Rare, the in-house developers focused on Microsoft"s Kinect sensor, has suffered layoffs as a result of poor sales of its latest game, "Kinect Sports Rival." The news comes a week after Microsoft announced that it will start selling the Xbox One without a Kinect sensor.
After Microsoft"s announcement last week, Rare said it was “in the process of evaluating what they want to do next,” but now it seems the studio is in more trouble than what"s been revealed publicly.
There"s no official number, but Eurogamer estimates that 16 people were let go following the disappointing sales of "Kinect Sports Rivals." The game was originally destined as a launch title for the Xbox One but was delayed until April of this year, when it finally launched, with disappointing results. Rare"s layoffs happened before Microsoft"s announcement related to the unbundling of Kinect, but it proves that Kinect titles have had little traction and that things aren"t going well for the devs.
You can look at this both ways either celebrating that Kinect is no longer pushed down users" throats by Microsoft and that"s a great thing; or that Microsoft is making a serious mistake and dooming the Kinect, which is a great piece of technology, to being just a gimmick. Either way, one thing"s clear: both Kinect"s future and the future of the developers that have focused on it is very uncertain.
Source: Eurogamer | Image via Microsoft