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It Has Now Been 15 Years Since Microsoft Purchased Rare
- Thread starter daTRUballin
- Start date
secretanchitman
Member
Terrible lineup compared to what Rare released for Nintendo. Rare hasnt made anything good in years IMO.
Bafomdad
Uno Venova
Banned
Damn what a fall from grace.
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
I like Starfox Adventure. I also agree that it's not really a Starfox game and fans have every right to hate it.
Head.spawn
Junior Member
No idea why they're just sitting on the IP, that game would've been perfect for an update. Hell, there's still time, I'd certainly be interested in a new one.
You Pay This Much
Member
Yeah, I remember rumors (or maybe even confirmation) of a sequel set for development, but getting cancelled for whatever reason.
Iwata in 2007: The GameCube failed because we couldn't ensure a steady stream of exclusive titles. I'm new here and my job is apparently on the line if Wii fails, so I promise there won't be any software droughts, even though we just got rid of one of our biggest exclusive software suppliers.
2011: Okay, I know I said there weren't going to be any Wii software droughts and then there were Wii software droughts, but I apologize for that, and promise that the WiiU won't have software droughts.
2013: I apologize for the Wii U software drought.
Nintendo harmed themselves for money (when they have a bank account full of it), which they tend to do quite often (which is why they have a bank account full of it). Selling Rare cut the legs out from underneath the GameCube, since Rare had a tendency to deliver their best results later in the generation, and that move could easily be said to be responsible for GameCube's narrow third place finish behind the original Xbox.
Wii fared quite well in spite of the software droughts, but it seems to be a common opinion that Nintendo abandoned support for the Wii too early, and yet they didn't abandon it early enough to properly support the WiiU. Would've been handy to have a company like Rare covering the tail end of the Wii, freeing Nintendo's first party up a little more for them to make a compelling case in favor of WiiU.
Microsoft knew what they were doing when they dangled a fat check in front of Nintendo's face and dared Nintendo to do something self-destructive. They're on record as saying that half the reason they bought Rare was because they knew that breaking up the Rare/Nintendo partnership would be a strategic blow to Nintendo. It's just a shame that breaking up the partnership proved equally devastating (if not more so) to Rare.
Monkeyball
Banned
Too bad the Rare spinoff that made Yooka Laylee isnt so great either. It all came together for Rare in the 90s, together with Nintendo.
Rare had a crazy fall from grace after the N64 days. The writing was already on the wall with their only Gamecube game, SFA. Nintendo probably made the right decision.
Then again, the Kinect Sports games alone probably paid for the acquisition and then some. Business-wise, maybe MS made out pretty well too. It's only Rare fans who really suffered.
Then again, the Kinect Sports games alone probably paid for the acquisition and then some. Business-wise, maybe MS made out pretty well too. It's only Rare fans who really suffered.
DongBeetle
Banned
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise is the best game Rare has ever released
daTRUballin
Member
Yeah, there was a sequel in development at one point, but it was cancelled way back in 2007, if I'm remembering correctly.
In fact, there were about 20+ projects at Rare that were cancelled over the course of their partnership with Microsoft. So maybe their output could've been way better these last 15 years if Microsoft didn't keep cancelling all their projects.
rockman zx
Member
I was such a big fan of Rare, everything they did in N64 was amazing. Too bad the studio never realized his true potential after Microsoft bought them.
SinCityAssassin
Member
I feel like even if they were still with Rare, that wouldn't have helped all that much, considering a lot of the problems of the Wii U's lack of success was outside of software. Another title at the late end of the Wii's life wouldn't have changed anything. You think they would've just made Skyward Sword for the Wii U if they had a Rare game in 2011? Cause that's not how that works.
Not to self-promote, but I wrote an article a few years back going into depth about just how important Rare was to Nintendo and how they buyout effected them. This was before the Wii U released.
http://www.rarefandabase.com/exclusive-can-nintendo-survive-without-rare/
Also includes exactly the number of games Rare has released up to the Wii U era. If you factor in GBA, digital remakes and the DS, theyve released quite a bit still.
http://www.rarefandabase.com/exclusive-can-nintendo-survive-without-rare/
Also includes exactly the number of games Rare has released up to the Wii U era. If you factor in GBA, digital remakes and the DS, theyve released quite a bit still.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...kameo-2-would-have-differed-from-the-original
On Rare Replay extras had pictures of this game. They even talk about most of their games that they were working on and ended up never completing. The new Kameo was going to be darker and little more grown up.
I don't think it would've been anything near as simple as Rare making one late Wii game, therefore Skyward Sword gets pushed to Wii U, therefore Wii U is a success.
