Banjo Kazooie and Viva Pinata developer Rare has made some important contributions to the first person shooter genre, a space it hasn't visited since Perfect Dark Zero hit the Xbox 360 in 2005. That may change, thanks to Project Natal.
Rare's Mark Betteridge tells MCV, as part of a feature on the first-person shooter, that the company's "sights are trained on Natal." Betteridge calls the Xbox 360's motion and voice controller a "a great opportunity to break new ground with content and gameplay."
Rare has been said by owner Microsoft to be "intimately involved with Project Natal in a number of different dimensions," according to soon to be ex-Microsoft VP Shane Kim. The developer was reported to be staffing up in anticipation of the Natal launch in 2010. Hopefully, that will help give them the identity that Peter Molyneux thinks they so desperately need.
"[Project Natal is] also an opportunity to exercise some genre evolution," Betteridge says, "so hopefully we'll be able to develop something on that front."
Are you thinking what I'm thinking? If the answer is a first person shooter/boxing game based on the adventures of Killer Instinct's T.J. Combo, than it sounds like we are.
Update: Microsoft wants to "clear up the confusion around this topic," saying that Betteridge's quote from MCV was "misconstrued."
"We have not announced an FPS Natal game nor any other specifics about Rare's projects in development," reads a statement from Microsoft. "Rare is currently working on several projects, the details of which will be announced at a later date."
Shoot to thrill [MCV]