goopy20 said:
Rare was hot shit before MS bought them in 2002 and MS ruined them basically so Nintendo couldn't have their games. Just read this if you don't believe me. "Rare was always looking East at Japanese and Nintendo's games in particular, with their open-hearted childlike vibrancy and playfulness," explains Hollis. "Meanwhile, Microsoft had a US-centric style to its games, a flair of machismo and testosterone. For the first decade after the Microsoft sale the major problem for the creativity of the studio has been direction. Looking in from the outside it felt as if neither Microsoft or Rare could work out where it was headed." From the inside the studio's gates, too, the changes to Rare introduced by Microsoft tampered with the recipe of the company's success, leaving teams feeling disorientated, and even downcast. "For me personally, the atmosphere became much more stifling and a lot more stressful," he says. "There was an overall feeling that you weren't really in control of what you were doing and that you weren't really trusted either. "There was also a gradual introduction of certain Microsoft behaviours that crept into the way we did things: lots more meetings, performance reviews and far more regard for your position within the company," he said." Lets face it, MS isn't great with handling their studios. Of the 10 studios MS has acquired over the past 20 years, five have been closed, and two are still around but separated. |
Well, MS definitely wasn't great with handling first party studios in the past, but I wouldn't put the blame for Rare's decline on them. I think it has more to do with lots of key stuff leaving even before MS acquisition. Just everything lied up in the way that the next game after lots of key stuff leaving was already published under Microsoft so it is easy to put all the blame on them.
