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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Why can't other 2nd party Nintendo devs ever compete with RARE?

DerNebel on 21 August 2014
RolStoppable said:
DerNebel said:

You're trivializing game development quite a lot here, do you seriously think that Nintendo can just hire some dudes fresh out of college to make them "a few solid 8's"? Game development is a much more time intensive process nowadays than it was in the 90s, you can't just whip out a retail game in a year or something. Look at game series that already existed back then and how fast they were developed in the 90s compared to today.

For example Final Fantasy:

VII 1997

VIII 1999

IX 2000

and today we're still waiting for Final Fantasy XV which started production years ago. And you can find examples like this everywhere.

That's not a good example. That was right at the time when Squaresoft had ordered two separate teams to work on Final Fantasy games. VIII wasn't made by the people who created VII and IX.

The point that game development was less demanding back then than it is now still stands, but Final Fantasy is essentially the starting point of publishers trying to figure out how to cope with longer development cycles for games.

Yeah I also thought that Final Fantasy wasn't the best example but it was the first thing that came to my mind when I thought about a series that used to have extremely short release cycles back in the 90s and still persists to this day, just with longer cycles. Another example would probably be Resident Evil. Naughty Dog was also able to get out one game per year on the PS1.



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sam987 on 21 August 2014

My top 3: 1. GoldenEye64 2.Majoras Mask 3.SuperMario64



Cheebee on 21 August 2014

Quality wise, there are a few like them nowadays, industry-wide.
None anywhere match them in sheer quantity of said quality releases though, not even Nintendo's 1st party does.
They were one of a kind.

Nowadays Rare isn't even a shadow of a shell of the studio they used to be.



Nintendo Network ID: Cheebee   3DS Code: 2320 - 6113 - 9046

 

AZWification on 21 August 2014

It's very hard to compete with Rare! Rare tackled many different genres including 3D platformers, FPS and fighting games! I highly doubt Retro could ever compete with Rare in that regard!:S



                
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AZWification on 21 August 2014
spurgeonryan said:
AZWification said:

It's very hard to compete with Rare! Rare tackled many different genres including 3D platformers, FPS and fighting games! I highly doubt Retro could ever compete with Rare in that regard!:S


But when it comes to talent there are plenty of talented people out there. I do not understand what the excuse is. We have experts in FPS with Metroid, experts in 2D plateformers with Donkey Kong, etc. The talent is there. 

 

As for amount of games. The Wii had thousands of shovelware titles come out for it and still has more trickling out. I am not saying I want shovelware, just that that proves games can easily be made. Some devs pushed out a ton of games, they just needed a bit more time and polish. With Nintendos guidance a few companies could handle this, and it does not have to be for Nintendos main franchses. Rare made their own characters and worlds. Other devs could as well. Nintendo acts like they know nothing about anything. 

Well, I feel like Nintendo actually forced Retro to work on another DKC game! Before working on Metroid Prime, Retro was working on a RPG ( Raven Blade), a sports game, etc... It's a shame they didn't revive any of those projects!



                
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GamechaserBE on 21 August 2014

RARE was lead by two people who only took one holiday and that was Xmas and they only did it because their wives wanted it...

They worked in one week more hours that what other teams did in 3 weeks...It helped...



NightDragon83 on 21 August 2014

All you need to know is that the best game Rare released post-Nintendo was the Killer Instinct reboot... which wasn't even developed by them but instead by some cut rate 3rd party developer known primarily for licensed games up to that point, and even they managed to make a better game than Rare has for the past decade.



On 2/24/13, MB1025 said:
You know I was always wondering why no one ever used the dollar sign for $ony, but then I realized they have no money so it would be pointless.

Samus Aran on 21 August 2014

If Rare was still the same company as in the 90s and still second party to Nintendo they wouldn't make as many games as they used to... I'd say Retro is better than Rare, if only they stopped making Donkey Kong games.

Never played a Rare game, but they look like weird collect-a-thons to me.

Vena on 21 August 2014
orniletter said:

So no, I don´t believe "many" or even a single former Rare dev works at Retro Studios.


Went and checked, looks like you're right! (Though a few do work at Retro.)



NoirSon on 21 August 2014

The biggest hurdle appears to be Nintendo itself.

During the SNES, N64 and early parts of the GC era, Nintendo was a lot more open, experimental and less restrictive with the types of games it let its second party developers work on.

Since, a quarter or about half way through the Wii's life cycle there was a shift that contracted most games Nintendo would put support behind. We are only now seeing Nintendo shift away from that stance in terms of the games it supports but the fact is had Rare stuck around they wouldn't have done nearly as many original games as they did in the N64 era.

Retro could have done more games in the Wii era then Metroid Prime 3 (and technically Trilogy) and Donkey Kong Country Returns, Nintendo just didn't let them pull the trigger on allocating sources to other projects.