Neil Topham

Rare Ltd

Midlands-based developer Rare has been making golden memories and redefining gaming genres since 1985, and exclusively on Microsoft platforms since joining Microsoft Studios in 2002. In that time, the studio's pursuit of innovation and quality has led to the creation of Xbox Avatars, the double BAFTA-winning Kinect Sports titles and new IP including Kameo and Viva Piñata – all added to a stable that already holds Battletoads, Banjo-Kazooie, Conker and Perfect Dark. 2015 saw Rare galvanised by the opportunity to celebrate this incredible heritage in Rare Replay, a collection of 30 games carefully curated for its 30th anniversary. In more recent years our investigations into cutting-edge motion control resulted in the multi-million-selling, double BAFTA-winning Kinect Sports series. With development now firmly established for Xbox One and Windows 10, we're still hard at work here in our custom-built English countryside HQ. Galvanised by the opportunity to celebrate our heritage with the Rare Replay anniversary collection, we followed it up with our most ambitious undertaking to date: creating a world of legendary pirate adventures for players to tackle together in Sea of Thieves. Then came X019 in London and the unveiling of Rare's very latest world of wonder, Everwild. Rare's custom-built development studio is based in the Midlands, UK.