Microsoft draw on Rage experience for new footie game...

Rage Software, the company who produced the Striker series of football games, have entered into a partnership with Microsoft for their next PC soccer title. The deal means that Microsoft have acquired the rights to publish the game, and it gives them an opportunity to enhance their name within the games field, using an experienced, ready-made development team.

“After looking at a number of developers in this category, we felt Rage had the most talented development team and leading-edge technologies to create an excellent soccer game that will appeal to a broad audience,” said Ed Fries, general manager of Microsoft Games. “We are committed to our sports line and soccer, being the largest participation sport in the world, presents a great business opportunity for us to extend it to a wider sports gaming community”.

The game will be based on the latest Striker, but it’s likely to be released under a different name. Rage have been working on the licensed Ruud Gullit’s Striker, but the position on whether it will be called this remains unclear. Infogrames have signed up the rights to publish the PlayStation and Dreamcast versions of Striker.