PsihoPerihelion
Member
I don't think I know to explain it, but they both talk about it like it's the second coming of Christ.
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It Has Now Been 15 Years Since Microsoft Purchased Rare
- Thread starter daTRUballin
- Start date
Ryouji Gunblade
Member
Donkey Kong Country was released in 1994. Rare has been with Miscrosoft for almost twice as long as they were (widely known as being) with Nintendo.
Then the Stampers wanted to sell another small piece, but that would've made them minority owners of their own company and put Nintendo in control of it, so they thought it was time to sell the whole thing. But Nintendo (who had bought bits and pieces in small, manageable pieces that eventually added up to 49%) wasn't comfortable laying out that much money all at once, so they didn't want to buy, and asked the Stampers to look elsewhere.
Nobody (for example, Microsoft) wanted to share the company with Nintendo, and Nintendo didn't want to share with anyone else, so Nintendo agreed to sell their 49% back to the Stampers on credit, if the Stampers found a buyer. Nintendo and Microsoft never dealt with each other directly. Nintendo handed their half back to the Stampers, and the Stampers handed the whole thing over to Microsoft.
Nintendo had a clause which said they could change their mind at anytime before the sale was finalized, run back in and buy the company for whatever it was the buyer was offering to pay, so Microsoft bid the company up as a way to scare Nintendo out of the bidding. Because Microsoft (in addition to being interested in buying the company) saw the value in depriving a rival of a valuable strategic asset that was foolishly placed in jeopardy. If Nintendo had taken the Stamper's first offer, they could've had Rare for much less than half of $375 million.
And when you can't get the milk for free anymore, there's still no reason to buy the cow. Fuck milk. Tap water is healthier for you. It's not as if Nintendo was plagued with launch software droughts through the entire Iwata era, and Rare had a proven track record of delivering quality software that extended the tail end of a console's life, allowing Nintendo's first party to concentrate on creating compelling launch titles for the new console.
The Stampers originally just sold a small portion to Nintendo. A token amount. Then they sold a bit more, and a bit more, and a bit more... until Nintendo eventually owned 49 and the Stampers owned 51.
Then the Stampers wanted to sell another small piece, but that would've made them minority owners of their own company and put Nintendo in control of it, so they thought it was time to sell the whole thing. But Nintendo (who had bought bits and pieces in small, manageable pieces that eventually added up to 49%) wasn't comfortable laying out that much money all at once, so they didn't want to buy, and asked the Stampers to look elsewhere.
Nobody (for example, Microsoft) wanted to share the company with Nintendo, and Nintendo didn't want to share with anyone else, so Nintendo agreed to sell their 49% back to the Stampers on credit, if the Stampers found a buyer. Nintendo and Microsoft never dealt with each other directly. Nintendo handed their half back to the Stampers, and the Stampers handed the whole thing over to Microsoft.
Nintendo had a clause which said they could change their mind at anytime before the sale was finalized, run back in and buy the company for whatever it was the buyer was offering to pay, so Microsoft bid the company up as a way to scare Nintendo out of the bidding. Because Microsoft (in addition to being interested in buying the company) saw the value in depriving a rival of a valuable strategic asset that was foolishly placed in jeopardy. If Nintendo had taken the Stamper's first offer, they could've had Rare for much less than half of $375 million.
Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?
And when you can't get the milk for free anymore, there's still no reason to buy the cow. Fuck milk. Tap water is healthier for you. It's not as if Nintendo was plagued with launch software droughts through the entire Iwata era, and Rare had a proven track record of delivering quality software that extended the tail end of a console's life, allowing Nintendo's first party to concentrate on creating compelling launch titles for the new console.
Nintendo fanboys really don't want to admit that Nintendo screwed themselves and their fans by being cheapass tightwads. Just you wait. One day Nintendo is going to crack open that warchest and reward my decades of loyal service by using those billions of dollars in ways that benefit my specific taste in videogames!
