Molyneux Wants to Help Rare Find Itself

Lionhead boss and Microsoft Game Studios Europe creative director Peter Molyneux thinks Viva Pinata creators Rare have plenty of talent, but they lack something Molyneux himself has in spades: identity.

Now that Peter Molyneux is no longer just the boss of Lionhead Studios but lords over all of Microsoft’s European studios as creative director of Microsoft Game Studios Europe, he has the power not just to make games but to influence the way the companies that make them operate. And he wants to start doing that by injecting Rare with a little bit of flavor.

“Actually one of the things I really want to do is help Rare have more of an identity,” he told GamesIndustry.biz. “And make sure the people at Rare are seen more within the industry.”

The formerly Nintendo-owned Rare may no longer be working under the watchful eyes of that company, but it’s retained the reticent nature that it was forced to adopt as one of Nintendo’s satellite studios. “I was totally blown away from the amount of talent that there is at Rare, but it’s just that they come from a background where Nintendo required them to be this very, very secretive company,” Molyneux said. “I just want to give them the confidence to tell the world what they’re doing. I hope you’re going to see more from Rare and I want to help them get well know.”

So is Molyneux going to give the Rare kids a lesson in some of that patented Molyneux charm? Are all Rare employees going to start talking in outrageous hyperboles and promising that the next Viva Pinata will literally change your life? We can’t say for sure yet, but at least we know that Rare’s games won’t change much. “You’ll definitely still recognize a Rare game,” Molyneux said.