Rare clearly gave the wheezing SNES a second wind with Donkey Kong Country. Rare's N64 games gave some late-in-life strength to the N64 (and quite a lot of Western credibility). Rare was just getting started on the GameCube when they got canned and moved to Microsoft.
I think that if Rare had been around for the Wii, they would've already been at-speed (since Wii was two GameCubes duct-taped together), and Rare would've been on fire through Wii's entire generation. That would've relieved pressure on Nintendo's first party studios, which has many benefits, not the least of which being a longer tail for the Wii (which after it's initial success, failed to keep up the pace and live up to something like the PS2), and Nintendo's ability to safely step away from Wii and focus more of their efforts on the WiiU.
Maybe increased focus on the WiiU wouldn't have amounted to a hill of beans since the WiiU was a fundamentally flawed product (although some have speculated that Nintendo felt rushed into releasing a product, any product, because the Wii died off faster than Nintendo anticipated), but when you have the president of the company apologizing for the WiiU's software drought, having an extra ally on hand couldn't hurt. Especially since the software drought apologies were a recurring trend ever since Nintendo kicked this particular ally to the curb.
frankie_baby
Member
Nintendo didnt sell rare they just werent willing to go for the full buyout the stamper brothers wanted, they were willing to increase their stake from the 49% they already owned but the stampers just wanted a total cash out of the business
Nintendo lost nothing of value. Rare's output on the N64 was nothing short of legendary, can't say the same about their output as a division of MS.
Not really surprising either considering the talent they lost around that time.
Not really surprising either considering the talent they lost around that time.
Viva Piñata was fantastic. Kameo was pretty good, especially for a launch title. N&B was good but misguided.
Its a shame they devolved into Kinect bullshit, based on MS green light criteria. MSs mismanagement of Rare will forever be symbolic of their total misunderstanding of the games business.
Its a shame they devolved into Kinect bullshit, based on MS green light criteria. MSs mismanagement of Rare will forever be symbolic of their total misunderstanding of the games business.
Cow Mengde
Banned
One of the greatest business moves ever by a company. I am talking about Nintendo of course. They dropped a company and laughed all the way to the bank. I don't know if Rare was worth keeping, but based on what we have now, it's clear Nintendo made the right call.
I care. It's gross if they're fake and too big, but natural ones are awesome.
I care. It's gross if they're fake and too big, but natural ones are awesome.
thelurkinghorror
Member
Viva Pinata, the first one, is a masterpiece!
I don't think it's clear they made the right call at all. Rare leaving left gaping holes in the lineup of the following Nintendo consoles. Meanwhile, despite Rare's reduced relevance since then, they still made a huge hit in Kinect Sports, which gave the 360 a DKC-like second wind, created the Xbox Avatars (leading to a new microtransaction revenue stream), and have contributed to graphical technologies (and the Kinect itself) for various MS first-party projects. $400m honestly doesn't sound too bad for all that, and certainly isn't a huge amount of cash in the grand scheme of things for Nintendo.
Yui's Empire
Member
Sue me but I loved Kinect Sports 1 and 2, I still occasionally take out the 360 to play some bowling with the family or friends. It was awesome. Sea Of Thieves looks awesome, Nuts & Bolts was more fun than most people say, and PDZ was a solid launch FPS. I still enjoy their games tbh.
Donkey Kong Country owed quite a bit to Miyamoto's platformers. Banjo Kazooie owed quite a lot to Mario 64. Nintendo nurtured Rare, and Rare in turn provided a huge benefit to Nintendo.
Some Rare ex-employees have described a "culture clash" between Rare and Microsoft, where Rare expected the "freedom to be Rare" that Nintendo had provided, but Microsoft expected them to shape up and do things the Microsoft way, which resulted in a friction that may have ruined Rare as we knew it.
Nintendo dropped a company and laughed all the way to the bank, but they also saw a major talent shortage for years afterwards, lasting pretty much up to today where we can see the complete destruction of one of Nintendo's two vital support pillars (Nintendo has essentially failed as a home console maker, and has focused all of their remaining resources on the handheld market).
There were no winners in Microsoft's purchase of Rare. Everybody lost. Nintendo, Microsoft, Rare, gamers... everyone.
Edit: Does anyone believe that Nintendo was experiencing some kind of "money shortage" at the time? Something that gave purpose to the $150 million Nintendo got for selling their half of Rare? Some indication that "the 800 pound gorilla, with $X billion dollars in the bank" couldn't afford to pay ~$100 million to lock Rare down on Nintendo's team forever?
Why did Doak and Hollis leave Rare to form Free Radical anyway? Nintendo were pretty hands-off with the studio and accepted the team's refusal to make another Bond game without a second thought. Was it just a case of success getting to their heads?
