Latest Reviews of Rare Games
Review Sea Of Thieves - In Truly Ship-Shape Condition Two Years After Launch
It's a pirate's life for me
When Sea of Thieves initially set sail in 2018, it was met with somewhat mixed reviews. Rare's pirate playground is undoubtedly a masterful creation; a vast, dynamic, hyper-stylised sea world dotted with mysterious islands and skeleton forts in which players are set free to create their own grand adventures. However, it...
From Rare with love
To celebrate its 30th year as a developer, Rare has crammed 30 of its games into a single package for just $30. Not only does that make for a brilliantly-coordinated promotion, it also makes for a value almost unheard of for a new release. Instead of breaking down each individual game in this collection, which would push us well...
Review Kinect Sports Rivals (Xbox One)
Do or die.
To say that Kinect Sports Rivals is a high-profile title for Xbox One would be something of an understatement. Being the only game (barring the violently bad Fighter Within, which barely passes as a game) available that’s been designed for the much-maligned Kinect device that’s included with every console, people were looking to...
Review Kinect Sports: Season Two (Xbox 360)
The best just got better
Despite posting impressive sales figures and delivering some engaging titles, Kinect has arguably struggled to find that elusive ‘killer app’ that is capable of convincing both casual and hardcore gamers of its worth. While the original Kinect Sports was a fantastic grounding in Microsoft’s brave controller-free world,...
Review Kinect Sports (Xbox 360)
Will it Kinect with sports fans?
While we've seen very different approaches from the various console makers when it comes to their motion control systems, the one constant seems to be the obligatory sports compilation release that goes along with it. With the release of Kinect Sports, Rare has put together a nice variety of sporting events to show...
Latest Rare Articles
News Xbox's Sea Of Thieves Has Reportedly Sold Over One Million Copies On PS5
In Phil's words: "we run a business"
There's been a lot of conversation within the Xbox community following the announcement that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be released on PlayStation 5 next year. Off the back of this, Phil Spencer yesterday said Xbox's franchises were actually "getting stronger". With this in mind, a new story today...
News Sea Of Thieves Season 13 Has Arrived As Rare Continues To Build On PS5 Success
They're not slowing down!
Thought that Sea Of Thieves going multiplatform would slow down Rare, eh? Not a chance! The team has stuck to its regular update cadence with the arrival of Sea of Thieves Season 13, which is now live on Xbox, PS5 and PC. In this first post-launch season for PS5 players (Season 12 was packed into the PlayStation release),...
News Sea Of Thieves Justifies Multiplatform Release By Charting Again On PS5 In June
Fresh plunder
Another month brings even more Sea Of Thieves success for Microsoft! Rare's pirate adventure, which first launched on Xbox all the way back in 2018, has sold very well on PS5 again in June 2024. In both the US and Europe, Sea of Thieves was in the top five most downloaded PS5 games for the month of June. This follows May's standings,...
News Xbox Exec Talks Multiplatform Strategy, Team 'Really Pleased' With Sea Of Thieves On PS5
"We have been really pleased"
In a new interview with Variety, Xbox exec Matt Booty has been discussing lots of Microsoft's recent gaming business, including the team's big summer showcase earlier this month. Naturally, the conversation also moved towards
News Another Rare Classic Is Now Available On Nintendo's Switch Online Service
Following the successful release of Sea of Thieves on PS5
Rare, the developer behind modern hits such as Sea Of Thieves, is today celebrating the release of another one of its classics on Nintendo's Switch Online subscription service. In case you missed it, this time it's the first-person shooter Perfect Dark. This kind of times into the first...
News Sea Of Thieves Was The Best-Selling PS5 Game In Both The US & Europe Last Month
Sea of sales
Rare's Sea Of Thieves was probably the most high-profile Xbox game to make the switch to PlayStation 5 earlier in the year, and Microsoft's multiplatform move seems to have paid off for the Xbox owner already. In a new post over at the PlayStation Blog, Sony has detailed its software sales charts for May 2024, and Rare's pirate...
