In a recent interview studio head Mark Betteridge stated there they will not revisit old franchises unless they  "saw an opportunity to make the product in a different way that would do justice to [them]." You can read some other responses via this sites Q&A piece.
 

 I think this gives a good indication of what direction Rare, Ltd. is going to take in the future. Project Natal was discussed heavily, so I expect that Rare will develop games exclusively for it for the time being. 
 
Any thoughts about this? Are you disappointed at the different direction Rare has taken, and now will work on a even smaller subset of 360 owners if they work on Natal? With their last couple of games doing poorly in terms of sales, I'm afraid their Project Natal products may not do so great either.
 
Here's the funniest part of all this. Compare this recent Joystiq article to this one that was posted a couple months ago.

It's hard to gauge where Rare's future lies. While their statement has me hoping they'll finally get out of their creative slump, I can't help but think they no longer have the old mojo they once had.

Banjo Kazooie: N&B has gotten so much praise, I really need to get that game soon.

Microsoft buying Rare is one of the biggest piss offs in the gaming industry, for me anyways.

I guess this throws the idea of KI3 out the window. Man. I hope this is all just to throw us off and they drop it on us at E3. But I've been hoping to see it at E3 for like the past 5 years, and haven't seen anything, so I'm not getting my hopes up again.

" I guess this throws the idea of KI3 out the window. Man. I hope this is all just to throw us off and they drop it on us at E3. But I've been hoping to see it at E3 for like the past 5 years, and haven't seen anything, so I'm not getting my hopes up again. "

" @TheGreatGuero said:

" I guess this throws the idea of KI3 out the window. Man. I hope this is all just to throw us off and they drop it on us at E3. But I've been hoping to see it at E3 for like the past 5 years, and haven't seen anything, so I'm not getting my hopes up again. "

At this point, I'm not even sure I'd want to see a KI3.  Fighting games have made a lot of progress since KI2, the only redeeming quality of which was the ability to unleash idiotically long combos with the press of a few buttons. "

" @TheGreatGuero said:

" I guess this throws the idea of KI3 out the window. Man. I hope this is all just to throw us off and they drop it on us at E3. But I've been hoping to see it at E3 for like the past 5 years, and haven't seen anything, so I'm not getting my hopes up again. "

At this point, I'm not even sure I'd want to see a KI3.  Fighting games have made a lot of progress since KI2, the only redeeming quality of which was the ability to unleash idiotically long combos with the press of a few buttons. "

" @Hailinel said:

" @TheGreatGuero said:

" I guess this throws the idea of KI3 out the window. Man. I hope this is all just to throw us off and they drop it on us at E3. But I've been hoping to see it at E3 for like the past 5 years, and haven't seen anything, so I'm not getting my hopes up again. "

At this point, I'm not even sure I'd want to see a KI3.  Fighting games have made a lot of progress since KI2, the only redeeming quality of which was the ability to unleash idiotically long combos with the press of a few buttons. "

Honestly, I haven't liked fighting games in years. The last one I enjoyed was Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, and that came out probably back in like 2003 or so. I really loved the original Killer Instinct, though I was never a big fan of the sequel. Either way, I've been holding onto this ridiculous dream that KI3 would come out and save fighting games. Deep down, I know it wouldn't happen like that, but I prefer KI's focus on playing with patterns rather than memorizing button combinations. I think perhaps going back to that could rekindle my love of the genre. "