Rare veteran George Andreas leaves Microsoft for Sony, now Creative Director of SCEE

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Rare veteran George Andreas has left Microsoft to join Sony.

Andreas, who played a key role in the development of the Kinect hardware, Kinect Sports 1 and Kinect Sports: Season 2 as well as Xbox 360 launch games Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero, joined Sony this month as creative director of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, working out of SCEE's London office.

During his 16 years at Rare he worked on most of the legendary studio's games, including various Banjo titles, Viva Pinata and, going back to Rare's Nintendo years, Donkey Kong 64, GoldenEye and Killer Instinct Gold.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-28-rare-veteran-george-andreas-leaves-microsoft-for-sony

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Sony has been hiring a lot of good people lately (Seth Killian, that Atlus guy, etc). Hopefully this a good sign of things to come.
 
Andreas, who played a key role in the development of the Kinect hardware, Kinect Sports 1 and Kinect Sports: Season 2 as well as Xbox 360 launch games Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero, joined Sony this month as creative director of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, working out of SCEE's London office.

Oh...

that's great...
 
Oh...

that's great...

Read the last two sentences that you didn't quote:p

I'll admit that whole quote of the OP is quite the rollercoaster to read.

Damn. Good pick up by SCEE. How much of the Rare everyone reveres is still intact these days?
I like to imagine as Rare once being the softest most comfortable toilet paper ever known to man, but now it's just the cardboard roll that's left and it also fell into the unflushed microsoft toilet bowl and it's all wet and gross.
 
Surprised he stuck around for so long.

Microsoft has been horribly mismanaging Rare ever since they acquired the company over a decade ago.
 
Put him in charge of Jak 4, make it more like 1 which was also like the N64 Rare platformers and...profit?

Well he's creative director of the entire branch, which suggests he's overseeing all of their projects (Media Molecule, Guerrilla, London, etc) instead of just one.
 
He gets to work on Wonderbook then? Says a lot about how things at Rare are like if he wants to go and do that instead of working on all of those next-gen Xbox games that Rare is apparently making.

Edit: Oh wait, I read that wrong. Fella got himself a nice gig there.
 
Does Rare even consist of anyone from pre-microsoft buy-out anymore?

Like 2 people and neither of them were the bigger leads of any of their top games. Hell the first people to go were the two founders. The company is only Rare in name and name alone.
 
He gets to work on Wonderbook then? Says a lot about how things at Rare are like if he wants to go and do that instead of working on all of those next-gen Xbox games that Rare is apparently making.

I'm sure the $$$ for such a nice gig made the decision a little easier for him.
 
Does Rare even consist of anyone from pre-microsoft buy-out anymore?

Doesn't seem like it. I wish so badly the bullshit rumor that Nintendo was buying back the "mascot IP" was true, so some of those characters could be ressurected.

Microsoft Rare is such a strange tale and a microcosm of the industry. Bought for its reputation and ability to develop popular games of a bygone era, couldnt find relevance in the market, then stripped down to a mass market casual developer.
 
Does Rare have anyone from the N64 days anymore? Seems like most of them have jumped ship.

They still have a couple of guys here and there. But since the studio is under new management, it doesn't matter anymore.

Rare's role is Microsoft's casual Kinect factory. And that's what it will remain.
 
Sony has been hiring a lot of good people lately (Seth Killian, that Atlus guy, etc). Hopefully this a good sign of things to come.

Seth is a producer, but Aram works in marketing. I don't really take those hires or this one as a sign Sony is on some sort of roll.
 
Seth is a producer, but Aram works in marketing. I don't really take those hires or this one as a sign Sony is on some sort of roll.

That's a pretty big deal considering many have viewed SCEA's marketing as one of their biggest problems this generation. Hiring him as we head into next-gen is a very good thing.
 
Aram Jabbari ?

SCEA's PR manager, yeah.

That's a pretty big deal considering many have viewed SCEA's marketing as one of their biggest problems this generation. Hiring him as we head into next-gen is a very good thing.

Oh, it's fantastic! Just saying Sony hiring two dudes we're familiar with isn't really indicative of a poaching spree.

But yeah, fantastic hire just generally speaking.
 
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