2019-07-01_Official_Xbox_Magazine

having good careers. But also we’re delivering
awesome [things] to our players and we’re
thinking about future opportunities. I think
that’s a challenge of making games today.
My job is making sure that Sea Of Thieves and
Rare have long-term success, but also that
we continue to deliver awesome stuff to the
people playing the game right now.

You’ve recently released the Sea Of Thieves
Anniversary Update. How’s the reaction been?
So firstly, I’m super proud of the team with
what we’ve done. In some ways we’ve only
been out a year, which seems like no time at
all – particularly if you think about long-term
service-based games, a year is young. But
in other ways, when you include Anniversary,
we’re probably into between four or five years
of making Sea Of Thieves. I’m really proud of
what we’ve achieved with Anniversary and the
reaction so far has been exceptional. I think
for anyone that’s been on the journey with us,
for them I think we’ve surprised and delighted

COLIN MCRAE: DIRT 2007

At Codemasters Craig

Duncan was instrumental in

bringing several Colin McRae

games to life,and the last

he worked on is the first in

the excellent Dirt series. It

was also the last game to be

published before the death

of Colin McRae.

WHEELMAN 2009

Before Midway closed

it released Wheelman,

starring Vin Diesel. It was

the first open-world game

to be made with Unreal

Engine 3. A film adaptation

was also planned, also

featuring Vin Diesel, but

it was canned.

RARE REPLAY 2015

In celebration of Rare’s

30th anniversary, the studio

released a collection of

30 of its games, including

Battletoads, Perfect Dark

and Viva Piñata. Each game

up to the 360 era features

a rewind function to

compensate for difficulty.

MAGIC

MOMENTS

them, which, given that they’ve only been

playing the game for a year, I think is not to be

underestimated. With Arena, even though we

said we were doing Arena and people could

play in a more competitive way, I think the way

we’ve done it, with that Rare Sea Of Thieves

spin on what competition is, has genuinely

surprised people. I think we’re different from

every competitive game. With Tall Tales, and

bringing story into Sea Of Thieves, reading

responses of, ‘I played Tall Tales, it made me

cry,’ or, ‘They made me feel like I was in an

Indiana Jones adventure,’ or, ‘This is best

experience that me and my friend have had in

gaming,’ just reading that kind of feedback is

great. This is the wonder of an evolving game.

What have you learnt during your time making

Sea Of Thieves?

I think we’ve learnt a huge amount, and I

think we’ve learnt to be okay with change.

We’ve learnt to be okay with having plans

and changing those plans and tearing them

up. An example of this, I always remember in

all the early press we did for Sea Of Thieves,

we were very much ‘every sail on the horizon

THE BIG INTERVIEW

062 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE