Current Events > Reminder: Microsoft killed Rare

(+) Yeah! (+)

Rare was amazing on the SNES and N64. Some of the absolute best games came from them. Then Microsoft hijacked them and they stopped making good games.

Rare made several of the GOAT games in that era, too.

DKC
Banjo Kazooie
Goldeneye 007

Aren't there stories that a lot of the Rare power hitters left after Miyamoto started dictating how they should make their games, though? Then Nintendo decided to sell them off since all the good dev's left the company?

Sounds more like Miyamoto killed Rare.
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D-Lo_BrownTown posted...

Aren't there stories that a lot of the Rare power hitters left after Miyamoto started dictating how they should make their games, though? Then Nintendo decided to sell them off since all the good dev's left the company?

Sounds more like Miyamoto killed Rare.

Rare on Nintendo consoles - tons of good games
Rare on Microsoft consoles - no longer making tons of good games

I'm just looking at the facts here, not conjecture

Donkey Kong 64 is still one of my favorite games ever made. The multiplayer was so fun.
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They did not
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I miss Rare

I wish we had a Conker sequel
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Darklit_Minuet posted...

Rare on Nintendo consoles - tons of good games
Rare on Microsoft consoles - no longer making tons of good games

I'm just looking at the facts here, not conjecture

Miyamoto dictating what Rare does - Star Fox Adventures

Last game Rare did before leaving Nintendo - Star Fox Adventures

Rare on Microsoft sucks, but the great dev's that worked at Rare left before the Microsoft deal happened.
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Objectively false

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-we-don-t-force-rare-to-make-kinect-games/1100-6419683/
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D-Lo_BrownTown posted...

Darklit_Minuet posted...

Rare on Nintendo consoles - tons of good games
Rare on Microsoft consoles - no longer making tons of good games

I'm just looking at the facts here, not conjecture

Miyamoto dictating what Rare does - Star Fox Adventures

Last game Rare did before leaving Nintendo - Star Fox Adventures

Rare on Microsoft sucks, but the great dev's that worked at Rare left before the Microsoft deal happened.

If that were true, they could have come back after Rare left Nintendo and made great games for Microsoft. They didn't.

D-Lo_BrownTown posted...

Aren't there stories that a lot of the Rare power hitters left after Miyamoto started dictating how they should make their games, though? Then Nintendo decided to sell them off since all the good dev's left the company?

Sounds more like Miyamoto killed Rare.

Nintendo couldn't have sold Rare because they never owned them.
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Darklit_Minuet posted...

Rare on Nintendo consoles - tons of good games
Rare on Microsoft consoles - no longer making tons of good games

I'm just looking at the facts here, not conjecture

There is no conjecture. Nintendo killed Rare and then sold off their husk to Microsoft.

But they continued making good games regardless. Kameo and Viva Pinata were highly praised by anyone who actually played them but had poor sales. Rare wants to make good games, but they also want to eat, so if they can make millions by making Kinect Star Wars, that's what they'll do.

Banjo Nuts and Bolts suffered from Yooka Laylee syndrome in the sense that those games are actually just not as good as people remember them.

Killer Instinct was developed by Double Helix but they worked closely with Rare as consultants and the game ended up being great.
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l Dudeboy l posted...

Nintendo couldn't have sold Rare because they never owned them.

They didn't technically sell rare, they pulled a dumb marketing stunt that made Rare think they were going to do a takeover through stocks and then discarded them and sold all the shares they had to Microsoft leaving the whole studio temporarily in limbo.
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What really stings is that nintendo actually had the chance to wholly buy Rare long before microsoft even came into the picture.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/08/rare_co-founder_has_no_idea_why_nintendo_didnt_buy_the_studio_outright

But for whatever reason, they didn't. Nintendo lost a good development team and original IPs. Which is something that they're really lacking right now. I still think it was the worse mistake nintendo ever made.
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Artillatron8 posted...

What really stings is that nintendo actually had the chance to wholly buy Rare long before microsoft even came into the picture.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/08/rare_co-founder_has_no_idea_why_nintendo_didnt_buy_the_studio_outright

But for whatever reason, they didn't. Nintendo lost a good development team and original IPs. Which is something that they're really lacking right now. I still think it was the worse mistake nintendo ever made.

Short answer is Miyamoto was jealous and mad that Rare was making better games than he was. That's why they kicked Rare to the curb.
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fenderbender321 posted...

Rare is just the name of a company. People are what matter. But people evolve and change.

eh i would disagree with this. when you have a company like Rare, there should (in theory) be a very strong culture, sense of organization, etc that is in place, so that even when personnel changes happen (and these happen often in the business world), there is a consistent level of quality to the work that is in-line with the company's values and objectives.

i think there are a few companies that do this well. Rockstar and Blizzard come to mind - besides a few key people, there are tons of personnel changes over the years, yet the quality and "feel" of the games all remains nearly the same. that's what having a strong corporate culture and structure will do for you.

I'd guess that this is where Rare failed. According to Wikipedia's article on Rare, apparently at the beginning its structure was just a bunch of talented game nerds who would work nonstop to make games they thought would be fun, and this worked for a while, but IMO it's really not sustainable (especially as gaming started to become bigger and bigger, budgets increased, etc). There's an interesting part about how MS tried to implement a more corporate structure into Rare and a lot of people just couldn't hang.

So in a sense I could see how MS trying to change how Rare worked did effectively kill the company off, but honestly it seems like the Rare bubble wasn't sustainable longterm anyway.
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ChromaticAngel posted...

Short answer is Miyamoto was jealous and mad that Rare was making better games than he was. That's why they kicked Rare to the curb.

is there a good write up of this any where?
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Reminder: Viva Pinata is one of Rare's best IPs, Kameo was pretty great too, and Rare Replay is the GOAT retro collection (both the games included and the features). Sea of Thieves look amazing too.

Modern Rare haters are salty Nintendo fans, not real Rare fans. Fact.
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ShadowKirby17 posted...

Donkey Kong 64 is still one of my favorite games ever made. The multiplayer was so fun.

I'm replaying that game right now. I'm on the factory level, and it's still as good as I remember.

Love that game.
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Balrog0 posted...

ChromaticAngel posted...

Short answer is Miyamoto was jealous and mad that Rare was making better games than he was. That's why they kicked Rare to the curb.

is there a good write up of this any where?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9GpCCZ6NAE
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Rare went to shit long before Microsoft bought them

Rexdragon125 posted...

Rare went to shit long before Microsoft bought them

I don't understand why people say this.
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ChromaticAngel posted...

Balrog0 posted...

ChromaticAngel posted...

Short answer is Miyamoto was jealous and mad that Rare was making better games than he was. That's why they kicked Rare to the curb.

is there a good write up of this any where?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9GpCCZ6NAE

nice thanks man
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