Job listings for internal studio Rare confirm the software giant is making games for its archrival"s latest handheld.
Last week, rumors began to surface that the Xbox 360 would allow gamers to download Micrsoft-developed games onto Nintendo"s DS handheld. Given that Nintendo"s handhelds are its main source of revenue, Microsoft creating new content for the DS would be giving ammunition to its archrival in the current- and next-generation console wars. Such a move struck many industry-watchers as being highly unlikely, if not outright lunacy.
However, it now appears that Microsoft may be crazy like a fox. This week, evidence surfaced confirming that the company is indeed developing games for the DS. It came in the form of two job listings on the official Web site for Rare Ltd., the Britain-based developer of Conker: Live and Reloaded for the Xbox and Perfect Dark Zero for the Xbox 360. Rare is wholly owned by Microsoft, and is part of its Microsoft Game Studios suite of internal developers, which also includes Halo-makers Bungie Software.