News Xbox's Sea Of Thieves Plunders PS5 Charts, Becoming Europe's Best-Selling Game In April
Shiver me timbers
Rare made its PlayStation debut last month with the arrival of Sea Of Thieves on PS5, and it sounds like its pirate adventure is doing quite well on the platform so far. As revealed by Sony in the company's latest PlayStation Blog sales post, Sea of Thieves was the best-selling game in Europe during the month of Apr
News Here's What The First PS5 Reviews Are Saying About Sea Of Thieves
Rare's first-ever PlayStation game is out now
Well, the final entry in Xbox's new four-game-foray into PlayStation gaming is officially out now, with Sea Of Thieves releasing on PS5 today. It's been a long while since the game first came out on Xbox though, so what are the reviews saying about Rare's pirate adventure in 2024? We've already heard...
News Xbox Talks Sustainability Efforts As Rare's New 'Solar-Powered Studio' Is Unveiled
Earth Day 2024 brings new Xbox innovations
As part of Earth Day 2024, Microsoft has broken down a number of new initiatives going on at Xbox right now - including a brand-new "solar-powered studio" at Sea Of Thieves developer Rare. This new studio, also known as 'Barn X', opened last year - and it's since been "certified LEED GOLD for its design...
News Sea Of Thieves On PS5 Has Slight Edge Over Xbox Series X, Notes Digital Foundry
In two key areas
Over the weekend, the folks at Digital Foundry posted some interesting findings about Sea Of Thieves on PlayStation 5, following its recent beta test on the Sony console. We'll put the video version of their analysis up above, but the gist of it is that PS5 has a few advantages despite being very similar to the Series X version...
News Killer Instinct Bonus Update Adds New Stage And '87 New Colorways'
Update: Available now
Update [Wed 3rd Apr, 2024 06:55 BST]: As a reminder, this update for Killer Instinct is now live. You can check out the patch notes in the original story below. Original post [Sat 30th Mar, 2024 06:00 GMT]: Killer Instinct earlier on held a special "bonus update stream" celebrating the recent release of the anniversary...
News Sea Of Thieves Details Upcoming Seasons - New Weapons, Tools, Owls & More
Season 12, 13 and 14 outlined
Rare this week held its '2024 Preview Event' for Sea Of Thieves - celebrating the game's sixth anniversary and revealing what's coming in Season 12, 13 and 14. If you weren't able to catch it and need a quick recap, you've come to the right place. Keep in mind everything showcased during this latest broadcast is still...
News Sea Of Thieves Announces 2024 Preview Event, Anti-Cheat Out Next Week
The game's sixth anniversary is on the horizon
As part of Sea Of Thieves' sixth anniversary celebrations, Rare is busy preparing a few things. Firstly, it's announced a '2024 Preview Event' will be taking place on March 20th. This will include a "sneak peek" of the content coming to Seasons 12, 13, and 14. More details will be shared as soon as...
News Sea Of Thieves Co-Developer Lays Off 'Handful' Of Employees
"This situation is heartbreaking"
It's been another difficult week for the video game industry in 2024 and now the UK indie developer Radical Forge has announced it's laying off a "handful of people". It's reportedly six employees to be exact. The same team, which worked alongside Flix Interactive and Rare on the free update Sea Of Thieves: A...
PSA You'll Need A Microsoft Account To Play Sea Of Thieves On PS5, Unsurprisingly
PlayStation crew members can sign up for free
Xbox wants to expand its ecosystem, and as part of this, it recently announced four first-party titles for other console platforms. One of these is Rare's online multiplayer pirate game Sea Of Thieves, which sails onto the PlayStation 5 on April 30th, 2024. For anyone who wants to play on this...
News Five More Of Xbox's Rare Classics Are Now Available For Switch Online
But some titles still aren't available on Xbox
Nintendo's latest broadcast revealed both Pentiment and Grounded would be coming to the Switch, but that actually wasn't the only Xbox-related news shared during the Partner Showcase. Five games in Rare's retro library have also made the journey across to the Switch Online service. This includes Snake...
News Rare Pokes Fun At Xbox Situation With Multiplatform Tease For Sea Of Thieves
"Wait, where were we going with this?"
If you can believe it, it's been more than a month since we first heard rumours of Sea of Thieves going multiplatform, and a new social media tease from developer Rare has perhaps delivered our most concrete evidence of the move yet. Taking to Twitter, the Sea Of Thieves account posted a short riddle...
