Microsoft's acquisition of Rare back in 2002 (which almost didn't happen) has been criticized by many since Rare's games on the Xbox platform, for the most part, have not been major successes. Now, however, Rare is a critical developer on projects for the all-important Kinect camera launching next week. To ensure Rare's success, Microsoft has now appointed veteran Scott Henson as the new studio manager, according to reports from MCV and Eurogamer.
Henson will move with his family to Birmingham in the next few weeks. During his 16 years with Microsoft, Henson has worked on just about every aspect of the games business involving Xbox, Xbox Live, Xbox 360, XNA Game Studios and Games for Windows Live. More recently, he also contributed heavily to the hardware and software for Kinect, which makes his new role at Rare fitting, given the U.K. studio's Kinect focus.
“The reason I’m so excited is that both Rare and I have 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.”
