Dev: Rare Lost its "Spark" After Microsoft Purchase

[Lovely Mixture]

"Former Rare Employee Admits Harsh Truth That Everyone Knew For The Last 10 Years"

Last "modern" Rare game I played was Perfect Dark Zero, when the 360 first launched. I have never played a new Rare game since, that's how bad it was.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

This amuses me to no end, because in 2002 I remember reading a column in the 'Official Xbox Magazine' titled (and I am not making this up): "Rare Gone? Suck It, Fanboys."

Good to see that such hubris is punished over time.

 

[Terramax]

Well, it's nice to know that at least people AT Rare were fully aware their quality almost completely diminished with the acquisition. Anyways, this guy is just confirming what everyone already knows. Nintendo not buying Rare when the owners lost interest in the company has to be one of the worst decisions in gaming history.

It was the Stamper brothers who decided to sell their stake in the company to Microsoft. The instant they did that, they ruined things between Rare and Nintendo. Nintendo could have tried to buy those shares back off Microsoft, but would have a) had to expend a huge amount of money to do so, and b) would have ended up owning the studio outright, a practise they've said repeatedly in the past they dislike, as you can spend millions of dollars buying a studio only to have all the talent walk out. A lot of team members had already left to form Free Radical. Nintendo had no reason to keep hold of the rest of Rare when the Stamper brothers had already sold off half the company to Microsoft.

This is very true. However, it's anyone's guess if anyone were to have walked out if Nintendo kept hold of the company. After all, the reason why so many apparently stayed for so long was that they had a good vibe going when working with Nintendo.

Sure, members left to form Free-radical, but wasn't this immediately after the Goldeneye game? Rare continued to make quality for some years later. I could be wrong here.

 

[Sean951]

I take some solace in knowing that the best talent at Rare left before Microsoft got a hold of them. Timesplitters is the best followup to Perfect Dark that I could have hoped for (spiritually, if not thematically).