific mistakes.

“Without being too directly negative about a particular competitor, I would say that what often happens is a scenario where you’ve lost your customer, so you lean on your employee to do evermore impossible things which generates profitability for two or three years where you sort of live off past success.”

While Activision may be the lot under scrutiny, EA was once seen as the “Evil Empire”. But Riccitiello explained how it got that monkey off its back.

“Three years ago, we were not making any money and we’d lost the support of our shareholders, and we had lost the support of our gamer, and our attrition was at an all time high.

“So your quality’s down, the gamer hates you, the investor’s not happy, you’ve got nowhere to go and employees are leaving.

“Since then, I think it is fair to say we’ve got most of the gamers back.”

StarCraft II gets overdue single-player demo

Five months after going on sale worldwide, Blizzard’s released a single-player demo of StarCraft II.

It features the first three missions from the campaign of Wings of Liberty. You won’t need an Battle.net account to play it.

Get it here.

Full-priced Red Dead Redemption goes live on Games on Demand

Rockstar’s put up a full-priced edition of Red Dead Redemption on 360′s Games on Demand.

It’ll set you back £39.99/$59.99, and only consists of the main game itself, with no DLC added.

If you want to pick it up on the cheap for less then £40, you can get it for just over £20 at GAME on PS3 or 360.

If for convenience’s sake you actually want to buy it as a download, the link to queue it up for your 360 is here.

Dragon Age: Awakening dated for Japan

BioWare will release Dragon Age: Origins expansion Awakening in Japan on January 27, according to Famitsu.

Awakening continues the story of Origins, adds five new recruitable members to your party and more.

Awakening launched in the west last March for PC, 360 and PS3 in the US both digitally and at retail, while it was only available for PS3 owners in Europe on the PS Store.

Def Jam Rapstar gets Kinect support

Konami’s released a new update for the 360 version of Def Jam Rapstar, which has enabled Kinect support.

The 4MM game will allow users to record videos of their rapping to the Def Jam community using the motion camera.

Fantastic. Thanks, Joystiq.

Team Meat cancels Super Meat Boy for WiiWare, explains why

Team Meat’s confirmed it had canceled the WiiWare version of Super Meat Boy, with Team Meat leader Edmund McMillen telling Joystiq it would have been “a piece of shit version”.

“We knew of the limits early on but overestimated our ability to get Nintendo to raise the file size,” said McMillen. “It’s lame that there is a 40MB cap on WiiWare games… but it was our fault for blindly assuming this cap wasn’t set in stone.

“We are sorry for that.”

He went on to add that Team Meat had talked to three publishers about a retail version for Wii, but ended up passing on it.

“Right now we have talked to three larger publishers who have passed on the title because they believe Wii retail is a bad idea profit wise. Most places we have talked to believe that only Nintendo brand games sell well on their system and don’t even understand why we want to release Wii retail.”

FFXIII 360 bombs in Japan

According to Media Create numbers, the Japanese 360 release of Final Fantasy XIII sold 22,579 units.

Media Create doesn’t release sales numbers for games that sell under 20,000, according to Siliconera.

FFXIII 360 in Japan was the international version of the game with English VOs, as well as epilogue episode and a new easy mode.

Kinect Sports gets demo release

Microsoft’s released a taster for Kinect Sports.

Pick it up here. It’s 718Mb.

Rare has announced that a Facebook app for Kinect Sports is now live.

The widget keeps a record of your league results, allows you to send invitations to other players and collects video highlights in one place.

Rare plans to update the app in future with the ability to allow players to view complete personal stats and records, by event or as a whole).

Your videos and results won’t be shared with others unless you permit it.

Rare feels this will provide players with a chance to brag and challenge any Facebook buddies also playing the game.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Without the shades.

Sky News has a piece from last night’s UK launch of Kinect, which shows Kinect creative chief Kudo Tsunoda talking about the motion camera.

It also has footage from the midnight launch at GAME in Oxford Street as well as The Wanted – God help us – from last night’s launch party as well as article quotes from Microsoft UK boss Neil Thompson and Rare chief Nick Burton.

Watch it below.

After an anti-climatic launch event in London last night in contrast to the US Times Square launch last week, Kinect goes on sale today in the UK and Europe.

Microsoft has released a launch trailer for Kinect Sports, showing a happy and pretty family having a blast with Kinect, the game, and life in general.

We’re wondering if the whole family is on Lithium or something.

Anyway, it’s below if you care to watch. The track in it is Film School’s Distant Life, so there’s at least a bright spot to it.

Kinect Sports launches day and date with Kinect, which is tomorrow in the US and November 10 in Europe.

Blame, Prof.Dr.Moertel.

New Rare boss Scott Henson has told Eurogamer that, while it won’t be working on games for it exclusively, Kinect is the studio’s “centerpiece” right now.

Henson, who was announced on Thursday night to become the new head of the UK based developer, said the tech is a “key part” of its future.

“We’re just starting to scratch the surface with how you interact with your body, how you become a part of that experience and how you use your voice to control things,” he said.

“Rare is going to continue to do what first-party does, which is innovate and push the boundaries of what that means. We’ve got lots and lots of years of innovation ahead of us.”

He added: “Yes, absolutely, Kinect will be a key part of the studio’s future. I’m not suggesting it’s going to be exclusive, but it will be the centrepiece of our strategy for sure, because there is a lot of opportunity there. It’s bold and bright.”

He also hinted at the studio poking even more at its back catalog with Kinect support. Kinect Conker, anyone?

