As you should know by now, Microsoft last night gave a first public outing to its brand new console, the Xbox One. The tech giant has already secured an impressive opening line-up of lucrative franchises through publishing and developing partnerships, with names such as EA Games which will bring the latest FIFA 14 and Turn 10, which will be racing in with a new Forza title; Forza Motorsport 5.
Now a surprise partner has surfaced in Rare, the British company most notable for unleashing classic fight game Killer Instinct to Super Nintendo (SNES) as an exclusive in 1995. Microsoft Studios boss Phil Spencer has announced the development company is working on bringing back one of its ‘historic’ intellectual properties for future release on Xbox One – and we don’t think they’re talking Donkey Kong Country!
With the word out and speculation let loose, the well-worked fingers of the gaming community are sure to be pointing at the Killer Instinct IP. The one-on-one combat game (and StreetFighter referencer) received a sequel and minor tweak for N64 but despite fan’s appetite for destruction there was not a Killer Instinct 3.
The series has also never had a thorough reworking on ‘next gen’ consoles, despite Rare having expressed interest in bringing a Killer Instinct game to Xbox 360. Most recently in October 2012 a veteran staffer on the developer team revealed in an interview that they would like to resurrect the series on Xbox LIVE with the cast of creative and original combatants such as Sabrewulf, Jago, Riptor and this blogger’s personal favourite Kilgore, returning to deliver the ULTRA COMBO on a modern age gaming platform.
Of course, our excitement and fandom for Killer Instinct could mean we’re getting ahead of the game and a number of other Rare properties could in fact be the subject of this speculation (who doesn’t want a revamp of Conker’s Bad Fur Day?)
Microsoft and Rare have promised to reveal all at the E3 Expo in June.