GameCube, Wii and Wii U would have played out more or less the same with or without Rare. The only move that could have potentially changed things was making the original Perfect Dark into a GameCube launch title, but this was still possible before the MS buyout, and would have at most helped Nintendo retain more of their N64 audience. The PS2 would have still dominated, and Nintendo, unsatisfied with their slightly bigger piece of the pie, would still have gone on to make the Wii.
daTRUballin
Member
All I can do when I read posts like these is just shake my head and sigh.....
So you really think Rare's Xbox output is an actual indicator of what Rare's games would've been like for Nintendo? Do some people not realize that Rare is wholly owned by MS? That means MS has major influence over the studio. It's not about their talent leaving. It's about who owns them and leads them by the hand, so to speak.
As for the last sentence of your post, I'm not even going to respond to that because I'm tired of constantly reiterating the same thing I always say about this. All I can say at this point is that research is your friend.
I'm going to correct you and say that Hollis had nothing to do with Free Radical. He left separately on his own and formed Zoonami.
And about Nintendo being hands-off with the studio......ehhh, they weren't exactly "hands-off". More hands-off than Microsoft, but they were still pretty pushy in certain situations. Rare probably thought they would have more freedom with MS which didn't turn out to be the case unfortunately. Too bad for Rare really.
Shotgun Kiss
Member
Buy a cheap XB1 and get Rare Replay instead.
It doesn't have Conker: Live & Reloaded, but Bad Fur Day is the superior version anyway.
The second one is objectively better, as it's the exact same game, but with more Pinatas and some quality of life improvements. It's more like an expansion pack than a sequel.
This represents a big misunderstanding of the events.
RedAssedApe
Banned
Werent they working on avatars or something for most of the time? Rare name really means nothing to me these days :|
Stilton Disco
Member
Man, that's depressing proof of how utterly MS squandered what was one of the greatest studios of all time before they got their claws on it.
As far as I'm concerned Rare ceased to exist 15 years ago. What MS owns is Rare in name only.
As far as I'm concerned Rare ceased to exist 15 years ago. What MS owns is Rare in name only.
GameCube would've still lost to PS2, but while Nintendo was crying over that spilled milk, Microsoft silently stole Nintendo's "2nd place" consolation trophy. I think that went a long way towards humiliating Nintendo and legitimizing Microsoft.
Rare had a history of showing up late to the party, after Nintendo blazed the trails. And Rare had multiple games in the works for the GameCube, which were cancelled when Rare was sold. The GameCube was Nintendo's Dreamcast before the WiiU lowered the bar yet again, but Rare and the North American market proved instrumental in preventing the N64 from being considered as that kind of a failure. I think that if Rare had the chance to continue, they could've help the GameCube attain a much more respectable fate.
But yeah, fate not significantly changed. PS2 would have still dominated, and Wii would've still happened. Which would've been to Rare's advantage, as they would've learned the familiar ropes faster than they did on X360, where (like the rest of the world) they stumbled with the challenges of HD development. That means more major titles for the Wii, and a longer lifespan, as well as less pressure on Nintendo's first party to do all the heavy lifting.
I see that improved Wii as a chance for fate to be changed for the better with the WiiU.
Rare can't work miracles, but Nintendo was literally experiencing a talent shortage when they worsened it by letting go of Rare.
cantona222
Member
Without counting rare replay, It will be 10 years of Rare only releasing Kinect sports games (From 2009 to 2018).
SkylineRKR
Member
They were already in decline somewhat and some top guys left the studio before MS bought them.
I don't know if MS solely attributes towards Rare's downfall. Would PDZ be a better game on Nintendo hardware? I didn't enjoy Starfox Adventures much either.
Bjoern the Smexy
Member
I remember becoming angry to the point of crying when news broke all over the gaming magazines and the internet that Microsoft bought Rare.
I thought and hoped that people were joking. Sadly they were not.
It was probably the best game out of everything they did for Microsoft, but it was still worse than almost anything they did on Nintendo playtforms in my opinion (except for maybe Starfox Adventures, that was pretty...subpar, at least gameplay-wise).
Still gotta get my hands on Ghoulies and see if it's really as bad as so many people claim.
I thought and hoped that people were joking. Sadly they were not.
It was probably the best game out of everything they did for Microsoft, but it was still worse than almost anything they did on Nintendo playtforms in my opinion (except for maybe Starfox Adventures, that was pretty...subpar, at least gameplay-wise).
Still gotta get my hands on Ghoulies and see if it's really as bad as so many people claim.
Sleight of Jam
Banned
Let's get this straight, Nuts and bolts wasn't a bad game, it was just a terrible Banjo game.