Rare Ltd. is a British video game developer located in Twycross, Leicestershire, England. The company was established in 1985 by Ultimate Play the Game founders Tim and Chris Stamper. During its early years, Rare primarily concentrated on Nintendo Entertainment System games, creating successful titles such as Wizards & Warriors, Battletoads, and R.C. Pro-Am. Rare became a second-party developer for Nintendo in 1994. They achieved critical acclaim and commercial success with their subsequent releases, which included Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct, GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and Star Fox Adventures.
In September 24, 2002, the company was wholly purchased by Microsoft and has since focused on developing games exclusively for Microsoft video game consoles. Rare since then has developed Kameo: Elements of Power, the Viva Piñata series, and the Kinect Sports series, among others. On 2 January 2007, founders Tim and Chris Stamper left the company to pursue "other opportunities". Rare's current Studio Creative Director is Simon Woodroffe, who previously worked at several studios including Midway Games, Ubisoft, and Sega.
History[]
Founding years (1985-1993)[]
Rare evolved from Ashby Computers & Graphics Ltd., better known by the trade name Ultimate Play the Game, and founded by ex-arcade game developers Tim and Chris Stamper. Unsatisfied with their games for 8-bit personal home computers such as the ZX Spectrum, the Stampers became interested in the development of Nintendo Entertainment System games out of Japan. By that time, they sold off part of the Ultimate Play the Game label to U.S. Gold and formed in 1985 a sub-division inside Ashby Computers and Graphics Ltd. named Rare Ltd. Having convinced Nintendo to allow them to develop games for their video game console, Rare released their first title, Slalom, a skiing game that was originally released for the Nintendo Vs. System in 1986 and later for the NES in 1987.
Throughout the following four years, the company went on to produce over 40 NES games as well as several additional Game Boy conversions, including Wizards & Warriors, R.C. Pro-Am, Captain Skyhawk, Snake Rattle 'n' Roll and Battletoads. According to Ste Pickford, who was part of the team at Rare throughout the late 80s and into the early 90s, they just "wanted to make as many games as they could in their 'window of opportunity'". When the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was conceived, Rare limited their releases to some Battletoads games and decided to invest their significant NES profit in purchasing expensive Silicon Graphics workstations. This move made Rare the most technologically advanced developer in the UK, and situated them fairly high internationally.
Partnership with Nintendo, Rareware era (1994-2001)[]
Their progress with the 3D graphics on the SGI systems impressed Nintendo's Genyo Takeda, and in 1994, Nintendo bought a 49% stake in the company, turning Rare into a Nintendo second-party developer. In this period, Rare started selling their games under the trademark name "Rareware" and the slogan "Rare: Designs on the Future". The company was considered one of Nintendo's key developers and had enough recognition that Nintendo offered them their catalogue of characters to create a 3D CGI game. The Stampers asked for Donkey Kong. The resulting game, Donkey Kong Country, was a critical success and sold over eight million copies worldwide, making it the second best-selling game in the SNES library. The game received several Game of the Year honors and was followed by two sequels and several hand-held spin-offs. Prior to the release of the Nintendo 64, Rare also developed a CGI arcade fighting game, Killer Instinct, on their own custom-built hardware.
Rare gained more international recognition with the release of GoldenEye 007, a Nintendo 64 first-person shooter based on the film GoldenEye that is often credited for having revolutionized the genre. The title received very high critical praise and sold more than eight million units worldwide. It also received numerous awards and Rare won the BAFTA award for "Best UK Developer". Other subsequent successful Nintendo 64 games include Banjo-Kazooie, released in 1998, and Donkey Kong 64, released the following year. Around the same time, numerous employees left the company and formed new studios. The most notable of these studios was Free Radical Design, which was composed of several members of the GoldenEye 007 team. Free Radical Design developed the successful TimeSplitters series of first-person shooters, though the company was acquired by Crytek in 2009 and renamed Crytek UK.
In 2000, Rare released the spiritual successor to GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark. The game was given near universal critical acclaim from the gaming media, and the company was awarded the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Moving Images Award for 2000, and the Golden Satellite Award for Best Interactive Product in 2001. Rare's last games for the Nintendo 64 include Banjo-Tooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day, both of which released to very positive reviews. Conker's Bad Fur Day won the 2001 BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award for sound, though commercial success was lower than expected as a result of lack of promotion from Nintendo and the fact that it came at the end of the Nintendo 64's lifecycle.
Microsoft/Rare Ltd. era (as Larry the Lion likes to call, "The Devil's era")[]
Beginning in late 2000, workers from Activision and Microsoft visited Rare. On September 24, 2002, Microsoft paid a total of $375 million to own 100% of the company. Because of this, Rare is now a first-party developer for Microsoft's Xbox and its successor, the Xbox 360. This left Donkey Kong Racing, which was due to be released for the Nintendo GameCube, unreleased. The trademarks of the characters from the games that Rare made for Nintendo consoles, such as Conker of Conker's Bad Fur Day and Banjo of the Banjo-Kazooie series, were retained by Rare, whereas intellectual properties created by Nintendo, such as Donkey Kong and Star Fox, were retained by Nintendo. Star Fox Adventures, originally planned as Dinosaur Planet for the N64, became the only Rare game produced for the Nintendo GameCube.
