Rareware / Rare / Playtonic

[Spark Of Spirit]

Wasn't Epic Mickey supposed to play like an N64 collect-a-thon or something?

Ehhhhh... it has elements, but it's more straightforward than a traditional one.

[Eddy]

I hope it would be more "Kazooie" than "Tooie" but I'd look forward to it.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Another rumor about the whole Nintendo/Rare/Microsoft triangle

Why the Stampers left...
When Rare became a "second party", Nintendo initially only bought around 10% of the company, not 49%. Every time the Stampers needed more money, they sold a few more percentage points to Nintendo. Eventually the Stampers ended up having sold 49%.

The Stampers needed another hit of cash, but they didn't want to sell 2% of the company and become "minority shareholders" in a company that was not owned by them. Rare's stock price was at an all-time high, so they decided it was time to cash out.

Nintendo had been willing to spend a few thousand here, a few thousand there, but they weren't willing to spend $500 million all-at-once. They would rather gain $500 million all-at-once. Nintendo asked the Stampers to find a new buyer.

Microsoft was willing to buy, but they didn't want to become partners with Nintendo, so Nintendo sold their 49% back to the Stampers on credit, and the Stampers sold the whole thing to Microsoft.

Who owns what between the two companies...

Want to know something painful? Nintendo actually owned all of Rare's IPs (the ones created while they were together). If you're aware of some games that claimed to be owned by Rare, those are really just a lie. Nintendo owned a completely different company that was also called Rare, and that company owned any Rare IP that wasn't owned by Nintendo directly.

When Rare was packing up to leave, Nintendo sold them a rights package containing some specific IPs that the Stampers wanted to own. NOA did this because Arakawa/Lincoln and the Stampers are buddies. That's why, for example, Nintendo owns Krystal (a character Rare created for a Starfox game), while Rare owns Conker (a character Rare created for a Donkey Kong game). There was no ruleset for the divorce, NOA and Rare just worked it out like gentlemen.

That's why they remained close enough to work on handheld games.

What a mess and a shame.

[Kiddington]

Perhaps even worse is the fact that the current standing of the company doesn't even know what to do with these IP's.

I mean, their last non-Kinect title was five years ago. Just let that sink in.

[Rosalinas Spare Wand]

I don't understand what part of that is a rumor. That stuff was common knowledge for a while, in fact Eurogamer did a whole write-up on the events about a year ago.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-08-who-killed-rare

[Spark Of Spirit]

Bumping this to say that Europe is getting the DKC and DKL games released on their VC starting this week. NA should be getting them soon as well.

If you've got a 3DS and/or Wii U, I highly recommend them all.

[talonmalon333]

It's sad when you read about Rare's history.

I do have a feeling that it wouldn't be much better if they had stuck with Nintendo, though.

[Daikun]

I do have a feeling that it wouldn't be much better if they had stuck with Nintendo, though.

Their creative staff wouldn't be laid off and their games wouldn't suck or be sent to other studios to make half-assed sequels. (Also, Banjo would be in Smash by now.)

Oh, what a horrible fate to be with Nintendo!

[talonmalon333]

I do have a feeling that it wouldn't be much better if they had stuck with Nintendo, though.

Their creative staff wouldn't be laid off and their games wouldn't suck or be sent to other studios to make half-assed sequels. (Also, Banjo would be in Smash by now.)

Oh, what a horrible fate to be with Nintendo!

Donkey Kong 64

Also, didn't a chunk of the Rare team leave during the N64 era?

[Spark Of Spirit]

Daikun's right. The reason Rare went down the crapper is twofold:

1. They had no upper management to organize them. Microsoft's only involvement was to stop by to pick up the final product, basically. From what I've seen written by ex-Rare staffers and people at Retro and Next Level Games, Nintendo is very hands-on with quality control. They were involved in every aspect of development from spit-balling ideas to "tightening up those graphics on level 2" (so to speak) which contributed to much of why their games were so good. They were, for all intents and purposes a first party studio at the time.

2. Talent was wasted. David Wise left the company after five years of literally doing nothing except (get this) the music for the GBA DKC3 port. He did it because he had nothing better to do. Yes, Rare had one of the best video game composers doing nothing for years sitting around and twiddling his thumbs. Nobody is left at the company from the old days because most of them didn't have anything to do, and had no one to guide them.

This is why I'm floored that Nintendo has never tried to find the old Rare staffers (and Free Radical, while we're at it) and form a new studio around them. There is little to no one who wouldn't want that to happen.

[Foggle]

I wish they'd stayed with Nintendo too, but I'm pretty sure MS was only allowed to grab them because the big N didn't care enough about Rareware to shell out the cash to make them first party. So maybe there were already internal problems before Rare went to Microsoft, because I can't see Nintendo passing up the opportunity to purchase them in their prime.

[talonmalon333]

Free Radical?

I'm pretty sure MS was only allowed to grab them because the big N didn't care enough about Rareware to shell out the cash to make them first party. So maybe there were already internal problems before Rare went to Microsoft, because I can't see Nintendo passing up the opportunity to purchase them in their prime.

That's one of the reasons I wonder. And like I said above, team members apparently left during the N64 era, and the problems began as early as Donkey Kong 64.

[Foggle]

I'm not really sure I'd say the problems began with Donkey Kong 64. That game is almost certainly the product of a studio trying too hard to one-up themselves after a previous release in the same genre (Banjo-Kazooie), and also because it was the first time their most popular series appeared on a more powerful console. They fell victim to their own hype, basically - which can happen to even the most talented of people.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Nintendo had the option to buy them 100% or let them go find someone else. Nintendo didn't want the commitment so Microsoft offered instead. Can't really blame them, they were going for a lot of money at the time. There didn't appear to be any bad blood between Nintendo and Rare when they parted. Considering ex-Rare staffers keep popping up in Nintendo games, I believe that's true.

Though I didn't like DK64 or most of their Microsoft games, they did have the talent. Now they don't.

Free Radical?

The FPS team that left to make Timesplitters after GoldenEye.

I'm not really sure I'd say the problems began with Donkey Kong 64. That game is almost certainly the product of a studio trying too hard to one-up themselves after a previous release in the same genre (Banjo-Kazooie), and also because it was the first time their most popular series appeared on a more powerful console. They fell victim to their own hype, basically - which can happen to even the most talented of people.

You could see through all their N64 games. They were getting more bloated and gimmicky, less focused on core gameplay. DK64 is sort of the end point of that, but since they never made another game like that afterwards, it's hard to tell what was going on.

[Foggle]

You could see through all their N64 games. They were getting more bloated and gimmicky, less focused on core gameplay. DK64 is sort of the end point of that, but since they never made another game like that afterwards, it's hard to tell what was going on.

Banjo-Tooie came out after Donkey Kong 64. It was the same kind of game, and it was amazing.