The official website of Microsoft-owened British developer Rare has closed, the front page of the site replaced by a countdown that appears to be counting down to a website relaunch and the reveal of what the newly rebranded Rare have been up to for the past couple of years.

Rare recently recieved a new logo treatment, seen above, and have been confirmed to be at the heart of Microsoft’s plans for its new motion controller and E3 2010 announcements. The countdown conveniently ends as E3 begins, pointing to Rare’s importance at the show even more.

You can check out the countdown yourself and sign up for Rare’s new mailing list to be kept in the loop over at Rare.co.uk.

We’ll bring you the latest from the show as we get it, and we’ll be live at the Microsoft Media Briefing in Los Angeles next week, so stick with us!