http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2012/08/21/donnchadh-murphy-chats-about-rare/

It's a fairly long read. This is an interview with Don Murphy who was a 3D modeler for Rare during his 13-year tenure. His thoughts on Microsoft's apparent interest in using Rare to help aim at a younger market.

His most notable quote:
"There [were] numerous projects that were put forward that I believed would have been huge hits, but MS rejected them one after the other."

Three titles slated for Gamecube: Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo: Elements of Power, and Donkey Kong Racing were discussed but were ultimately cancelled due to Microsoft's purchase. Furthermore, other cancelled titles included Savannah, Butcher, as well as a possible Killer Instinct 3 were then proposed but Don Murphy clarified that they [Microsoft] were more interested in broadening their demographic than make another fighting game.

It was also mentioned that, "Conker began development as a family game called Conker's Quest/Twelve Tales, and then changed into a violent platform game with raunchy rumor." He explained, "Back in those days Rare was the golden child, so when they announced that we were changing direction there was no objections, none that I knew about anyway. I’m so glad it did change, because “Twelve Tales”, to put it politely, was not a good game.  Chris Seavor took the reins in BFD and took it a direction nobody expected."

In addition, there were apparently rumors regarding Rare's proposal for Donkey Kong 4 and Banjo Kazooie for the Nintendo DS, but Nintendo passed on the idea. Don Murphy was not aware of it, but admitted it may have been likely.

EDITTED for 'DK Racing' clarification. My fault.

Considering the bad sales performance of xbox Rare games, I'm not at all surprised. MS gave the studio plenty of chances, but Rare couldn't attract crowd the way Bungie, Epic, and Turn 10 did. Then bam, kinect hits and Kinect Sports becomes the sixth best selling Rare game of all time. As a business, you gotta take everything into account and realize what is working and what isn't working. I would like to see MS give Rare one last low budget attempt via XBLA or something. Let the modern Rare make a whole new Ip. Viva Pinata started out as a great game that ultimately died a sad death, but it was a great example of modern Rare's ingenuity and ability to create something both memorable and new.

I really doubt they pitched Donkey Kong Racing to MS..

They've only done well but only within Microsoft's scope. They could've done better had Microsoft granted them freedom. Subsequently, talents were deprived of job satisfaction therefore they left. A waste, in my opinion.

@NiKKoM, Donkey Kong Racing was a project for Gamecube but was cancelled due to Microsoft's purchase of Rare.

There are not many developers out there, that released so many games like Rare did this generation and MS is expanding the studio as well.

- Viva Pinata
- Viva Pinata 2
- Banjo Kazooie Nuts n Bolts
- Perfect Dark Zero
- Kameo
- Banjo Kazooie HD Remake
- Perfect Dark HD Remake
- Banjo Tooie HD Remake
- Kinect Sports
- Kinect Sports Season 2

So how many games did they plan to release anyway?!

Microsoft granted the freedom until Kinect Sports,but they failed,so they gonna develop Kinect Sports

It wasn't so much the quantity of games, but the genres of games Rare proposed to Microsoft but was ultimately rejected due to Microsoft's targetted audience which is the younger market.

Hmm. I may have misunderstood. From what I understood from the article, talents were dissatisfied with Microsoft's direction with Rare so they had left. I assumed this was a pre-Kinect era.

Many of rare stuff leave even before MS bought them

The big change in Rare came when the company went up for sale, people were unsure of the future of Rare. When they announced Microsoft was buying, a lot of people were unsure if it was a good or bad thing. For one, MS had deep pockets so financial security seemed assured, but on the other hand they were relatively new to the games market, and complete infants in the console market. Personally I don’t think it was a great mix. At first it seemed that they wouldn’t interfere much, but it was soon clear that they were more interested in using Rare to help aim at a younger market. This stifled a lot of creativity, Rare was renowned for their diverse portfolio, so to not be involved in making Mature games was a real blow.

It does seem odd to hear that Microsoft would not want to develop a 'Mature' game...

When the Stampers left it seemed that Microsoft was losing faith in Rare, it was hard to take when all around were incredibly talented people, with massive amounts of experience. There [were] numerous projects that were put forward that I believe would have been huge hits, but MS rejected them one after the other. I remember seeing a couple of prototypes that Chris Seavor had designed and was working on, that looked amazing, but alas they got shelved. It seemed that MS didn’t want to take the risk in Rare doing anything outside the younger demographic, they quickly forgot the companies heritage. We started to lose a lot of great talent then, people were losing job satisfaction, so they just left.

This is where I interpreted that people left before Kinect was even an idea. Stampers were still managing Rare at the time before Kinect.