News Killer Instinct Testing Out Ranked Crossplay (Xbox, Windows & Steam)
Try it out this weekend
Following the Killer Instinct: Anniversary Edition update in November last year, the development team is this weekend testing out Ranked Crossplay between Steam and Xbox/Windows. It's something the community has "been asking for years", and now thanks to some "fancy new services", users this weekend will be able to test it...
News Sea Of Thieves Season 11 Adds New Underwater 'Diving' Mechanic For Fast Travel
"Explore a redesigned Quest system"
The team at Rare has delivered its deep dive into Sea Of Thieves Season 11, featuring a major change to how quests can be tackled going forward. Yep, the game's new 'Diving' mechanic allows players to effectively fast travel to quests rather than need to sail the high seas towards an objective. This is an...
News Killer Instinct 10th Anniversary Dev Stream Airs Later This Month
"The latest news on the upcoming changes"
The Xbox fighter Killer Instinct is celebrating its 10th anniversary later this month and as part of this it will be hosting a special Twitch livestream on 22nd November. During this developer stream, the team will be sharing "the latest news on the upcoming changes" to the game. This ties in with the...
News Sea Of Thieves Has A New Developer Working On Season Ten Cosmetics
"We got the amazing opportunity to work with Rare"
As Rare gets closer to its Season Ten update for its pirate-themed sandbox Sea Of Thieves, a new development announcement has been made. The UK Bristol-based team Auroch Digital (Warhammer: 40,000 Boltgun) has signed on to create some "hearty cosmetics" for Sea of Thieves, which will be premiering...
News Sea Of Thieves' Final Monkey Island Chapter 'The Lair Of LeChuck' Is Now Live
"Set sail once again"
If you're a fan of Rare's pirate sandbox Sea Of Thieves, here's your reminder that the third and final part of 'The Legend of Monkey Island' Tall Tales series is now live. In 'The Lair of LeChuck' you will accompany Guybrush Threepwood to Monkey Island in pursuit of Captain LeChuck. Here's a bit about what you can expect...
News Sea Of Thieves Is 'Not Just PvE Or PvP', According To Creative Director
It's apparently a "shared world adventure game"
Earlier this week, Rare outlined its plans for Sea Of Thieves Season Ten - revealing the game would finally be adding private PvE servers. Although this decision is going to potentially increase the game's audience, it's definitely resulted in a mixed reaction from the community with some players...
News Surprise! Sea Of Thieves Is Finally Adding Private PvE Servers
But there will be some differences...
If you've been wanting a dedicated PvE option in Rare's pirate game Sea Of Thieves, then get ready for the arrival of Season Ten because it will be adding a new "Safer Seas" mode. As explained by the game's creative director Mike Chapman in a new video update, this next season will be introducing a private...
News Killer Instinct 10th Anniversary Update Coming To Xbox Series X|S
"More info coming soon"
The Xbox version of Killer Instinct has now been around for 10 years, and to celebrate this milestone, Iron Galaxy is back to deliver a special anniversary update "later this year". This announcement was made at EVO 2023 this weekend - with the Killer Instinct team confirming this update would include a balance patch,...
News Xbox's Sea Of Thieves Has Reportedly Sold Over One Million Copies On PS5
In Phil's words: "we run a business"
There's been a lot of conversation within the Xbox community following the announcement that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be released on PlayStation 5 next year. Off the back of this, Phil Spencer yesterday said Xbox's franchises were actually "getting stronger". With this in mind, a new story today...
News Sea Of Thieves Season 13 Has Arrived As Rare Continues To Build On PS5 Success
They're not slowing down!
Thought that Sea Of Thieves going multiplatform would slow down Rare, eh? Not a chance! The team has stuck to its regular update cadence with the arrival of Sea of Thieves Season 13, which is now live on Xbox, PS5 and PC. In this first post-launch season for PS5 players (Season 12 was packed into the PlayStation release),...
News Sea Of Thieves Justifies Multiplatform Release By Charting Again On PS5 In June
Fresh plunder
Another month brings even more Sea Of Thieves success for Microsoft! Rare's pirate adventure, which first launched on Xbox all the way back in 2018, has sold very well on PS5 again in June 2024. In both the US and Europe, Sea of Thieves was in the top five most downloaded PS5 games for the month of June. This follows May's standings,...
