Rare is all about new IP now, not the classics - hilliardingold

Rare has as vibrant a back catalog as any honourable developer, and after years of work in the SALT mines of Kinext and Xbox Avatars, the company has started to find out its footing again. The colourful pirate sandbox Sea of Thieves has carved out a loving community, the upcoming adventure Everwild looks loveable, and the company's working happening a Battletoads revival. Merely it seems classic series returns are going to represent the exception from Here on come out of the closet.

Rare says its focus is now connected new IP – non the classics of the 90s. "Doing new things has always been part of Rare's DNA," director of audience and stigmatise scheme Simon Prodger tells GamesIndustry.biz. "All we're doing is really formalising that."

Prodger says that "biotic community attitudes have changed significantly over the last few years," as fans have bought into the studio's new titles, they've stopped up request about the likes of Banjo and Unadulterated Black. "Multitude were very excited about Everwild. We didn't see any: 'Oh information technology's not Banjo 3'. It's a studio journeying that the fanbase has been happening as well."

Indie dev Dlala Studios is taking the delude the upcoming Battletoads revival, and Prodger says this is an "interesting experiment" for the company, oblation a vague trace that other studios power have the opportunity to cop other Rare IP in the future.

Simply that might make up a longshot, reported to studio head Craig Duncan. "Battletoads was a Venn diagram of the correct chance at the right time," born because of Dlala's UI work for Sea of Thieves, its life tech, and sleep with for Battletoads at the top of the studio. "The process is then to assess it and exercise if it fits with our strategy. IT's easy to exist busy on octuple things, but what is the real worthwhile thing to do?"

1 rumoured collaboration would've seen Playtonic – a studio apartment made up largely of former Rare staffers – take their expertness from Yooka-Laylee into a Banjo-Kazooie revival. Merely alas, that rumor was only the outcome of overactive fan imaginations.

While nothing's ever truly cancelled the table, as we start looking in front to those E3 2020 games, don't inevitably require Banjo to bound up on the Microsoft stage this year. Personally, I'm hoping for some other Viva Pinata – by which I mean a whole-unexpected precious stone that lands come out of the closet of nowhere and immediately reaches the upper echelon of the company's classics.