Kikizo interview with Stamper brothers after Microsoft acquisition in 2002:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6CPaTkrOWs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6CPaTkrOWs
GabeTheGrouch76
Member
6 years of an uneven record of games that ranged from great, but not exceptional at best; to mediocre and far below the former standard at worst.
9 years of Kinect irrelevance.
15 years of wasted potential and a diminished legacy overall.
Considering Rare's DKC finally gave the SNES the decisive edge against the Sega Genesis, and their N64 games were among the console's few non-first party successes while being trounced by the PlayStation, I think they could have at least made an exception in Rare's case.
Largely expecting this too. The majority of their post-Nintendo output haven't sold to the Xbox demographic; and their reputation as a masterclass developer of consistently quality games is a thing of the past. Despite several comments I've read that argue otherwise, it seems there are far less people outside the Microsoft/Rare community interested in this game that those communities would like to admit.
But hey, that's just what I think.
9 years of Kinect irrelevance.
15 years of wasted potential and a diminished legacy overall.
Considering Rare's DKC finally gave the SNES the decisive edge against the Sega Genesis, and their N64 games were among the console's few non-first party successes while being trounced by the PlayStation, I think they could have at least made an exception in Rare's case.
Largely expecting this too. The majority of their post-Nintendo output haven't sold to the Xbox demographic; and their reputation as a masterclass developer of consistently quality games is a thing of the past. Despite several comments I've read that argue otherwise, it seems there are far less people outside the Microsoft/Rare community interested in this game that those communities would like to admit.
But hey, that's just what I think.
It's true and it's quite telling because if one give a look at Rare million-sellers published by Nintendo, only 23% of the sales came from IPs owned by Rare after the split with Nintendo.
MS/Rare basically got everything except Donkey Kong and Starfox, with Goldeneye missing because it was a licensed game, but Donkey Kong games (and Goldeneye) were by far Rare most successful games.
You Pay This Much
Member
I actually kinda like a lot of the releases while they were owned by Microsoft.. I just wish they would make some god damn sequels of the old stuff
The one who got screwed isn't certainly Nintendo nor the Stamper brothers who got a fat check from Microsoft.
Bollocks. IGN, Gamespot, Easy Allies, Angry Joe etc were raving about it at e3, its anything but dull. Its actually quite ambitious.
kinect was flying high and Rares Kinect sports had a lot to do with that
killer rin
Member
People shit on the 360 era games, but pretty much all of them were super fun to play. Great for kids and adults alike. It dipped around the first couple Kinect Sports titles, but they began to rebound for Kinect Sports Rivals which ended up being the best of the sports titles
Really? And Playtonic ? Many here were hysterically claiming Rare to be back even though the new team were formed by old members from a company you believe to be a shell of its former self. So how does that work? They're not talented at Rare, but they are when they're out? Also, none of the greats people mentioned here went on to do anything that reached the excellence of old Rare. Not one. Timesplitters was average and was completely outshined by Halo, then came Haze from Doak and his team which was a poor Halo wannabe, Chris Seavor dissapeared, Martin Hollis & Zoonami didnt amount to much and finally Playtonic which released a worse game then Nuts & Bolts, completely slammed critically.
Its not that Rare are a shell, its more like no one from that period has been able to recapture their former brilliance. Now there is still Greg Mayyles father of Banjo, Sea of Thieves is his game & Robin Beanland, im happy to see old Rare still active with big budget gaming on some level, but for the rest there's nothing notable coming out from them, they've all seemed to have faded away. Like i said in a previous thread, Rare are still one of the top dev houses in the UK and attract talented new devs, if anything we probably wont see too much of old Rare but will more then likely see new unfamiliar take on genre's that the market is responding to. GaaS is in, its not my favourite but Rare are doing what they've typically done, they're trying to do something different with it.