News Xbox Exec Talks Multiplatform Strategy, Team 'Really Pleased' With Sea Of Thieves On PS5
"We have been really pleased"
In a new interview with Variety, Xbox exec Matt Booty has been discussing lots of Microsoft's recent gaming business, including the team's big summer showcase earlier this month. Naturally, the conversation also moved towards
News Another Rare Classic Is Now Available On Nintendo's Switch Online Service
Following the successful release of Sea of Thieves on PS5
Rare, the developer behind modern hits such as Sea Of Thieves, is today celebrating the release of another one of its classics on Nintendo's Switch Online subscription service. In case you missed it, this time it's the first-person shooter Perfect Dark. This kind of times into the first...
News Sea Of Thieves Was The Best-Selling PS5 Game In Both The US & Europe Last Month
Sea of sales
Rare's Sea Of Thieves was probably the most high-profile Xbox game to make the switch to PlayStation 5 earlier in the year, and Microsoft's multiplatform move seems to have paid off for the Xbox owner already. In a new post over at the PlayStation Blog, Sony has detailed its software sales charts for May 2024, and Rare's pirate...
News Xbox's Sea Of Thieves Plunders PS5 Charts, Becoming Europe's Best-Selling Game In April
Shiver me timbers
Rare made its PlayStation debut last month with the arrival of Sea Of Thieves on PS5, and it sounds like its pirate adventure is doing quite well on the platform so far. As revealed by Sony in the company's latest PlayStation Blog sales post, Sea of Thieves was the best-selling game in Europe during the month of Apr
News Here's What The First PS5 Reviews Are Saying About Sea Of Thieves
Rare's first-ever PlayStation game is out now
Well, the final entry in Xbox's new four-game-foray into PlayStation gaming is officially out now, with Sea Of Thieves releasing on PS5 today. It's been a long while since the game first came out on Xbox though, so what are the reviews saying about Rare's pirate adventure in 2024? We've already heard...
News Xbox Talks Sustainability Efforts As Rare's New 'Solar-Powered Studio' Is Unveiled
Earth Day 2024 brings new Xbox innovations
As part of Earth Day 2024, Microsoft has broken down a number of new initiatives going on at Xbox right now - including a brand-new "solar-powered studio" at Sea Of Thieves developer Rare. This new studio, also known as 'Barn X', opened last year - and it's since been "certified LEED GOLD for its design...
News Sea Of Thieves On PS5 Has Slight Edge Over Xbox Series X, Notes Digital Foundry
In two key areas
Over the weekend, the folks at Digital Foundry posted some interesting findings about Sea Of Thieves on PlayStation 5, following its recent beta test on the Sony console. We'll put the video version of their analysis up above, but the gist of it is that PS5 has a few advantages despite being very similar to the Series X version...
News Killer Instinct Bonus Update Adds New Stage And '87 New Colorways'
Update: Available now
Update [Wed 3rd Apr, 2024 06:55 BST]: As a reminder, this update for Killer Instinct is now live. You can check out the patch notes in the original story below. Original post [Sat 30th Mar, 2024 06:00 GMT]: Killer Instinct earlier on held a special "bonus update stream" celebrating the recent release of the anniversary...
News Sea Of Thieves Details Upcoming Seasons - New Weapons, Tools, Owls & More
Season 12, 13 and 14 outlined
Rare this week held its '2024 Preview Event' for Sea Of Thieves - celebrating the game's sixth anniversary and revealing what's coming in Season 12, 13 and 14. If you weren't able to catch it and need a quick recap, you've come to the right place. Keep in mind everything showcased during this latest broadcast is still...
News Sea Of Thieves Announces 2024 Preview Event, Anti-Cheat Out Next Week
The game's sixth anniversary is on the horizon
As part of Sea Of Thieves' sixth anniversary celebrations, Rare is busy preparing a few things. Firstly, it's announced a '2024 Preview Event' will be taking place on March 20th. This will include a "sneak peek" of the content coming to Seasons 12, 13, and 14. More details will be shared as soon as...
News Sea Of Thieves Co-Developer Lays Off 'Handful' Of Employees
"This situation is heartbreaking"
It's been another difficult week for the video game industry in 2024 and now the UK indie developer Radical Forge has announced it's laying off a "handful of people". It's reportedly six employees to be exact. The same team, which worked alongside Flix Interactive and Rare on the free update Sea Of Thieves: A...
