Microsoft has just been sitting on Rare. No new Conker, Killer Instinct or a ( platformer) Banjo Kazooie game. They haven't really made any bad games since being purchased by Microsoft, just some mediocre ones like the Conker remake, Grabbed By The Ghoulies and Kinect Sports. While they don't have the original classic 90's team. They're still capable of making good games ( Nut's & Bolts, Viva Pinata and Banjo Pilot for example) and want to make them. But Microsoft turns down all the good stuff like Savannah ( realistic lion raising nature game, sounded interesting but never got the green light. Look it up sometime.) and KI 3, forcing Rare to churn out Kinect Sports instead.

To be fair none of those other games would have sold like kinect sports does.

And if linect sports is somehow a bad game than wii sports is as well.

And hey have had a pretty good output this gen.

I could care less for Rare as I personally only like the GBA ports of DKC, Conker Pocket Tales and the Starfox game, but seriously, Microsoft wouldn't let them make a KI3 because they wanted the X360 to be aimed toward kids....

...Yet you have annoying children on voice chat on MW3 and those other games. And people thought Nintendo was bad?

Good article on Joystiq today about Rare's development of Goldeneye...
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/03/james-bond-meets-virtua-cop...

... but yeah... Rare isn't what is once was. N64 era Rare was great... Xbox 360 Rare I could live without.

That is by no means necessarily true. I've not played kinect sports, but if originality counts for anything, then that alone would make Wii Sports better.

Wii Sports is on a Nintendo and buttons and innovation so it automatically wins!

Exactly! Nintendo invented the idea of doing physical activities for fun! They called it 'sport,' - strange name, I know, but so, so innovative.

Couldn't care less... -.-
Could care less implies you care somewhat thus making the statement redundant.
I dont know what you're talking about regarding the XBox360 being for kids - there are plenty of games for 18+ on the system.

I'm not very wise on the subject of business, but couldn't Rare just leave MS and go to Nintendo? No matter how much money MS offers them?

To give the very short answer: No. Microsoft owns Rare.

...no, no they cannot. The people there might be able to leave, assuming they're not under some kind of contract. But a whole company cannot go to whoever it wants to.

Thanks

Were there any other sports video games that you would actually swing your arm to swing a tennis racket, baseball or bowling ball before Wii Sports? Has there been since Wii Sports?

You're right. It's hugely original to take sports (something that's been around for thousands of years) and video games (something that's been around for 50-odd years) and put them together.

Also, I played a horse-racing game in an arcade years before I played a Wii where you would sit on a "horse" and have to ride it like you would a real horse. Using a peripheral to emulate a real sport in a video game. I'm sure it wasn't the first example of that, either.

(and now no doubt someone will come back and say "but Wii Sports is the first time you do it in a lounge room!" Thus completely redefining the definition of the word "innovation," to suit their point of view).

lol. Alright, man. If you don't feel like kinect sports is a blatant rip off of Wii Sports, then that's fine.

Huh. What an odd thread.

You sir, win the internet.

So what you're saying is Microsoft coincidently (and not because they were smart at making money) released the Kinect, their motion controlled gaming thing which coincidently (and not because they were smart at making money) goes after the same casual gaming audience as Wii which had become a huge success. And Microsoft doing everything they can to make sure Kinect was a success regardless of whether hardcore gamers liked it or not(which has never happened to Nintendo at all) had nothing to do with looking at what was already successful for a motion controlled gaming. And of course, we must believe that Kinect Sports, which coincidently (and not because they were smart at making money) is the name of the device used for motion controlled video games + Sports, also coincidently (and not because they were smart at making money) was released at launch. And of course, it is very much coincidental (and not because they were smart at making money) that for their system name Sports title they marketed their sports compilation launch title for Kinect towards the exact same people as Wii Sports in a game where you play as your avatars that HAS ICONS OF THE SPORTS IN THE GAME IN LITTLE BOXES ON THE FRONT OF THE GAME. So what I'm getting at is that either a. Microsoft makes money via luck and coincidence or b. games that are blatantly inspired by other games are inherently bad. Either reason is completely false. I mean, I wish they pulled more of the classic "taking from one source is plagiarism, taking from multiple sources is research" for their game and I wish Rare still made games I'd be interested in buying but there's cool stuff in Kinect Sports that's certainly not in Wii Sports, especially the flawed for gaming but interesting technology. I'll gladly make fun of it because it's too easy not to but whatever.

Oh, no, Kinect Sports is clearly based on Nintendo's Wii Sports, I'm not denying that. Microsoft realised that motion sports games were popular, so decided to emulate the style that made the Nintendo game popular.

It also worked. Kinect Sports sold just dandy.

But here's what I am saying: 1) Nintendo doesn't get to claim ownership on the idea of sports games. Or even sports games that use peripherals to emulated the actions that you perform in 'real sport'. These existed in various forms in arcades before the Wii existed. Nintendo brought it to the home, yes, but if Nintendo gets to be innovative for that then Microsoft gets to be innovative for removing controllers entirely from these games.

2) Many people seem to have this childish idea that if someone has an idea, and it sells millions and millions, that everyone else should leave anything remotely related to that idea alone, and if they dare to "copy" the idea they automatically make that idea crap. They don't need to play these games to make this assessment, they just know, because their company made it first.

Of course, when their company then does exactly the same thing, these people have an amazing capacity to come up with excuses defending their company. So, for instance: Watch what happens when I say this:

Nintendo Wii U is a copy of iPad and Airplay, but with buttons

Face it everyone copies everyone else and there's really nothing truly original, but that's how we innovate and move forward. Someone comes up with a product, someone else decides they can make it better, then someone else comes up with something even better. It's why competition is good.

Nintendo, MS and Sony all have motion controls that all had sports titles. The consumer then can choose which one succeeds or which one is right for them.

Apple's got Airplay via Apple TV for media and gaming. Nintendo's got the Wii U. Microsoft has SmartGlass. Sony is working on Android tablet and PSP/Vita integration.