Twycross 2 December 2011 Rare is delighted to announce a series of senior appointments to strengthen the already impressive team behind Kinect Sports: Season Two, the most recent iteration in Kinect's best-selling series.
No less than four senior hires have joined the company in the last month. Andrew Dennison has been appointed Software Director and joins the studio fresh from Codemasters, where he spent the last 10 years as Lead Programmer. His most recent project was DiRT 3.
Jon Vincent is now Rare's Studio Audio Director. He joins the company from Ubisoft Reflections, where he was Audio Director for Driver: San Francisco. He has also worked at Midway and Pivotal Games.
Danny Isaac is another boost to the team, taking on an Executive Producer role. Most recently, Danny was Studio Manager at Relentless Software. Prior to this he was Head of Development for EA Korea, and worked on several iterations of FIFA while at EA Canada.
Last but not least, Peter Ridgway will be Rare's new Technical Art Director. Peter joins from Codemasters where he was responsible for future Art technology; he has also worked in Lead roles at Sony Europe.
In announcing these four new additions to the Rare and Microsoft Studios team, Senior Studio Director Craig Duncan said: "Everyone at Rare welcomes the skills and input of some of the industry's most exciting people as we boost an already strong talent base with these latest hires. We have big ambitions here at the studio, and industry professionals such as Andrew, Jon, Danny and Peter will help ensure we fulfil them. This is the latest step in Rare's continued evolution and we have plans to further augment our team over the coming months. As a first party Microsoft studio, our mission is to attract the brightest and best talent in the business; these four appointments demonstrate that we are well on our way to achieving this."
About Rare
As part of Microsoft Studios, Rare is a first party developer dedicated to thrilling its audience through innovation on Microsoft platforms. Currently enjoying success with the Kinect Sports franchise, Rare released the original BAFTA award-winning Kinect Sports alongside the Kinect hardware in November 2010, following up with Kinect Sports: Season Two in October 2011. Prior to that, Rare supported the Xbox 360 at launch with Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero, and then in subsequent years with the Banjo-Kazooie and Viva Piñata franchises together with pioneering work on Xbox 360 Avatars. With a history of award-winning franchises on multiple platforms stretching back through three decades of gaming, Rare remains on the leading edge of high-quality entertainment and innovation. Rare is based in the Midlands, UK.