can't say i knew who wise was before now but DKC was awesome so props to his work there. any word on where he is going?

Another blow to MS and Rare. They're down to the barebone; rare is just a former shadow of itself.

the only reason ms got rare was because it was already a shadow.
Seriously the company is nothing without the stampers.

I can still hear the songs in my ears...

But your DEAD WRONG! Fox's fur was the star of the show! :P

Ah RareWare... once such a terrific and grand developer. Their games were on par with Nintendo's best 1st party efforts. Now look at them. Things can work out in strange ways indeed.

Man, just the past week I had been thinking about this happening, and it does. What happened to Rare? How could a company go so far downhill within the span of a few years? How can every household name within the company up and leave, just like that?

...Even though he didn't really do anything for the last few years, this is the end of an era for me. For me, this guy belongs up there with the Koji Kondos and the Nobuo Uematsus. His soundtracks, particularly for the DK series, are almost always better than what anybody would ever expect. Plus, who's gonna be the composer for DKC4 when Rare finally decides to make it for DS? (Hey, it's my fantasy, I can wish as I please.)

If anything is good out of this, I hope this guy finds someplace to work that suits him better than Rare has for the last few years. He's simply too good to not be picked up by anyone.

He was a winning player on a losing team.

Good idea for him to leave as early as he could. No point wasting precious lifetime on what doesn't make you happy.

Maybe he can be employed by a company that matters now.

Look at this quote from DWise
"I was working in a music shop demonstrating a Yamaha CX5 Music Computer to a couple of people, Tim & Chris Stamper. I'd written and programmed the music for the demonstration material. They offered me a job."

source:wikipedia

Like I said, without the Stampers, rare is nothing. They wouldn't even have had DWise.

Addendum to the post I made earlier responding to dirtyP's statement. DWise NEVER even worked on ONE MS title.

well who does rare have left now?

If i am not mistaken he is like the only one that was left from the Nintendo days. Well the only left that actually made decisions within the company.

?...