On the subject of new faces as well as veterans returning, I'm delighted that a portion of the Kickstarter dosh is going towards a QA/testing section in Playtonic. That's reportedly the best way to train new talent - in the famous "who killed Rare?" Eurogamer article, the demise of the QA department of Rare was cited as a major reason why the quality started to dip and why the new staff weren't trained in the same way.
I know one of them JUST left rare and was a huge banjo kazooie fan. The reason he joined rare was his love for banjo kazooie and during his time at rare he only ever got to work on kinect sports lol