Despite the acquisition, Rare still kept developing games for Nintendo handheld consoles, as Microsoft is currently not participating in the handheld video game console market: In August 2003, Rare and Microsoft made a deal with THQ for Rare to publish games for the Game Boy Advance, which have included Sabre Wulf, a game based on an Ultimate character; Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, an interquel to the two Nintendo 64 games; and It's Mr. Pants!, a puzzle game that was originally developed as "Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers", and featured the company's unofficial mascot. January 2005 saw the completion of this deal, with the release of Banjo-Pilot, originally known as "Diddy Kong Pilot" before being acquired by Microsoft. Rare also ported and extended the Donkey Kong Country series, which was published by Nintendo.
In 2003, Rare released their first Microsoft game, Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Grabbed by the Ghoulies is a humorous beat-'em-up action-adventure game that takes place in a haunted house full of crazed ghoulies. The game got a rating of 7 out of 10 by IGN. At E3 in May 2004, Microsoft's Ken Lobb stated that Rare had obtained Nintendo DS development kits and was working on two games for the Nintendo DS. Shortly after, Microsoft issued a statement saying that the company and its studios had no plans for Nintendo DS development. However, in July 2005 Rare posted job openings for Nintendo DS development on its official website, and stated that it was "creating key DS titles". The first of these games was Diddy Kong Racing DS, a remake of the Nintendo 64 title Diddy Kong Racing, now featuring the ability for players to compete over the Internet through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
In 2005, Rare released Conker: Live & Reloaded, a remake of the N64's Conker's Bad Fur Day with updated graphics, sound to suit the Xbox and a reworked multiplayer option. The game received generally favorable reviews. Later that year, in November 2005, Rare made something of a resurgence when Microsoft's Xbox 360 console was released. Two of the Xbox 360's launch games were developed by Rare: Kameo: Elements of Power and Perfect Dark Zero, with Viva Piñata released the next year to very positive reviews. It also received a BAFTA nomination in Artistic Achievement. On 2 January 2007, Rare founders Chris and Tim Stamper left the company to "pursue other opportunities". Previous lead designer Gregg Mayles reviews as Creative Director and Mark Betteridge replaces as Studio Director at the company, replacing the brothers on a permanent basis. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, released in 2008 to generally favourable reviews, was their first major game developed without the involvement of the Stamper brothers in the company.
Despite solid reviews, their Microsoft titles sold worse than expected. As a result, Microsoft decided to restructure the studio during the end of the decade. Several key employees quit or were fired around this time. In March 2010, the company opened a new facility in Fazeley Studios, located in Digbeth, Birmingham. Later that year, Microsoft confirmed that Scott Henson, a developer who previously worked on the hardware and software design of the new Xbox 360 console and Kinect for Xbox 360, replaced Mark Betteridge as Studio Manager and that their main focus will be on Kinect. According to Henson: "Kinect will be the main focus for Rare going forwards as it's a very rich canvas. This is just the beginning of an experience that will touch millions of people." Rare's first Kinect project was Kinect Sports, released in November 2010. Despite average reviews, the game was a commercial success, selling three million units as of May 2011. In March 2011, Henson announced that Craig Duncan, who has previously worked on Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and the Colin McRae Rally series, was hired on as Senior Studio Director. In April 2012, Simon Woodroffe, who previously worked at several studios including Midway Games, Ubisoft, and Sega, became the studio's Creative Director.
XCage era (2012-present)[]
Michael, the creator of the XCage and the creator of Furryous series, got a new idea of new handheld console and told about it to Microsoft. Microsoft liked the idea and talked about the design and other stuff about XCage. But Michael setted a rough deal that Microsoft will give Rare back to Nintendo, meanwhile XCage is in middle of it's life cycle, as if Microsoft starts planning on the console.
Microsoft agreed and soon Rare is a first-party developer of Nintendo again but it's still the second-party developer of Microsoft Studios family, being 100% owned by Nintendo.
Culture[]
Unlike some other software developers, Rare gained a reputation for being a very secretive company. The approach to their office buildings, located in Manor Park near Twycross, is monitored by a number of cameras. Web video shows have been granted access in recent years, such as Eurogamer in November 2006, The 1UP Show and GameSpot UK's Start Select in May 2008. Internally, they are quite divided and operate in a slightly different way to other software houses. According to Tim Stamper:
- “Rare has a different philosophy. We don't really have much contact with other game development companies and we just do things the way they've evolved. We try to employ people who are great games players and games enthusiasts and they're really interested in seeing the other games we're developing in the Company, so it's really a group of games enthusiasts all working together to produce the best games they can - that's Rare.”
More recently, Rare has denied a fan site, MundoRare, from filming a documentary about their studios, at MundoRare's own expense. The film was meant to celebrate Rare's 25th anniversary, and would have been distributed over the Internet and Xbox Live. Rare, however, denied permission to shoot this film, claiming it was not "on message". This led to controversy about Rare's current direction with Microsoft, as well as the shutting down of MundoRare, claiming that the site could not support Rare's new direction.