the right way. So I think, as a personal belief,
there’s a lot that gaming can do to connect
people. When we set out to build Sea Of
Thieves, very early on it was about what kind
of game we wanted to make and we believed
in the magic of multiplayer. How can we use
cooperation and soft skills and bring that
into our game, a game like no other? A game
you can literally go on adventures with your
friends and have these fantastic experiences
and meet other people in the world that can
result in lots of different interactions. When
you stop to think about those interactions,
what you encourage and what the game
mechanically encourages you to do can really
influence a positive community and positive
social experience, and that was the thing we
got really excited about. And then as we did
our beta and launched Sea Of Thieves, seeing
positive stories come through our community
where people make friendships, and people
have maybe been going through a hard time
in life but they’ve used Sea Of Thieves to
find connections with people or have that
escapism. We had a couple that met in the
game and ended up getting married. All of
these are the magic of multiplayer in a social
game. And I love that our game can facilitate
people to have this deep enjoyment and
escapism with their friends. Games are a
unique medium that allow that.So what would you say your biggest
challenges are as head of the studio?
Games are more complex to build than they
ever have been, particularly when you think
about live games. They take more time, cost
more money, require more people, but that’s
just a thing as a business that we need to
cope with. It’s always balancing delivering to
our players but also the culture we have as
a team and making sure that our team are
happy and supported, and they’re growing andsomething difficult together and how you
treat people at that time. So going through
something tough and showing who people
are and what they stand for is really, really
important. I think that sounds like common
sense, but just going through that and
actually still having long-term relationships
with those people and going through that
hardship together is important.
With regards to running Rare, does the legacy
of Rare matter? Or is it always about looking
to the future?
The legacy of Rare is very important. I think
that Rare has created some of the best
experiences that have, quite frankly, taken
gaming forward. GoldenEye being the first
console-based first-person shooter, Donkey
Kong Country with 3D graphics. You look
through Rare’s history again and again, even
right up to the Kinect stuff, they were doing
things that no one had done before, it’s in
their DNA. As a creator, it’s the spirit of that
legacy that I get most passionate about and
it inspires me. The challenge when people
talk about [Rare’s] legacy is that people
naturally go to their favourite Rare game that
was new then and say, ‘Hey, you should go
and remake one of those things,’ but I think if
you look throughout Rare’s history, Rare have
always done new and interesting things that
haven’t been done before, and that’s what
we’ll continue to do.
You’ve been at Rare for over eight years now,
what’s been your happiest moment?
I think for me, personally, it was back at E3
2015 where we announced Rare Replay as
part of our 30 Years Of Rare [celebrations] and
how we celebrated that and then announcing
our next new IP with Sea Of Thieves. Actually
being able to stand up on stage at E3 as the
leader of Rare, talking about recognising our
heritage but also the next IP, and just how
proud I felt to represent the team, which for
me was all about the new era of Rare, and all
the work we’d done. It was sort of like a public
coming out, because we obviously knew our
plans and were working on them, but to just
stand up on the stage at E3 and go, ‘Rare’s
legacy is really important, look at all this
important stuff we did with Rare Replay, and
“Rare has created
some of the best
experiences that
have taken
gaming forward”
THE BIG INTERVIEW
here’s the next new IP,’ and just being able to
be that person. That was a really special and
proud moment.You’ve said in the past that games can be a
force for good. Can you elaborate on that?
Yeah, I mean I love gaming to my core. And,
again, I think about what Rare represents, in
creating games that the world doesn’t have,
and when I think about that we have this
opportunity as Rare in what kind of games
can really influence people’s lives in a positive
way. I’ve grown up a gamer, got friends I’ve
made through gaming, like, I know gaming
can be a force for good to connect people.
I play games with my kids as they grow up.
Games can be a shared experience that
people can enjoy together. They don’t always
have to be about dominating in competition,
of course competition is important in certain
games, but even competition can be done in060060 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE