Rare (video game company) |
Rare Ltd., formerly known as Rareware, is a United Kingdom-based video game developer. It was founded in 1983 by brothers Tim Stamper and Chris Stamper. Rare was a second-party developer for the Nintendo gaming platforms for several years, but in 2002 was acquired by Microsoft.
The company is notable for having created an unusually large number of original hit games, and for the company s price tag: Microsoft paid US$377 million for the company, a record for a video game developer.
Rare was originally called Ashby Computer Graphics (ACG), though they sometimes released their games under the name Ultimate Play The Game.
=Company overview=
Rare is located in .
Its games have always employed some of the latest graphics technology. One of its most critically acclaimed and popular series was the Donkey Kong Country series on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, due to its use of pre-rendered 3D computer graphics on a 2D computer graphics console. GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64 is considered by many to be their biggest success, known even today as one of the gold standards for console first-person shooters, eventually selling over eight million copies. Rareware s Killer Instinct added several features to the fighting game genre such as autodoubles, linker (video game)s and ultra (video game)s.
Key members of the GoldenEye development team left Rare soon after beginning work on Perfect Dark . Head of Software Martin Hollis was the first to leave in 1998, working at Nintendo of America on the GameCube, and in 2000 he started his own company, Zoonami. Other members such as David Doak left soon after he did and formed Free Radical Design.
Up from the end of 2000 people from Activision and Microsoft visited Rare. In November 2001 Microsoft trademarked the name It s Mr. Pants , the name of a game which was released three years later. In September 2002, the Stamper brothers sold their 51% interest in Rare to Microsoft; following this, Nintendo sold their 49% stake in the company as well. Microsoft paid a total of $377 million for the company. Because of this, Rare is now a first-party developer for Microsoft s Xbox and its sucessors. The trademarks of the fictional character from the games that Rare made for Nintendo consoles (such as Conker of Conker s Bad Fur Day ) were retained by Rare (apart from IP originally developed by Nintendo, i.e. Donkey Kong and Star Fox). Despite the acquisition, Rare still develops games for Game Boy Advance. Rare has never developed for Sony platforms.
Between 2000 and the final aquisition of Rare Ltd. more than 50 people left the company. After the acquisition was complete, at least 30 more left. Commentators have noted that Rare s first Xbox title, Grabbed by the Ghoulies , is the company s biggest flop to date.
August 2003 brought news that Rare and Microsoft had made a deal with THQ to publish Rare s Game Boy Advance games, which as of 2004 have included Sabre Wulf (GBA) , a game based on its Ultimate Play The Game character, and It s Mr. Pants! , a puzzle game featuring the company s unofficial Mr. Pants. January 2005 saw the completion of this deal, with the release of Banjo Pilot. THQ also ported and extended the Donkey Kong Country series.
In February of 2004, gaming news sites reported that negotiations were ongoing between Nintendo and Microsoft for Microsoft to acquire Rare s characters and trademarks from Nintendo. According to various articles, Microsoft has reportedly offered Nintendo approximately $20.2 million for the trademarks and characters. As of 2005, it is unknown if Nintendo accepted Microsoft s $20.2 million offer.
In July 2005, Rare confirmed it was developing at least one game for the new handheld Nintendo DS.
=Success of games=
Rare has in general found large success in its games. The golden era of Rare games began with the 1994 release of Donkey Kong Country , which re-started the Donkey Kong franchise, not to mention employing pioneering graphics and sound that allowed the SNES to beat off the competition from the Sega Genesis. From that point on, Rare were seen as Nintendo s primary support, as they continued to produce excellent games for Nintendo even when Nintendo s market share was at an all-time low.
Almost all of the games Rare released for the , took a long time to develop.
Despite this success, Rare were frustrated with the limited success Nintendo could provide; the N64 remained a much poorer seller than Sony s PlayStation, and was constantly criticised by the mainstream market. Rare s much anticipated game, Perfect Dark , did not sell as well as expected, due to its release towards the end of the N64 s life. Nintendo sold their stock in Rare to Microsoft shortly into the life of the Nintendo GameCube. Some Nintendo fans were crushed by this news, as they feared that the GameCube could not survive without Rare, and that the advantage that Microsoft would gain could result in Nintendo s departure from console marketing.
However, to date, Rare have only released two games for the Xbox, have matched the success of Rare s N64 output. The most popular GBA games from Rare are ports of their classic-era Donkey Kong titles, which Rare can no longer produce, as Nintendo holds the rights to the characters.
=Future=
The next generation of consoles is key for Rare. , have sold poorly. If, however, the Xbox 360 becomes successful, Rare could recapture its former glory of the days of the Nintendo 64.
After supporting the Game Boy Advance, Rare currently have at least 2 secret Nintendo DS games in the works.
=List of games=
==1980s==
The company traded first as Ashby Computer Graphics (A.C.G.) and later, more famously, as Ultimate Play The Game. It was responsible for some of the most innovative and graphically impressive games of the period, notably pioneering isometric projection in titles such as Knight Lore and Alien 8.
Some of the Ultimate games are linked together in the Sabre Man series, consisting of Sabre Wulf, Underwurlde, Knight Lore, Pentagram (video game) and Mire Mare (never released). Sabre Man later also made an appearance in Killer Instinct and Banjo-Tooie by Rare.
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=External links=
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