Would RARE still be as relevant as it was in the N64 days if MS hadn´t bought them?

[JGarret]

I hear a lot people blame MS for RARE´s downfall from the greatness of their N64 days, but does the blame lie entirely with Microsoft?

RARE used to be a giant on the N64, some of their games were better than Nintendo´s, imo, but if I remember correctly, things weren´t so rosy (don´t know the reasons) between RARE and Nintendo during the N64-GameCube transition, something about the main developers leaving or something.

I remember some story about how RARE was already in internal turmoil by the time MS bought them.