@ Kim-Naroz: I agree with your assessment of Rare. Rare produced the last of the N64's relevent games in Conker's Bad Fur Day, which Microsoft squandered with the re-release. Their games have been consistently good, something Microsoft can't say, and I think they'd do much better if Microsoft put any real weight behind them.

The early Rare games on the 360 were the only games worth playing. It was either their games or Gun, which was better on the original Xbox.

I also don't buy his hard drive argument. He mentions $199, which means he's referring to the time frame between E3 2002 and 2003. If he was paying $70 for an 8GB hard drive, his supply line was obscenely bad. At that time, the RETAIL price was $2-$3 per gigabyte (http://www.alts.net/ns1625/winchest.html), even if we assume the high-end, he could have walked into CompUSA and bought an 8GB hard drive for $24.

And yes, there are certain basic costs associated with the mechanism that means hard drives can only get so cheap, so implement, I think I've seen this somewhere, A BIGGER HARD DRIVE. Increase value instead of lowering the price.

If anything, I've heard the inflexible price associated with the Nvidia graphics chipset was the real anchor around the Xbox's neck (http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=10803514).

Moore should tell it like it is. They abandoned the Xbox because they wanted to beat PS3 to market. If the X360 wasn't such a PR disaster, it would have been called a good business decision. Now he's just trying to say "Ohhhhh, we had NO CHOICE. We had to abandon it!"

Yeah, right.

Rare actually had to put up with some tough development environments on the Xbox and Xbox 360, primarily thanks to Peter Moore's poor management.

Remember, Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power were originally planned as Gamecube games. Then, they were scheduled for the Xbox. Peter Moore finally insisted that they be "launch" games for the Xbox 360. When the developers at Rare were given Xbox 360 development kits, they found out that the development kits were referred to as "Pre-Alpha" development kits, which only allowed the programmers to use one-sixth of the CPU power of the Xbox 360...that is not an exaggeration--the Pre-Alpha development kits only let the developers at Rare access one of the six CPU Threads.

Even though the developers at Rare faced such an unusual set of circumstances on a system that was launching early, they still managed to include an online co-op mode in Perfect Dark Zero, which is something that the launch games for PS3 didn't have a year later on a console that launched late! So, I give Rare a lot of credit for that!

Perfect Dark Zero is still a great game that sold very well...Plus, there are rumors of Perfect Dark 2 (the true sequel to the original) in the works. If this is true, we can expect Rare to do a great job on the sequel.

Remember, Kameo: Elements of Power is a game in the Platform genre. This is something that was planned for the Gamecube because of the younger gamers and the females. It would have sold better if it was released on the Gamecube or the Wii. But games like Kameo, Viva Piniata, and Vivia Piniata Party are all games that DID satisfy the younger gamers and female gamers on the Xbox 360...that is one of the reasons "why" the Xbox 360 is so much more successful than the Playstation 3.

It is VERY IMPORTANT to remember that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Playstation 3 is nearly two years old and it STILL lacks games in the Real-Time Strategy genre, the Puzzle genre, the Platform genre, ect...

Games like Viva Piniata, Kameo, and Banjo are all great games in their genre!!!!!

It's true that certain genres aren't as popular as they once were, but that doesn't mean those genres aren't important. Developers like Rare are the entire reason "why" people can look at the Xbox 360 and say that it has great games in EVERY genre!

Rare created the new Avatar system for the Xbox 360, too.....and this will definitely appeal to gamers of all ages! In fact, this impressed people at the E3 show a lot.

When Rare gets the chance to release a new Perfect Dark game, a sequel to Killer Instinct, and possibly create a new game for older gamers, it will be very much appreciated. I know I wouldn't mind seeing the original R.C. Pro AM released on Xbox Live Arcade for 400 points....and I would LOVE to see a new R.C. Pro Am with 3D Graphics and 3D Letters to collect on the tracks of the Xbox 360.

Rare was going to shit in the N64 days which is why I thought it was no real loss to see them go when Nintendo gave them up.

They made some decent games in the past but it was Nintendo control that got them putting out decent stuff like DKC and Goldeneye but as Rare started self publishing and doing things outside of Nintendo's control the lack of quality started showing up again. Rare needs a company like Nintendo to put pressure on them, imo.

Maybe they were harsh words but I can't help but agree with him, don't get me wrong, I love RARE but the games and the response they have generated is but a shadow of its former self. PDZ is a good game but not close the N64 version of Perfect Dark.