The secret project being worked on at Rare is considered a “career highlight” for the recently departed Phil Harrison, who oversaw Microsoft’s UK development teams.
Harrison explained to GamesIndustry that the highlight of his time with Microsoft was working with the firm’s UK studios, and his role on the unannounced game.
“For me the highlight of my last three years at Microsoft was being able to work alongside and lead Rare and Lionhead, and obviously we talked about Lift and Soho,” he said. “Having a chance to work with those kind of crown jewels of game development is a pretty amazing opportunity. So I have a huge amount of respect and excitement for what Lionhead and Rare are doing next.
“Obviously Lionhead’s new project is well understood and well known. What Rare is doing next is still under wraps, but it’s pretty exciting stuff, certainly something that would be a career highlight for me to have had a small hand on the tiller, so to speak, during the creation of what Rare is doing next.”
That’s pretty high praise for Rare especially give Harrison is no longer a company man.
He will, however, still have ties with Microsoft with his new start-up Alloy Platform Industries, a business working with cutting edge tech including some from Microsoft.
“We’re in stealth mode at the moment, we’ll stay in stealth mode for a while,” Harrison told GI. “It’s very exciting, and something I’ve been planning for a little over a year, in full consultation and collaboration with Microsoft, specifically with Phil Spencer. I’m taking a plunge into the start-up pool.”
Exactly what tech he’s referring to remains a secret.
“Alloy has licensed some technology from Microsoft which will form the basis of our initial investigations and explorations. But I’m not going to say any more than that. It’s unannounced technology that nobody outside of Microsoft knows about,” he said.
Source: GamesIndustry
