Oh it's best to give up on Rare. Kameo was the lone bright spot in an otherwise very mediocre 360 lineup. If there is a new Banjo coming, I honestly don't think Rare is the one developing it.

Ok, maybe I should put the Title "Why I Think Microsoft contributed heavily to Rare's downfall.

Pretty much everything Rare did on the N64 was over rated and hasn't held up particularly well.

Its not MS's fault expectations grew and Rare couldn't deliver. Anyhow, Viva Pinata, Banjo N&B, and Kinect Sports, are actually pretty good.

Also, MS has made excellent use out of the Killer Instinct IP. The new KI is arguably one of the best fighting games ever created.

SFA is one of the easiest Zelda/Action RPG style game I ever played. It was(and is to this day) one of the most beautiful games of that gen but every single enemy coul be beaten by spamming the attack button(I did quit the game early becase of this but was probably 75% done). The game got that rating on the Star Fox brand alone.

MS didnt run Rare, the majority of the guys who made the classics were on the outs or were gone by the time they were bought by MS. Viva Pinata 1/2 are excellent games that are 10x the game SFA was.

The reason why was a culture shock. Microsoft was used to a more rigid hands on aproach to game development. Rare was used to the freedom they had with Nintendo. This led to the top people at Rare leaving the company.

With no talent, Rare was resigned to kinect and avatar things microsoft made them do. After many years microsoft seems to have learned that that was a wrong aproach and is trying to restore it. Wether or not it works with the reaining people that are used to beeing told what to do, we are yet to see. I wont say i'm optimistic though. But, its good to see them on the right track.

I like the fact that they might be going back up, but they could have been more if Microsoft didn't have a tight control and tried to mold the games of Rare into something that appealed to Western Gamers.

Rare was only as good as the people who worked for them. When the key people left, the decline was going to happen. 

This is VERY old news. It's been discussed to death. Microsoft bought Rare, and the culture shock made all the talent leave. Game quality went downhill, and now we have the Rare of today. Also, Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts might have the highest rating of post MS Rare, but it's above and beyond the worst game Rare has ever made.

Rare should be renamed. It's a very different studio now than it was back then.

I don't honestly see how Microsoft could've heavily contributed to it. Granted they probably forced them to do the Kinect terrors, but I think they could've styled Nuts and Bolts differently. Plus a good company would do their best with what they had, so really Microsoft isn't at fault here. They just bought it at the wrong time. Also this is what they get for thinking Rare owned DK