Rumour: Killer Instinct 3 In Development?

To be honest the title is probably wishful thinking on my part, but half of the Rare team is currently working on "secret projects". In a huge interview with Videogamer, Nick Burton revealed a bunch of information that hit back at those that thought Microsoft's purchase of Rare was a bad move.

Firstly, Burton revealed that although a lot of the Goldeneye team went on to form Free Radical, a third of that team still worked at Rare. He also hit back on the notion that Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero were flops, saying that they "sold phenomenally well".

"One of the things that I always find funny is when people always quote Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero as being flops at the launch of the 360," said Burton. "In the industry if you break even you're lucky, you're in the minority. If you make a decent amount of money you're really in the minority. You're in the top percentile. Those two games made a lot of money. For the install base they sold phenomenally well. Kameo is still selling now."

As it should; Kameo is an excellent game (and Perfect Dark Zero is highly underrated). As for the idea that all the talent had left Rare for Free Radical, Burton retorted: "We read all those things as well. All the talent, you know, just because you see Viva Piñata doesn't mean that the talent has gone, because that kind of pains me when you hear about that sometimes. Especially with the GoldenEye guys. About a third of the GoldenEye team are still at Rare. A couple of them did a lot of stuff on it. Everyone's like 'GoldenEye was done by these guys.' No, it was done by a team of people."

Given that Perfect Dark Zero is considered than Free Radical's Haze (and the better seller?), his comments definitely have some merit. Burton also mentioned how Rare was lucky to be owned by Microsoft.

"We're lucky being inside MGS, that our remit is to kind of expand and broaden this demographic and do things that are slightly more out there. In a way we don't have some of the commercial pressures that some other developers do. We can take a risk now and again. Piñata was a risk and it's paid off. Would that have come out of another studio? It might have come out of Lionhead maybe. It might have come out of Will Wright, something like that. Spore is fantastic, but massive risk. Of course, nobody thought of the ability to actually make creatures that actually look like they're several creatures doing something. A sure-fire success without doubt."

In a final note, Burton commented on Rare's design philosophy and what makes them unique: "[W]e had such strong art and a strong art style, and very colourful... I love blue skies in games, me. I still like Gears and things like that but I'm not too keen on brown games. I like Outrun! To have a nice colourful game like that, I really like that."

I've always loved Rare's titles, and I've never been able to put my finger on it as to why. Now, thanks to Burton, I can. Now, if only I can get a Killer Instinct 3, my life will be complete.

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