The problem for Rare under Microsoft isn't the quality of the games they have released (Viva Pinata, Kameo and BK N&B are at least solid games) but their sales.
Kinect Sports is the only hit Rare developed under Microsoft, all the other games disappointed at retails.
When people say that Rare is dead they don't mean literally because the studios is still active, what they mean is that Rare lost the perceived relevance they had in early '00s when Microsoft bought them, this is due to Microsoft/Rare inability to produce commercial hits in the last 15 years.
daTRUballin
Member
Well, there's a lot of people who would argue that the quality of their games has gone down too.
I don't object to Kinect Sports, it definitely seemed to be a hit for them at a time when they really needed a hit. The game is not bad for what it is, it has that Rare charm and personality and I had some fun with it. I just wish they'd been able to release other stuff as well - even some other Kinect stuff, I think they could have done cool things with it.
I wonder if they would have had more output, but Microsoft canned some of their games. They were going to make a Kameo 2 and they had some other games, if you watch the extra's in Rare Replay.
The output from Kinect sports and on is pretty light. Rare always seemed mismatched for Microsoft and their fans. If they stayed a Nintendo developer, I wonder if they would have released more games and had games that sold better. The audience for Nintendo consoles would have bought their games more. Even Rare Replay, I wondered if that was released for the Switch, if it would have sold better there, than the Xbox One. Sea of thieves, maybe would sell better on the Switch too (if Nintendo fixed their voice chat or made is less annoying).
The output from Kinect sports and on is pretty light. Rare always seemed mismatched for Microsoft and their fans. If they stayed a Nintendo developer, I wonder if they would have released more games and had games that sold better. The audience for Nintendo consoles would have bought their games more. Even Rare Replay, I wondered if that was released for the Switch, if it would have sold better there, than the Xbox One. Sea of thieves, maybe would sell better on the Switch too (if Nintendo fixed their voice chat or made is less annoying).
NervousXtian
Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
Looking back, honestly.. it's a solid run. Ghoulies was good, Nuts and Bolts was awesome, the Viva Pinata games were great.
The Kinect Sports was fun for what it was.
The Kinect Sports was fun for what it was.
FUNKNOWN iXi
Member
Microsoft...... What are you DOING?!
Look at this diversity, there's so much potential. Why do you deny us so?
Banjo Kazooie
Conker
Perfect Dark
Kameo
Battletoads
Viva Pinata
Jet Force Gemini
Blast Corps mixed with Crackdown 3's destruction/physics
Conker
Perfect Dark
Kameo
Battletoads
Viva Pinata
Jet Force Gemini
Blast Corps mixed with Crackdown 3's destruction/physics
Look at this diversity, there's so much potential. Why do you deny us so?
SkyMasterson
Member
When you compare to what came before it, it absolutely was not a solid run.
Some good/fun games in there for sure, but not what it could/should have been.
Killer Instinct is the only relevant franchise and Rare didn't even have a hand in it.
How dark is the rose on those tinted glasses...
I am excited about Sea of Thieves though...
BLAUcopter
Gold Member
15 years!?
I'm so old.
I'm so old.
NervousXtian
Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
You're assuming that Rare wouldn't have dropped of even if MS didn't buy them. A lot of devs didn't survive the transition to that generation unscathed.
IdreamofHIME
Member
Imagine if Kameo and PDZ had been good. Rare could have gone places...but they didn't.
A giant waste of money.
RIP 1994-2001* Rare, I bought every one of their games during this period, even the handheld ones.
*pre DKC Rare sucked balls.
A giant waste of money.
RIP 1994-2001* Rare, I bought every one of their games during this period, even the handheld ones.
*pre DKC Rare sucked balls.
Jetboxx
Member
I don't agree. These were good years and these were good games. Especially Viva Piñata. As for me, it's one of their best games ever.
daTRUballin
Member
Not a whole lot. More devs left post-buyout than pre-buyout, as I've already mentioned earlier.
