If Sea of Thieves Flops in sales does Rare have enough money to sustain itself?

Were looking at a crew of over 200 people.

They are in an expensive studio with breakfast and lunch all sorts of perks.

This studio needs to have a success story or whats the point of it at all ya know?

I just don't know how wide of an appeal Sea of Thieves is going to have next to a big hitting game like Horizon Zero Dawn and Uncharted 4. I'm not seeing the same wide appeal here.

Lets look at rares past games

NES

R.C. Pro AM 2 million

SNES

Donkey Kong Country 9 million

Donkey Kong Country 2 Diddy Quest 5 million

Killer Instinct 3 million

N64

GoldenEye 8 million

Donkey Kong 64 5 million

Diddy Kong Racing 5 million

Perfect Dark 2.5 million

Now lets go into when microsoft bought rare

Viva Pinata crap sales

Perfect Dark Zero looked awful

Kameo looked meh

Kinect stuff

It's more like, will Microsoft continue to give them money to make things.

It seems they're becoming endangered.

I have a feeling no matter how good the game is, it's going to flop in sales.

That being said, I think MS put too much into Rare to cut it.

Whilst I also question how popular this game is going to be and how much reach it will have, I can't see MS closing Rare.

Sea of thieves looks like a crappy MMO for ten year olds. No one asked for this. The game is going to bomb. What's going to happen to RARE? Who cares?! Someone else will take their place if they fold. Releasing garbage like that, they should go under.

Sea of Thieves should have a single player campaign... simple as that. I think MS is completely dropping the ball with this game by limiting it to only MP. This could've been a big new franchise for Xbox.

Who knows, maybe they'll release a campaign in the future but it's just disappointing that it's MP only atm.

But like I said, I don't think it'll be the end of Rare.

can rare come back from this though and make a big hitter?

I was originally interested on its first reveal, but after seeing the gameplay it doesn't seem like a game I would spend much time with.

Keeping an open mind. Would love me a good pirate game. Yar.

I'm not really interested in SoT judging from what I've seen, I need to play it and see if I like it or not but Rare are actually doing more than games for the Xbox right now so they're not going anywhere.

Rare is not their own publisher, they are owned by Microsoft.

They don't worry about money to sustain themselves, they only have to worry about the budget Microsoft gives them.

PDZ sold over 1 million, kinect stuff sold more than most of that list combined and viva pinata had 3 games selling millions.

Also yes Microsoft does have enough money to sustain itself.

@tigerdragon: Yeah but Lionhead > RARE

FABLE 1 MAN FABLE 1

remember the ninja making a hole in the screen and xbox logo popped out

I really doubt that Microsoft would close up Rare if Sea of Thieves does poorly.

come back to nintendo rare... we welcome you.

Can't say much due to NDA, but I've already started this game will not please any of you SP people. It cannot work that way. Everything in this game is teamwork. Just raising your anchor is faster when your team works together.

Latest message to us outlined their vision for this game and it is not meant to be a release and yay. It is meant to be built upon and grow with PVE and PVP all over it. Being involved since beginning of alpha I can see how this cannot work with a SP campaign. Play persona for that.

can you say if you liked it or not?

microsoft are the ones that provide them with the funding. They just need to worry about making a good game

REALLY everyone is saying Microsoft should do new IPs... here's a new IP.

Well Sea of Thieves does look cool, and it does look like a Rare game. If only it had a SP campaign, I think this could've been a big hitter for Xbox. But limiting it to MP only seems weird to me... I wonder who's idea it was? I can't imagine MS made them make a MP only game, since they still persist with campaigns for their other games. Doesn't make sense.

Anyway, a small part of me thinks they might announce a campaign in the future, or maybe the next one will have a campaign. Fingers crossed.

@TheShadowLord07: Have enjoyed every time. First couple, it took a few times to get a crew of people all on mic. Even Rare have made a message at start telling players please use mic. No communication is fail in this game. The ship requires a crew communicating. It's paramount to what they are creating.

I am a member of the weekly alpha and a member of a clan so it isn't problem for me anymore. We know everyone's gamer tag and crew up and play it now. And it is a blast! The reliance on others is so fun. You can talk to shipmates and when another crew is in combat distance you can hear them to a degree. It makes it so fun to try to counter their panic directions.

Well according to lemmings, Sea of thieves will sell like KAjillion copies, so it won't flop in sales.

Maybe its about time that Rareware be renamed.

Much is expected of this studio because of its 2D and early 3D success. But those developers are long gone. And some of those hit classic games have not aged well. So much that remains towards the Rareware brand is nostalgia.

@waahahah:

REALLY everyone is saying Microsoft should do new IPs... here's a new IP"

Nothing will be good enough. I read "MS just wont take chances or risks".

QB a marriage of gaming and live action was a risk, HW2 a game that RTS pc players didn't care about and no other console is venturing into that genre, Sea Of Thieves. All are risks. Scalebound was a risk. Platinum is known for great action hack n slash not RPG. They rolled the dice on letting them make Kamiyas dream game and make it an rpg. 3 1/2 years later, he needs a vacation and the game engine still blows at It's job. If I contracted someone and almost 4 years later the boss needs a vacation from stress I opt out also. But you know, it's all MS' fault.

