Whatever Happened To Rare?

[The Gatherer]

I Recently created a thread asking all my fellow escapists to reccomend me a good N64 game, a lot of people said conkers bad fur day, jet force gemini, donkey kong 64 and goldeneye, perfect dark etc and that got me wondering, what ever happened to rare? They made some of the best games of my childhood and as soon as the N64 became obsolete it seemed tht rare dropped off the edge of the earth. I for one would love to see them return on this generation of consoles, could really make an inteesting game to drag us out of this fps space marine slump we're in.
Oh and why did every object in every one of their games have a face? Bit weird

 

[Smallfry]

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts n Bolts?

Microsoft dropped them some bigger money so they left nintendo.

 

[Hungry Donner]

They were acquired by Microsoft I believe.

 

[Autofaux]

They were swallowed by a corporation sized blob and ceased to have its own identity.

 

[therandombear]

Microsoft bought them, I do believe they still make games for the Kintect. I think they made the dance game...gimme a sec.

Nope, they made the Kinect Sports game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Ltd.#Microsoft_era

 

[Uber Evil]

They were acquired by Microsoft I believe.

And then they went to shit, AFAIK. That seems to be the general consensus on this site.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

I just want some Rare classics on my ps3... Is it so much to ask for?

Anyway, I heard they had a falling out with Nintendo or something, I have no idea.

 

[Rad Party God]

Well, indeed Rare are still up and running, but they're not the N64 era's Rare we all love and remember so fondly, they're now a shadow of their former selves.

If you've been using an Xbox 360 for a while, then you've may already seen their presence. A bit confused?, just look at the avatars themselves. They were created by Rare. See the initial batch of Kinect games?, that sports game and that wierd animal game?, yup, they were made by Rare. The only "good" game they've developed for the 360 so far has been Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts N' Bolts and even that game is half-decent.

So, what happened to Rare?, they've been sticking their heads into their asses since they were sold to Microsoft.

And no, Microsoft didn't bought Rare, Nintendo sold them to Microsoft.

 

[rossable]

I mourned their loss years ago after playing 10 min of perfect dark zero. it's like the monkey's paw story, some things are just better left alone!

 

[zehydra]

The dudes who worked on all the great Nintendo games left the company, which is why Rare is now only a shell of its former self.

 

[LookingGlass]

The dudes who worked on all the great Nintendo games left the company, which is why Rare is now only a shell of its former self.

Yes, this. The guys who made Goldeneye and Perfect Dark (or at least a sizeable chunk of them) went on to found Free Radical Design and brought us the great Timesplitters games. But then they made Haze and went bankrupt and were bought by Crytek. Now they're Crytek UK.


Obviously that's not all of the original Rare guys as they were also produces platformers and other games too, but I'd doubt there's much semblance of the N64-era Rare at the Mircrosoft-owned Rare.

It's looking like a pretty bad purchase by Microsoft at this point considering they paid $375 million (according to wikipedia) for the company and have only received a few middling games out of it.

 

[drosalion]

Yeh its pretty disappointing to think about, literally every single game they made on the N64 was amazing and some of the best games for that system/era/ever

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

They're become creatively bankrupt. I believe most of the people around in their golden era during the N64 have long since left the company.

 

[Swifteye]

I like nuts and bolts myself but then again I was never quite a fan of how Rare developed there games back in the old days. Sure they were fun but they were also kind of average with the exception of the donkey kong games which I still can't beat today.

Rare is just another company these days I suppose. I'm not surprised really I mean does anyone even make games the way Rare used to make them? Focused singleplayer experience on shooters. Non mario platformers with wit and charm. There still making mediorce/functioning games which is something they've always done on the side if you check there lesser known games.

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

I know they canned a lot of talent. Among them Jolly Jack of http://www.collectedcurios.com/

You could shoot him an e-mail and he might be able to tell you a bit more.

 

[Midnight Llamaman]

Rare pretty much suck now, sadly. Also the remake of CBFD managed to be more censored on the 360 than N64, go figure.

It's a shame, out of their last few games only Viva Pinata is 'good'. Nuts & Bolts isn't bad, but it's not like the previous Banjo games and Star Fox Adventures, Kameo, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, PD:Zero just seem to plain suck in comparison.