Rare to launch Project Natal test studio

Microsoft-owned developer Rare has unveiled plans to establish a new base in the Midlands for testing emerging technologies such as Project Natal.

Opening in April, the studio in Fazeley, near Birmingham, will complement Rare's long-standing headquarters in Twycross.

The Fazeley site's main area of focus will be production, testing and usability for Rare's "evolving methodology in game creation". Around 90 people will work at the site, although staff numbers will fluctuate at different points of the development cycle.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Rare boss Mark Betteridge said that Microsoft's Natal motion control device requires a "larger physical space" to test out new game properties.

"With Natal, we believe test is extremely important to get the balance and the content of the game right, because a lot of the people that Microsoft will be appealing to with this technology won't be traditional games players, and we need to test with a wide range of people, different ages, demographics, and so on," he said.

"I don't mean testing in the sense of does the game crash, or is the artwork correct. I mean proper user testing. Also with Natal there'll be a huge variety in the set-ups that people will have in their homes, so it's very important that we optimise any title to work in any of them."

Last November, Rare revealed that it is developing a new Natal-enabled first-person shooter for the Xbox 360.