Portable Planet

Microsoft entertainment and devices corporate vice president Peter Moore recently asserted that Xbox 360 is better off because of Microsoft’s purchase of Rare back in 2002.  

In an interview with Newsweek Moore defended the $375 million acquisition, saying that Rare titles helped quickly to establish that Xbox 360 was not the same as its predecessor.

“Well I certainly think people underestimate the platform-driving presence that Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo had, in particular Kameo,” said Moore.  “It signaled that this wasn’t going to be the same as Xbox 1, which was dominated by Mature-rated games, if you will, and for many people will go down in history as the Halo box or the shooter box. Kameo was very important. Kameo has done well; Perfect Dark Zero hit our expectations from a sales point of view; but these were two launch titles–and in Kameo’s case, brand new intellectual property–that allowed us to get where we needed to go very, very quickly.”

And just because Viva Pinata sales haven’t shot through the roof does not mean that Moore is disappointed by the imaginative title. “I’m a big fan,” he confessed.  ”I first saw Viva Pinata in 2003, as they were starting to concept the whole thing out and prototype it out. So don’t underestimate the long-term ability of Rare to continue to have a positive effect on the Xbox 360 and further platforms in the future.”