A sequel to Xbox 360 launch title Kameo has been canned by Microsoft. Seeing as the original was only marginally well-received and didn't exactly redefine the platforming genre, we're not too saddened by the news. But the reason for its cancellation is much more worrying.A reported restructuring inside Microsoft has meant wiping the slate clean of some traditional sequels in favour of Natal projects. Doesn't sound great to ... » Read More

Rare's secretly in-the-works Kameo sequel is just one casualty of a Microsoft project cull at the studio, to make way for more Natal development, CVG has learned.

Earlier this year the UK developer underwent a "company-wide restructure" to implement a "new approach" to its in-development projects, Microsoft revealed.
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Split-Screen: "On June 8th 2008, Rare senior software engineer Nick Burton stated that Kameo: Elements of Power (and Perfect Dark Zero, another Rare title exclusive to XBox 360) had "made a lot of money" for the company in a profession where, "If you break even you're lucky, you're in the minority. Now, it's come to light that Kameo was indeed due for a sequel, but was cancelled in late 2007. This happened nearly 2 years after the release of the original."
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Rare was acquired by Microsoft back in 2002 and has been at the heart of the platform holder's internal development, but only now, with the upcoming launch of Natal, does the developer feel it and Microsoft are on the same page.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com about Natal prior to gamescom, Rare design director George Andreas explained just why the motion sensing technology is such a big deal.
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Official Rare Banjo Blog:

"With only a week to go before the release of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the editor has posted a brand new edition of everyone's favourite Q&A, Scribes!

With help from a few dev team members, the editor answers all your pressing questions including these:

I was just wondering if the feathers on Mumbo's head had flying properties like Kazooie's? I mean did he rip them from Kazooie or something?
Bryner

Editor Answer - Possibly. Maybe he sliced her head open like Sylar and now he can do a Flap Flip jump as well.

I can't wait for Banjo-Kazooie! I literally crapped my pants when I heard the big news. I'm also looking forward to Nuts & Bolts but I want to try the demo first (make it happen please).
Christopher 'Chito' Escobar

Editor Answer - Everyone's having accidents in their pants today. Demo's up now, stop cacking yourself and play it.

Click the link for more questions and answers."
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Speaking to VideoGamer.com at last week's Develop conference in Brighton, Rare senior software engineer Nick Burton has revealed that he was keen to begin work on a Kameo sequel immediately after the first game was complete.

"This is just me personally, I was very big for the second we got Kameo out, for hitting the deck running and going right we're doing Kameo 2, we're going to take 12 to 18 months to do it, bang, it's done," explained Burton. "But for one reason or another we didn't do that in the time frame where you could hit that sweet spot. So she's got to take a hiatus."
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Speaking to VideoGamer.com at Develop last week, Rare senior software engineer Nick Burton, an employee at Rare for over 10 years, has revealed that when talking about the studios' owned intellectual property "there's a good chance of seeing any of it again".

"You might see Killer Instinct, you might see Battletoads. Or as I said the other month Killer Instinct meets Battletoads in the GoldenEye universe!" joked Burton.

The titles the Microsoft owned studio is currently working on is something that's constantly debated on internet forums, and speculation isn't helped by Rare's constant teasing. Do you remember the Rare 2007 Christmas card that hinted at a new Killer Instinct? Burton was all too happy to reveal the story behind the card.

"You'll probably have to rephrase this, we're just fu!$ing with you!" he joked. "Have you not noticed a theme in our Christmas cards? We do it every year! It's just sometimes people don't notice it because it's that subtle.

"Ryan (Stevenson, senior concept artist), when he was doing it said, oh I'm putting Killer Instinct in that, I am. The conversation was, put Battletoads in as well! Or Snake Rattle and Roll, come on do it! We have a reputation for teasing. Sometimes we do it for good reasons and other times it upsets people. We're English, we're allowed to!"

Burton wouldn't be drawn on confirming the existence of a new Killer Instinct title, but say that "you could pick anything in our back catalogue and then turn it into something new".
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Speaking to VideoGamer.com Rare senior software engineer Nick Burton has revealed that he believes the studio's 360 titles could well be remembered by today's gamers in the same way a generation looks back on N64 classic GoldenEye.

When asked if Rare is releasing games now that will have a similar effect on these people as older games did with an older generation of gamers, Burton was confident that they would.

"I think that already happened," stated Burton. "It's funny when you get fan mail. We do. We get quite a bit. Some for old stuff, quite a lot for new stuff.

"Whether we have as many of them or more, you'll have to ask me in 10 years time. But then again the market's much bigger, it's much more diverse, there's many more games."

When asked directly if the games Rare is putting out on the Xbox 360 could be this generation's GoldenEye experience, Burton replied: "Could be, yeah. It would be a different experience from GoldenEye without a doubt."
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Speaking to VideoGamer.com at last week's Develop conference in Brighton, Rare senior software engineer Nick Burton hit out at reports suggesting Xbox 360 launch titles Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero bombed at retail.

"One of the things that I always find funny is when people always quote Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero as being flops at the launch of the 360," said Burton. "In the industry if you break even you're lucky, you're in the minority. If you make a decent amount of money you're really in the minority. You're in the top percentile. Those two games made a lot of money. For the install base they sold phenomenally well. Kameo is still selling now."
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Speaking to VideoGamer.com at the Develop conference in Brighton last week, Nick Burton, a senior software engineer at Rare, has assured Xbox 360 gamers that there's plenty more to come from the console.