Why? Their current games have been excellent enough. Nuts and Bolts despite kicking the fans of Banjo Kazooie in the jaw is a phenomenal game worthy of praise. Much of Rare's current work has been stellar.

Sea of Thieves will not flop in sales. Rare has a large fanbase and people will line up to play it.

"I need a sp to be into this because I'm a lil beeotch!!! Momma don't make me talk to other people to play a game, please!!!!"

There are enough SP games to play. When something a lil different comes along the punk bitch people cry. The seasoned crews wreck people like SW

Stay away, please. Y'all soft

For what I've seen this game looks lame as hell, if will definitely flop like eveything M$ does nowadays. M$ managed Rare to oblivion. Clueless M$ corporate suits...

Nah Rare's games have all been pretty great and this will be no exception to the rule.

I dont get the constant insistence of a single player campaign. After you play the game you will see its just more enjoyable with other people.

Can you quote these lemmings saying this? I haven't seen anyone saying that

@spitfire-six: It's evidence that MS is set up to fail among SW. "new ips"; "take risks!". So this game that looks to play to their strength, online, because let's face it, I own a PS4 pro and online-social gaming is not a strength.

I have one consistent gaming friend, getyeryayasout on PSN. He has tried to get members of this forum to play with us multiple times. It's a bitch network.

"I want a SP waifu experience!!". Ok, enjoy or play destiny or cod.

If anyone tried this they'd see It's so teamwork and communication inherent. And it's fun because of it.

@FastRobby: LOL trumpian lies are a part of SW now. No lems have said this. Oflow and I are the only SW members in the alpha that I know of.

@FastRobby: C'mon man you know dakurts go by now, why do you try to talk sense to him, don't feed the troll.

Anyone looking forward to Rare's demise should be ashamed of them self.

They are a classic, legacy developer who have created some of the best games of all time and have hundreds of employees trying their best to create games. If you don't like them - fine. But to celebrate their demise? Grow up.

I might not have any great love for Nintendo 2017 but I want them to do better, not go out of business.

@cainetao11:

Persona doesn't look good either. Why would someone play that instead of a pirate sp campaign?

I don't agree with the MS not taking chances because they have and it just didn't work out.

That said I also don't agree with attacking people for wanting an SP pirate game. Black flag was fun because it was a pirate game not because it was AC.

Rare will be fine. Microsoft will be fine.

My son told me he got a code to play SoT last Saturday and he said he played for three hours straight and the game is Incredible.

Sea of Thieves is the real GOAT baby, :D

Sales shmales.. leave that to the corporate slaves to worry about. . :P

Been playing the Sea of Thieves Alpha. Great game.

It is going to sell like hotcakes. It will outsell and be a better game than Zelda BOTW. Where is the Sea of Thieves hype thread, can someone make one?

@cainetao11: @kvally: I been reading all the alpha players and heard great things about Sea of Thieves and I trust both of you since you're the only 2 folks I read so far the game is fun to enjoy and while I'm more of a single player guy, I don't mind if Sea of Thieves doesn't have one since I'm a Destiny/Star Wars: Battlefront veteran since those don't have any single player and Sea of Thieves is still on my radar.

Seas of Thieves will be a service game and be niche. It's not a blockbuster game and will sell copies of million's. I don't think Microsoft or Rare even believe that?

Crackdown 3 and State of Decay 2 and Forza are bigger more appealing games. Got to remember we seen only glimpse of Crackdown 3 Multiplayer footage. Only seen screenshots of State of Decays 2 and a trailer. And no footage yet seen of Forza 7

@lrdfancypants: But this game has never pretended to be anything but a mp game.

I get attacked here aplenty. That's SW.

I only mentioned persona because it's sp and it pleases people. Not me, I think it's boring shyte. But that's life

@loe12k:

Crackdown 3 is a no brainer for me and I think it'll be Incredible especially on Mighty Scorpio but State of Decay 2 is one of those games not talked about too much and just may be the super sleeper hit of the year. C'mon E3. :D

@cainetao11:

I know it's only ever been MP but I can see why people would thirst for a good SP pirate game.

I've never played a persona game so I was confused by the relationship to a cool pirate game. "Cool" obviously subjective on my part.

@davillain-: I'm seeing the clans start to take shape. I'm in 2 groups and can play with mic'd up experienced people every week. Big difference from joining a lobby, teaming with random. Some won't use mic. The experience crews wreck shit. Really fun, tactical and competitive

LOL, um no. Sea of Thieves is a multiplayer only game and is a brand new IP. No way will it even be a drop in the bucket compared to Zelda in sales. There is no hype thread for SoT because the game is still in the alpha stage.

Microsoft has not shown enough footage of those games for gamer's to be excited. It partly the reason we got this no games on xbox meme at the moment. Microsoft has a habit of waiting till big conferences to show off their games!

We find out at E3 Microsoft plans are.