Xbox One s 5 Most Exciting Upcoming Exclusives

Even though Rare Replay was one of the most pleasant surprises of 2015, it's been far too long since Rare has made a game that feels truly aligned with its original development vision. Yes, the masterminds of yesteryear have moved on from the heralded development studio, but when we got a glimpse of Rare's next project, it's hard not to feel that awesome blend of nostalgia and novelty that this UK-based developer seemed to capture so well.

This is certainly going to strike a lot of hardcore Mega Man fans the wrong way, but the past fourteen or so months have been pretty bad for great site Keiji Inafune. From the change in Mighty No. 9's art-style to the failed Red Ash Kickstarter, which took place in the middle of the development of another partially crowd funded title, to the countless delays for the Mega Man spiritual successor, we've seen a member of video game royalty sully his good name a little bit. ReCore, the Armature Studios Xbox One exclusive that we actually know next to nothing about, is yet another Inafune project, and the hope here is that it fits in with Microsoft's new consumer-first messaging. If ReCore turns out to be another slightly shady situation, it could be the beginning of the end for this once-powerful developer. The real hope here is that ReCore winds up being an incredible new IP for Microsoft to focus on going forward, as the Xbox platform won't be able to rake in that Halo cash forever.

The "new" Rare, as well call them, just made a compilation of "Old" Rare’s successful games. The creation of "old" Rare titles in a single compilation was an intentional move created by Microsoft’s very talented marketing team in order to make gamers remember how awesome Rare used to be back in the day and then, Oh wow! A new game by Rare is coming out.

Now the current occupation of creative team members in the company rely on one thing and one thing alone to sell their games: nostalgia. The current Rare as we know it relies heavily on gamer's nostalgia of IPs of gaming’s past. It's no coincidence that Rare Replay (an amazing collection of old Rare Games) was released during the same time Microsoft was announcing that Rare was going to be making more "Traditional" games again. Don’t be confused; even though Rare Replay was released on Xbox and marketed as Rare titles, these are in no way a reflection on the current company. The majority of the games seen in Rare Replay were done by employees that no longer exist at the company.


At E3, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer proudly declared 2015 as having the strongest lineup in Xbox history. With heavy hitters released such as Forza Motorsport 6 , Halo 5: Guardians , Rise of the Tomb Raider , and more, it's a claim that's hard to argue w


After a plethora of leaks and rumors that seemed to confirm its existence prior to its announcement, Assassin's Creed Origins was officially revealed during Microsoft's E3 press conference. Set in Egypt, Assassin's Creed Origins will run at a stead FPS at a consistent 4K resolut

It's been a while since we've heard new details about Capybara's long-in-development dungeon crawler, hasn't it. I continue to maintain that the demos of Below that I've spent time with are some of the best gaming experiences I've had in quite some time, but we are getting to the point where it's hard not to wonder what the hold up is. Capy is a studio loaded with immensely talented people who take a ton of pride in what they do, and the hope here is that the final touches are being put into place. Below was originally set to be a 2015 title, and Capy has gone into the portion of its development cycle where it falls completely silent until the final title is released. Now that it's 2016, it would be wonderful to see a new trailer or two before a launch before March 31 of this year. Let's face it, if we go through another six months without hearing anything about Below, it's going to be hard to remind gamers why they should care about this wonderful title all over again.

Even though the gaming world-renowned name remains with the company, Rare as we knew it is dead and everything we ever knew and loved about them was laid to rest years ago. I can already hear you now: why is this a big deal? Why does Microsoft purchasing a company that was actively seeking a buyer mean that the old Rare as we knew it is gone? They're still around making games for the Xbox One, with Sea of Thieves on the way, but a huge chunk of their creative development team was lost during the transition from Nintendo to Microsoft and it shows. After founders Tim and Chris Stamper quit in 2007, they were replaced by Gregg Mayles, the current Creative Director for Rare.

There are definitely some major questions about Sea of Thieves, especially when you consider that Rare is not a studio that has ever put together an online game that feels truly cutting edge, but if everything hits, Microsoft's investment in this legendary studio could be totally worth it. The real goal here should be to find a way to make a charming, deep online version of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag , considering that may be the best pirate game we've ever received.