"You never can push them as far as they can go. The reality of the peak performance of the console is yes, you could look to a generation beyond where we are now and think, yeah, I could use that power. But the reality is in 360 and the PS3 and the latest generation PC graphics, the amount of power in the GPUs is such that you're more bound by your creativity and the aesthetic you're going for than you're really bound by polygon pushing power," said Burton. "You're probably actually more bound maybe by art authoring and the amount of data throughput that, just the amount of memory you'd need, but I don't think 360 has reached its limit."
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Speaking to VideoGamer.com at the Develop conference in Brighton last week, Nick Burton, a senior software engineer at Rare, revealed that currently announced Rare titles only account for half the development studio.

Asked directly if Rare would be making a second Kameo title Burton replied: "This is where I have to be enigmatically vague. Never say never. I'll say that I'm not working on one at the moment. I'm not working on one at the moment. Doesn't mean nobody else is, but that doesn't mean they are either. Sorry. For the obvious PR reasons we can't talk about what we're doing now."

He went on to suggest that there's plenty going on behind closed doors at Rare that should have gamers getting very excited.

"All I can say is, you know about VP2 (Viva Piñata Trouble in Paradise), Viva Piñata on DS, Banjo obviously. There's a couple of things on the roster that are going to be pretty cool as well. Obviously you do the math. Look at the size and how big the Banjo team currently needs to be, how big our shared technology group and asset group are. Look at the number of games and how they're staggered and how many teams we have. There's about half the studio missing from the release schedule at the moment (laughs)," said Burton.
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XboxFamily has posted what is reported to be a screenshot of Microsoft's FTP which shows recently added assets for Conker Live and Reloaded, Fable, Jade Empire, and two older Xbox 360 games.

The article speculates that since the 360 titles are already Platinum Hits, it's uncommon for old assets to be added to the FTP and believes these titles could be made available for download.
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Microsoft today announced that they will be releasing a new character pack for Kameo: Elements of Power. New characters include 11 created by you the gamers...
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If you're anything like us, you love good games at a cheap price. Unfortunately, when shopping for 360 games, this confines us to the bargain been at local retail outlets which typically discount used games by as little as a couple bucks off the original price. Enter Microsoft's semi-new (new to the 360 library, anyway) Platinum Hits collection of cheapy 360 titles. Microsoft selected four games to lead the Platinum Hits charge (all priced at $29.99), and it should come as no surprise which ... » Read More

Kameo: Elements of Power receives the latest round of Xbox Live lovin' in the form of some new downloadable content. Three content "packs" were released today that expand your ability to spend over the Xbox Live Marketplace (and add some new features to the game). The Kameo Co-Op Pack is completely free to Xbox Live Gold members and enables two-player cooperative play over Xbox Live and System Link. The Kameo Masquerade Pack delivers ten new costumes for Kameo to wear, highlighting some ... » Read More

Microsoft developer Rare has revealed that it is working on new content for its two Xbox 360 launch games, Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power. Players of futuristic FPS Perfect Dark Zero can expect a selection of new multiplayer maps, while fantasy adventure Kameo is getting a co-op mode playable over Xbox Live as well as some additional downloadable content. Rare stated that more solid details on these info titbits - which it sneakily slipped out on the letters page of its ... » Read More

The story behind Xbox 360 launch game Kameo Elements of Power is being made available to listen to via podcasts. The UK-based developer of Kameo, Rare, is releasing one chapter a week over eight weeks, which can be downloaded from www.kameo.com. Alternatively, gamers can subscribe to the podcast feed and have chapters delivered to their audio device automatically. The first chapter will feature secrets from the magical Wotnot Book which control the various Elemental Warriors. This should get ... » Read More

Microsoft and Maxmedia have revealed plans to adapt Rare's Xbox 360 fantasy adventure, Kameo Elements of Power, into an animated feature. The game follows the story of Kameo, an elf that possesses the ability to morph into all manner of wonderful beasts, a power she must use to defeat the evil Troll King, Thorn. The project will be headed up by Sunmin Park and production for the adaptation will begin in 2006. Park, who previously produced, co-wrote and directed digital animation Wonderful ... » Read More

The release of Kameo: Elements of Power - Rare's epic Xbox adventure, which was originally due out in the spring - has been delayed yet again. And this time it's been postponed indefinitely. While the last official release window was January 2005, Rare have just revealed that the game will be spending yet more time in development hell. A statement from the Brit developers reads, "After a lot of thought and discussion, Rare and Microsoft Game Studios have decided to push back the launch of ... » Read More

On: Xbox - OUT: January 2005 THE PITCH: Few doubt Rare's ability to produce a decent game. Getting the game on the shelves would appear to be a different matter for the UK coders, though. We've been waiting for Kameo and the fact that it missed its spring 2004 release date comes as no surprise, unfortunately. The game is an epic adventure of exploration and fighting, dressed up in big and bold graphics typical of Rare. Kameo's ability to morph into creatures in her bid to fight the evil ... » Read More