“You can look at what we’re doing with Xbox Live Arcade and you can see how we’ve taken those classics and refreshed them and brought them to the service. We’ll continue to look at those kinds of opportunities.

“Don’t just think about packaged goods in terms of opportunities and Rare and how we bring those things to life.”

There’s more at the link above.

American Microsoft stalwart Scott Henson is to move from the US to the UK to take control of Rare.

“The reason I’m so excited is that both Rare and I has a great history of innovation and creating experiences that are breakthrough experiences that reach millions of people,” Henson told MCV.

“The timing is actually perfect. I’ve worked on Xbox since before the original Xbox. I helped bring Xbox Live to life, which has reached millions of people. Rare over the last 25 years is the same story.

“It’s all those things coming together at a time when Kinect is about to launch with an excellent launch title in Kinect Sports which is poised to do very, very well. I think the combination is extremely powerful.”

Henson has been with Microsoft for 16 years.

In the wake of the announcement, Henson said that Kinect will form only part of Rare’s ongoing strategy.

“Kinect will be a key part of the studio’s future,” he told Eurogamer.

“I’m not suggesting it’s going to be exclusive, but it will be the centrepiece of our strategy for sure, because there is a lot of opportunity there.”

Rare is about to release Kinect Sports as a Kinect launch title.

Did you honestly think it was a straight-out love affair between Microsoft and Nintendo over the affections of Rare? Think again: a certain Mr. K was involved too.

Ex-Xbox boss Ed Fries has revealed to Develop that Activision was once bidding for the UK dev studio before Microsoft bought it in 2002.

Fries, who was originally VP of game publishing for Microsoft until 2004, said he thought Rare was most interested in Acti more so then MS during negotiations at the time.

“There was a bit of a bidding war between us [Microsoft] and Activision – a war which they had won at first,” he said.

“They made the best initial offer, and Rare looked at both of us and, from the way I saw it, was more interested in partnering with Activision. I think it’s because they wanted to be third-party, independent of all platforms.”

But despite that – and a chance from Nintendo to fully takeover the studio, having owned half of it – something happened that made Activision go “cold” on the deal, according to Fries.

“Something happened between them and Activision. I don’t know what it was, but relatively far along in the deal things got cold, and we made a counter offer.

“Our bid was bigger than Activision’s, but Activision was still in control of the deal at the time. The prices were getting so high, by this point, that it didn’t look like Nintendo was willing to participate.

“So, very near the end, Activision backed out of the deal, for reasons I still don’t know, and Rare came to us.”

Microsoft eventually won out and bought Rare for $375 million eight years ago and have revamped its Perfect Dark and Banjo Kazooie series since as well as develop Avatars for 360.

Its currently working on Kinect for 360, with Kinect Sports being a launch title.

This past summer, for its 25th anniversary, the studio was also rebranded.

Microsoft’s revealed the first three ads for its Kinect motion controller.

The ads concentrate on one launch game each, with the first focusing on Kinect Sports, while the other two show Joyride and Kinectimals.

You can check out all three videos below.

Sky and Microsoft recently announced full Kinect integration with the Sky Player on Xbox 360.

Kinect is released this November.

Thanks, PSG.

Microsoft put out montage trailers of both Joyride and Kinect Sports this morning, showing one woman soundly beating both a small boy and young girl. She really takes them to school.

The Kinect Sports video sees a family competing in a variety of events before taking on another family online in a soccer game. Mom wins the day with a childhood-crushing penalty a certain young man will most likely carry to his deathbed. It’s rousing stuff.

The Joy Ride trailer consists of a bunch of gameplay modes, including stunts, split-screen, racing and more.

Both are launch titles alongside the 360 motion system this November.

Kinect launches in the US on November 4, to be followed in Europe on November 10.

Buttons, you say, Watson? Astonishing.

Rare’s George Andreas has told Edge the studio and Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux had strongly wanted buttons for Kinect originally, going as far as being “very vocal” to boss Kudo Tsunoda at the time, before deciding down the line they weren’t needed.

“We were absolutely adamant that we needed a button, something with haptic feedback, that would initiate an action,” said Andreas.

“It took a long time – we threw some prototypes together and then we saw you didn’t need one.

“We were very vocal to Kudo [Tsunoda, Kinect lead] at the time, and Peter Molyneux was as well, that you needed something in your hand,” he added.

The tech for Kinect allows the player to become the controller itself instead of using a physical controller.

Kinect launches on Novemeber 10 in Europe with Rare’s Kinect Sports being a launch title.

Via Kotaku, CVG.

Rare has said Kinect does work in small lounges, despite claims you need to be at least six feet away from the screen for proper operation.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Rare senior engineer Nick Burton said such claims had been blown out of proportion, adding people with a smaller living space needn’t worry.

“The camera configures itself, basically, when you set it up. Now, obviously, if you’ve only got that much space [makes a small space between his hands] between your TV there’s just not enough space for you to physically fit in the frame of the camera so you need to stand back a little bit.

“But it’s not like, ‘Hey, look at me over here,’ and you’re in a massive living room. We live in England.”

Kinect launches in the UK on November 10.

Animals. You have to love them, or eat them.

In this case, though, you will definitely love them as some Kinectimals footage from gamescom shows just how cute these little critters can be.

Anyone who has ever dreamed of taking a lion cub through a less than gruelling assault course in the middle of a quiet wood can look to the stars, because today, your dreams have come true.

Thanks to GameTrailers, below you can see how you can do exactly that.

Today is your lucky day.