I reckon Rare must have given him a lot of creative freedom that he felt he might not get elsewhere. There’s ways to keep your employees for decades even in the modern software and games industries and it’s not pizza parties and calling your company a family. It’s letting long-time employees be decision-makers and rewarding them for the company’s successes.
That’s my theory. They’ll pump out a few cookie cutter games on the existing IPs, but relatively little creativity is going to be allowed. It’s all for gamepass.
They’ve been touting Gamepass as the xbox seller for a long time now. Several years since they gave up on competing using exclusives if you ask me.