Rare lacks relevance in modern gaming, says ex-Xbox boss

Aside from his intriguing insights into both the demise of the Dreamcast and original Xbox, in the third part of his interview with The Guardian former Xbox and Sega hardware boss Peter Moore has stated that UK developer Rare, which is now owned by Microsoft, is not in touch with the modern games industry.

Moore told the broadsheet: “I thought ultimately it would be very successful – and you know, Microsoft, we’d had a tough time getting Rare back.

"Perfect Dark Zero was a launch title and didn’t do as well as Perfect Dark, but we were trying all kinds of classic Rare stuff and unfortunately I think the industry had past Rare by – it’s a strong statement but what they were good at, new consumers didn’t care about anymore.

“It was tough because they were trying very hard – Chris and Tim Stamper were still there – to try and recreate the glory years of Rare, which is the reason Microsoft paid a lot of money for them. And I spent a lot of time getting on a train to Twycross to meet them. Great people. But their skillsets were from a different time and a different place and were not applicable in today’s market.”

Moore left Microsoft a year ago to head up EA Sports.