Yeah Nintendo was involved and they helped out. I think that is part of it along with some of their people leaving.
On a related note, this also means it's the 15th anniversary of one game in particular.......
.......So, there's that too.
Well at least Rare has released one good game since the day they were purchased from MS!
Caipirinha
Member
Conker, Banjo, and Kameo are the only games I liked, and none of them live up to the company's name.
They were my favorite company in their Nintendo days
Yup, I was as much a Rare kid as a Nintendo kid.
This is what happens when Microsoft gets involved in...
Anything.
That's a good way of describing Microsoft's gaming branch.
They're kinda stumbling around. They've had some great exclusive successes like the Halo games, but they don't understand why those games were great and successful. They have Rare and at first they just wanted Rare to continue what it was doing for Nintendo consoles, but that didn't work out. And as an American company, they lack connections with some of the biggest third parties in the industry and have struggled to build them up.
And there is constantly the looming fear of Microsoft losing its patience with the gaming division and just scrapping their work. So despite being part of fucking Microsoft, they rarely want to break the bank.
Star Fox Adventures is about as far from a good game as you can get.
Lys Skygge
Member
I liked Grabbed By The Goulies and Kameo. Perfect Dark Zero was ok as well. But as far as I'm concerned, they haven't made anything that good since those games. I have pretty high hopes for Sea of Thieves.
And I wish someone didn't stop me from playing Panzer Dragon Saga...
It's a shame we can't always get what we want eh?
Jetboxx
Member
Me too.
Mass Effect
Member
And yet somehow it's still not the worst Star Fox game ever made.
Really though, I liked Adventures. It's an easy Zelda clone, but it's not like it's an awful game. At least it gave us one of the first examples of fur shading.
Ryouji Gunblade
Member
W. L. Saga
Neo Member
Fifteen years since a part of gaming died for me. I went on to an eight-year gaming hiatus after that - mainly busy with graduation, true, but nothing I was reading about games made me care about them for a good long time after that.
Playing Star Fox Adventures in 2010 in an used GCN simply made me want to get back to video games. That's how powerful those old Rare experiences are on me. I cherish those moments as some of the best parts of my childhood.
These games made my childhood and adolescence. They had the magical spark that made gaming for me alongside Nintendo, something that I can seldom find anywhere these days. I'm still looking for a game that makes me feel just like I felt being fifteen playing Banjo, GE and PD. It was beautiful. It was gaming nirvana. It was delightful. It...
...It hurts.
Playing Star Fox Adventures in 2010 in an used GCN simply made me want to get back to video games. That's how powerful those old Rare experiences are on me. I cherish those moments as some of the best parts of my childhood.
These games made my childhood and adolescence. They had the magical spark that made gaming for me alongside Nintendo, something that I can seldom find anywhere these days. I'm still looking for a game that makes me feel just like I felt being fifteen playing Banjo, GE and PD. It was beautiful. It was gaming nirvana. It was delightful. It...
...It hurts.
daTRUballin
Member
What's funny to think about is that Rare is now Microsoft's longest running first party studio. Bungie would've been a longer running studio, but they left 10 years ago. And Lionhead is gone now too.
Where does this "10 years of Kinect" even come from? The first Kinect Sport was 2010, and the last was 2014... Even if we assume all they did after N&B was work on the original Kinect Sports, that would give you 6 years max out of the 15 years they've been owned.
The funny thing is... Kinect Sports is actually exactly the sort of product Rare should have been expected to make at the time, because it fits perfectly with their standard MO. It was basically their on a notable Nintendo offering (Wii Sports) with their own spin and iterations on top. Rare's actually been doing this the vast majority of the time MS has owned them. Kinect Sports was their Wii Sports, Avatars were their Miis and Viva Pinata was kinda their Animal Crossing. They've struggled as a result of their new audience being less receptive to such games... but what they've actually made makes perfect sense in the context of Rare creating alternatives to Nintendo's experiences.