PSA You'll Need A Microsoft Account To Play Sea Of Thieves On PS5, Unsurprisingly
PlayStation crew members can sign up for free
Xbox wants to expand its ecosystem, and as part of this, it recently announced four first-party titles for other console platforms. One of these is Rare's online multiplayer pirate game Sea Of Thieves, which sails onto the PlayStation 5 on April 30th, 2024. For anyone who wants to play on this...
News Five More Of Xbox's Rare Classics Are Now Available For Switch Online
But some titles still aren't available on Xbox
Nintendo's latest broadcast revealed both Pentiment and Grounded would be coming to the Switch, but that actually wasn't the only Xbox-related news shared during the Partner Showcase. Five games in Rare's retro library have also made the journey across to the Switch Online service. This includes Snake...
News Rare Pokes Fun At Xbox Situation With Multiplatform Tease For Sea Of Thieves
"Wait, where were we going with this?"
If you can believe it, it's been more than a month since we first heard rumours of Sea of Thieves going multiplatform, and a new social media tease from developer Rare has perhaps delivered our most concrete evidence of the move yet. Taking to Twitter, the Sea Of Thieves account posted a short riddle...
News Killer Instinct Testing Out Ranked Crossplay (Xbox, Windows & Steam)
Try it out this weekend
Following the Killer Instinct: Anniversary Edition update in November last year, the development team is this weekend testing out Ranked Crossplay between Steam and Xbox/Windows. It's something the community has "been asking for years", and now thanks to some "fancy new services", users this weekend will be able to test it...
News Sea Of Thieves Season 11 Adds New Underwater 'Diving' Mechanic For Fast Travel
"Explore a redesigned Quest system"
The team at Rare has delivered its deep dive into Sea Of Thieves Season 11, featuring a major change to how quests can be tackled going forward. Yep, the game's new 'Diving' mechanic allows players to effectively fast travel to quests rather than need to sail the high seas towards an objective. This is an...
News Killer Instinct 10th Anniversary Dev Stream Airs Later This Month
"The latest news on the upcoming changes"
The Xbox fighter Killer Instinct is celebrating its 10th anniversary later this month and as part of this it will be hosting a special Twitch livestream on 22nd November. During this developer stream, the team will be sharing "the latest news on the upcoming changes" to the game. This ties in with the...
News Sea Of Thieves Has A New Developer Working On Season Ten Cosmetics
"We got the amazing opportunity to work with Rare"
As Rare gets closer to its Season Ten update for its pirate-themed sandbox Sea Of Thieves, a new development announcement has been made. The UK Bristol-based team Auroch Digital (Warhammer: 40,000 Boltgun) has signed on to create some "hearty cosmetics" for Sea of Thieves, which will be premiering...
News Sea Of Thieves' Final Monkey Island Chapter 'The Lair Of LeChuck' Is Now Live
"Set sail once again"
If you're a fan of Rare's pirate sandbox Sea Of Thieves, here's your reminder that the third and final part of 'The Legend of Monkey Island' Tall Tales series is now live. In 'The Lair of LeChuck' you will accompany Guybrush Threepwood to Monkey Island in pursuit of Captain LeChuck. Here's a bit about what you can expect...
News Sea Of Thieves Is 'Not Just PvE Or PvP', According To Creative Director
It's apparently a "shared world adventure game"
Earlier this week, Rare outlined its plans for Sea Of Thieves Season Ten - revealing the game would finally be adding private PvE servers. Although this decision is going to potentially increase the game's audience, it's definitely resulted in a mixed reaction from the community with some players...
News Surprise! Sea Of Thieves Is Finally Adding Private PvE Servers
But there will be some differences...
If you've been wanting a dedicated PvE option in Rare's pirate game Sea Of Thieves, then get ready for the arrival of Season Ten because it will be adding a new "Safer Seas" mode. As explained by the game's creative director Mike Chapman in a new video update, this next season will be introducing a private...
News Killer Instinct 10th Anniversary Update Coming To Xbox Series X|S
"More info coming soon"
The Xbox version of Killer Instinct has now been around for 10 years, and to celebrate this milestone, Iron Galaxy is back to deliver a special anniversary update "later this year". This announcement was made at EVO 2023 this weekend - with the Killer Instinct team confirming this update would include a balance patch,...