Microsoft also f@#$ed Ensemble Studios over and I will never forgive them for that.
Independent studios simply never should let themselves be aquired by these big evil behemoths like MS, Activision, EA and Sony. It so often ends with weeping and gnashing of teeth.
| Dodece said: This thread is for the most part sour grapes on the part of die hard Nintendo loyalists. Who think that Nintendo was probably the best thing to happen to Rare, and that Rare was perhaps the best thing that happened to Nintendo on a purely game related basis. The reality is actually the exact opposite. Nintendo ran Rare right into the ground. This is a story of a second party studio that was on the fast track to implosion. It was overextended, over committed, and just plain overworked. Which are basically the ingredients that go into a rapid decline into oblivion. Rares quality didn't go south with Microsoft's acquisition. The quality was going down years before it came to that, and under the watch of Nintendo no less. Hell I have done the math before, and I can do it again, but it will not change the result. The Rare under Nintendo only scores marginally better then Rare under Microsoft. Yes Rare did start out strong on the 64, but by the end of the generation the developer was putting out far inferior products on the platform, and producing games of that caliber at a greater volume then they did earlier in the generation. It is easy to see the successes, and be oblivious to the failures. The only real problem with Microsoft's acquisition is that while they stabilized the developer, and prevented its demise. They haven't really been able to revitalize the developer. It is kind of like they bought something that was broken down, and haven't been able to figure out how to fix it up, and as far as I am concerned that is really just a matter of finding the right team leader. You see glimmers of potential out of Rare, but its like the developer is just plain stuck where Microsoft picked it up. There are great ideas there, but nobody to sculpt them into the kinds of games people really want to play. Anyway it isn't a crime to not be able to fix something. The crime is breaking it in the first place. It really was the problem Nintendo should have solved, or Rare itself should have solved. Microsoft didn't ruin Rare. It was pretty ruined when they got there. Anyway who knows what the future holds. Rare is just one fantastic game away from being back. Anyone else find it odd how far Rare has just fallen off the radar. |
As a non-Nintendo loyalist, I kindly disagree. I can't think of a single N64 game that Rare produced that wasn't counted as a quality release. Even Starfox Adventures on the Gamecube wasn't bad, especially considerring the title started as a seperate and new IP. The quality of the games only started to truly drop after the Microsoft aquisition.
From the link Sal.Paradise posted you can see that Rare were used to a creative collaboration when they published games with Nintendo. With Microsoft, they didn't have any extra creative input and were left on there own. Normally, I'd argue leaving a newly aquired studio to thrive under their own culture is a good thing, but in this case, creative collaboration was a significant part of their culture. The only thing Microsoft seemed to add was a corporate structure and the inexperience Microsoft had in the console and games business (at the time) meant they couldn't offer the creative support Rare needed or were used to. This resulted in some less than average titles.
Had Microsoft had more video games experience when they aquired Rare, things might have been different, but they've now been integrated into the Microsoft corporate structure and producing some essential (for Microsoft) stuff, but critically, far less than spectacular.
| Slimebeast said: Microsoft also f@#$ed Ensemble Studios over and I will never forgive them for that. Independent studios simply never should let themselves be aquired by these big evil behemoths like MS, Activision, EA and Sony. It so often ends with weeping and gnashing of teeth. |
Sony's generally very good with their artistic talent and game studios.
Afterall.....it's part of what Sony does for a living and something they've been doing for several decades....managing, I mean.
sounds like the standard pissy ex employee tbh
i thoroughly enjoyed nuts and bolts, viva pinata 1 and 2, as well as kameo. i am satisfied and content with the output. id enjoy more, but who wouldnt enjoy more games from developers they like?
"I like my steaks how i like my women. Bloody and all over my face"
"Its like sex, but with a winner!"
MrBubbles Review Threads: Bill Gates, Jak II, Kingdom Hearts II, The Strangers, Sly 2, Crackdown, Zohan, Quarantine, Klungo Sssavesss Teh World, MS@E3'08, WATCHMEN(movie), Shadow of the Colossus, The Saboteur
| MrBubbles said: sounds like the standard pissy ex employee tbh i thoroughly enjoyed nuts and bolts, viva pinata 1 and 2, as well as kameo. i am satisfied and content with the output. id enjoy more, but who wouldnt enjoy more games from developers they like? |
So many pissy ex-employees from Rare. Odd isn't it.
Must be lots of pissy people in the UK, hey?
happydolphin said:
So many pissy ex-employees from Rare. Odd isn't it. Must be lots of pissy people in the UK, hey? |
just look at this thread,not very odd
people still dreaming
D-Joe said:
just look at this thread,not very odd people still dreaming |
What are you talking about? We're talking about pissy people either in Rare (Mr. Bubbles' comment), or pissy people in the UK (my joke response).
happydolphin said:
So many pissy ex-employees from Rare. Odd isn't it. Must be lots of pissy people in the UK, hey? |
pissy people abound. not just among ex employees, but all sorts of people who never worked for the company and especially among those who havent even played any of their games this generation.
"I like my steaks how i like my women. Bloody and all over my face"
"Its like sex, but with a winner!"
MrBubbles Review Threads: Bill Gates, Jak II, Kingdom Hearts II, The Strangers, Sly 2, Crackdown, Zohan, Quarantine, Klungo Sssavesss Teh World, MS@E3'08, WATCHMEN(movie), Shadow of the Colossus, The Saboteur
Man, sharks saw blood in the water with this one. Didn't know Rare had so many PS fans ...
Anyway, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts was some of the most fun I've had with any game this gen. And Kameo has one of the best soundtracks in any game out there (if you like symphonic scores) and wasn't a bad game either. Guess I'm saying Rare wasn't as horrible this gen as people make them out to be. They just became less ... relevant to gamers.
And it's kinda funny to read people saying MS ruined them because, as Sal's wonderful reminder of the Eurogamer article noted, they left them alone and didn't hold them by the @$#% to help them make good games. How dare a huge publisher like MS leave a supposedly talented developer alone to make what they want!!! FASCISTS!!!!
Half a dozen or so game releases in 10 years since MS acquisition of Rare. No AAA games released in 10 years. The great years of Rare on SNES and N64 with a long list of AAA games in the 1990s are long gone.
About Us |
Terms of Use |
Privacy Policy |
Advertise |
Staff |
Contact
Display As Desktop
Display As Mobile
© 2006-2026 VGChartz Ltd. All rights reserved.
