Established in 1985 to focus on the expanding console market, Rare partnered with Nintendo and quickly sealed a reputation for quality with titles including Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country, and GoldenEye.

The acquisition of Rare by Microsoft Game Studios came about in 2002 after a colossally successful run of titles throughout the 1990s. They went on to support the Xbox 360 debut with two of the three launch games, Kameo: Elements of Power and Perfect Dark Zero. Subsequent years saw us innovate with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the addictive Viva Piñata franchise and our pioneering work on Xbox 360 Avatars.

In more recent years their investigations into cutting-edge motion control resulted in the multi-million-selling, double BAFTA-winning Kinect Sports series. With development now firmly established for Xbox One and Windows 10, they are hard at work here in their custom-built English countryside HQ, galvanised by the opportunity to celebrate their incredible heritage with the Rare Replay anniversary collection while looking ahead to brand new shared world adventures in Sea of Thieves. The author lives in Twycross, Leicestershire, England.