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Forums - Gaming - Microsoft ruined Rare

Fusioncode on 22 August 2012

I don't blame Microsoft, it's simply good business sense. Rare just kept releasing failure after failure. Grabbed by the Ghoulies was godawful, Perfect Dark Zero felt like a shooter stuck in the 90s, and Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts was nothing like the previous two. Viva Pinata was perhaps the one good game they released since they were bought by Microsoft. And remember that Microsoft paid $375 million dollars for Rare. Microsoft needed to make their money back, and Rare wasn't doing it. So they restructered the studio, I would have done the same.



Sigs are dumb. And so are you!

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D-Joe on 22 August 2012
xLeftyx said:
D-Joe said:
xLeftyx said:
D-Joe said:
xLeftyx said:
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.

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

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.

no,Microsoft let rare do what they want before they let them develop Kinect Sports,and if any of these title have a good sales numbers,you will still see them,but non of any titles made it,and how can MS believe them can still make a "huge hit" after all titles failed?



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Dark_Lord_2008 on 22 August 2012

Time for MS to sell Rare back to Nintendo or Rare become an independent developer releasing multi-platform titles.
The Rare games were so much better on Nintendo systems: SNES and N64. The XBox/360 Rare releases have been average in quality.
Banjo Kazooie, Killer Instinct,  Perfect Dark, Conker game, Diddy Kong Racing and Donkey Kong Country series would look better on the new Nintendo systems.



Xxain on 22 August 2012
NiKKoM said:
I really doubt they pitched Donkey Kong Racing to MS..


Seriously. I cant believe your the only person that pointed that out.



xLeftyx on 22 August 2012
D-Joe said:
xLeftyx said:

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.

no,Microsoft let rare do what they want before they let them develop Kinect Sports,and if any of these title have a good sales numbers,you will still see them,but non of any titles made it,and how can MS believe them can still make a "huge hit" after all titles failed?

Seriously, did you actually read the article or even the OP? This is NOT my opinion. Don Murphy who worked for Rare for 13 years said it, "There [were] numerous projects that were put forward that I believed would have been huge hits, but MS rejected them one after the other." This includes Killer Instinct 3. Microsoft's focus for Rare was to 'help aim at a younger market'. Again, not my opinion.

How could you even say Microsoft "let rare do what they want" after I quoted him above?



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xLeftyx on 22 August 2012
Xxain said:
NiKKoM said:
I really doubt they pitched Donkey Kong Racing to MS..

Seriously. I cant believe your the only person that pointed that out.

This is actually my fault. I worded it wrong. The article simply mentioned the Donkey Kong 4 title was in production before Microsoft purchased Rare. I'll revised the OP. My apologies.



TeddostheFireKing on 22 August 2012
Dark_Lord_2008 said:

Time for MS to sell Rare back to Nintendo or Rare become an independent developer releasing multi-platform titles.
The Rare games were so much better on Nintendo systems: SNES and N64. The XBox/360 Rare releases have been average in quality.
Banjo Kazooie, Killer Instinct,  Perfect Dark, Conker game, Diddy Kong Racing and Donkey Kong Country series would look better on the new Nintendo systems.


At this point, all the damage is done, all of the good designers and game makers of the old Nintendo days are long gone and the only people left are those who were brought in to replace them. Even if they were let go and could do multiplatform games, they really wouldn't be very good because the good developers have already left :/

Right now is the best time to keep hold of them I suppose, low market value because of the type of games they make and poor developers but their Kinect games sell so they're making quite a bit of money.



T.Rexington on 22 August 2012
xLeftyx said:
D-Joe said:
xLeftyx said:
D-Joe said:
xLeftyx said:
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.

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

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.

I find that hard to believe in all honesty when MS had a M rated game for each gen. That said, I don't think it can be denied either that Rare's biggest success came from big games. Hell, most of Rare's successful 360  games are all family friendly.



D-Joe on 22 August 2012
xLeftyx said:
D-Joe said:
xLeftyx said:
 

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.

no,Microsoft let rare do what they want before they let them develop Kinect Sports,and if any of these title have a good sales numbers,you will still see them,but non of any titles made it,and how can MS believe them can still make a "huge hit" after all titles failed?

Seriously, did you actually read the article or even the OP? This is NOT my opinion. Don Murphy who worked for Rare for 13 years said it, "There [were] numerous projects that were put forward that I believed would have been huge hits, but MS rejected them one after the other." This includes Killer Instinct 3. Microsoft's focus for Rare was to 'help aim at a younger market'. Again, not my opinion.

How could you even say Microsoft "let rare do what they want" after I quoted him above?

yeah,that's after they failed
this guy worked for Kinect Sports before leave



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Soundwave on 22 August 2012

Rare was always a bad fit for MS.

They should've insisted to stick it out with Nintendo, in the long term they would've done well with Banjo-Kazooie, Conker, Perfect Dark, Killer Instinct, Kameo, DKC revival, etc. on the Wii/Wii U and DS/3DS.

While I don't now if they'd ever be the same powerhouse of the 90s, I think they'd be profitable and fairly prosperous today under Nintendo because no one's really making games like Perfect Dark and Conker serve a market that's not well supported on Nintendo platforms (so they'd probably do well), while Banjo/DK/Kameo compliment what Nintendo already has well.

I also think Nintendo probably could've marketed and sold something like Viva Pinata better than MS.