Who Killed Rare Studios?

[Crazybone126]

Two known titles that never got the chance to happen after the departure of Rare from Nintendo to Microsoft.

[Pro A.]

Banjo-Threeie never getting a chance is a shame, especially given the abomination that appeared on the 360. Donkey Kong Racing... meh.

[Segitz]

Having never played the Banjo games, what would be the closest game today? Ratchet? Jak? Mario?

[Crazybone126]

Probably a mixture of all of those. A little less Ratchet though, but there's definitely some elements in there.

[Pro A.]

Its closest to Mario 64 and those games, but it has a stronger emphasis on exploration between worlds.

[frosty]

I want another conker's bad fur day.

[Crazybone126]

Haha THAT'S not happening.

[Pro A.]

One of the strangest transformations ever for a game. Went from being cute and cuddly in 1997 to raunchy and nasty when it finally came out in 2001 after three years of delays. And thank God it did.

[Viper]

One of the strangest transformations ever for a game. Went from being cute and cuddly in 1997 to raunchy and nasty when it finally came out in 2001 after three years of delays. And thank God it did.

Agreed.

As it originally was, it may have turned out to still be a good game. After all, this is a platfomer from Rare we are talking about. But the changes simply gave it a style and humor no other platformer had (has?). And I'm sure the extra years worth of development didn't hurt when it came to polishing the gameplay and graphics.

[frosty]

It was a game that pushed the n64 to it's limits on every front. It also was one of the first uses of MP3 audio in game, which allowed for plenty of speech and high quality music to fit onto that little cart. Multiplayer was awesome as well, and the story mode was hilarious.

I've never had as much fun lobbing rolls of toilet paper at a giant opera singing pile of shit.

[Viper]

Orchid and I still sing that song every now and then.

[bobo_ess]

give me a jet force gemini and please don't fuck it up

[Viper]

give me a jet force gemini and please don't fuck it up

From Rare? That's just not going to happen.

My understanding is that not a single person from N64 days are still among the current staff. None.





I know a lot of people say it is sad what EA has done to certain studios post-acquisition but I think the post-acquisition of Rare to MS may be the saddest story in video game history.

[Crazybone126]

Yes, and the former staff members have told some of the saddest stories ever.

[Otacon305]

Not surprisingly, I blame Nintendo for killing Rare. First they stood by while MS bought 51% of them, then they sold the remaining 49% that they owned. They didn't even have to buy Rare out to save them. They could've just bought majority, and preserved the company and it's great contributions. Of course, this was around the time Nintendo decided instead of growing with their audience and the industry, they were going to run in the other direction, appealing to younger people and non-gamers with no standards.

[Viper]

Not surprisingly, I blame Nintendo for killing Rare. First they stood by while MS bought 51% of them, then they sold the remaining 49% that they owned. They didn't even have to buy Rare out to save them. They could've just bought majority, and preserved the company and it's great contributions. Of course, this was around the time Nintendo decided instead of growing with their audience and the industry, they were going to run in the other direction, appealing to younger people and non-gamers with no standards.

Me thinks you have something backwards.

You have a few facts wrong.

Nintendo did offer to buyout the remaining 51%...twice. But Rare wanted a higher rate. Nintendo noticed that Rare's unit sales contribution had dropped to just 1.5% of total annual sales, their upcoming product schedule was practically dead and that most of the key staff had departed so they never re-upped their offer. Activision came at them first and that deal fell through so MS took a shot at it. And Nintendo sold their 49% back to Rare BEFORE Microsoft bought a single share of which they then purchased all 100% at once for $377 million.

But of course, all you want to do is berate Nintendo any way you can so I shouldn't expect you to have the facts right.

[Otacon305]

You don't like my facts, take it up with Wikipedia.

[Viper]

Do you know how often I have to change stuff on Wikipedia? Not just Nintendo stuff but all video games and other subjects too. If you are going to cite Wikipedia, check to make sure it's referenced. And even then it can be wrong. Notice that Wikipedia has your info referenced to numbers 10 and 11 but if you click those sources they say absolutely nothing of how the sale went down. I've removed that portion of the Wiki entry for now. I'll replace it later with a cited source with the actual details.

[TimmyJ]

No offense to you, but the way you reacted kind of makes you seem like you have some sort of vendetta against Nintendo. And as you know, this isn't the first time I've said something similar on that subject.

From the guy who just said "Nintendo's PlayStation" when it was Sony making the best of Nintendo's poor decision not to follow through with it.

Anyway, good article, I never realised how many great games Rare created. I only ever played Donkey Kong Country, but I've played bits and bobs of the others.

And @Segitz : there's one SNES game that you definitely missed out on - although your dislike for 2D games may well render this untrue - and that's Super Metroid. It did something that no other game of its generation really achieved: created an atmosphere. That's damned impressive for a sidescroller.

[Segitz]

Well... as I said. I had Turrican on Amiga, which was more or less a clone of Metroid. So yeah. I still think it's "arrogant" to tell me I missed out, when neither of "you" (no specific person here) hasn't played Oil Imperium or Ports of Call on Amiga.