David Wise, composer since 1985, leaves Rare

MundoRare writes: "Recent times and cancellations have shown that all is not well in Rare-land. As if the cancellations of both Perfect Dark 2 and Kameo 2 in favor of Project Natal have shaken the faith of even the most loyal Rare fans, David Wise's departure from Rare could very well be the killing blow. [...]

From his Facebook: "I think the business of Rare has changed a great deal, and at the moment there is just not the opportunity to create the soundtracks that Rare were fortunately very famous for."

Unfortunately, though, this is only the most recent loss of a distinguished employee within the British developer in the recent months.

Back in August, Steve Burke, another prominent Rare musician from Kameo fame, also left the company to take a year's sabbatical "to go travelling," according to some Rare sources; no word if the real reason could be or not related with his well known desires to work for the film industry. Burke and Wise's departures only follow the trade open by Grant Kirkhope a year ago.

Out of the musical department, there has recently been huge losses, with Microsoft's recent restructuring process affecting several engineers and artists, including Steve Malpass, designer for Banjo-Tooie, Perfect Dark, Ghoulies and Nuts & Bolts. Moreover, some programmers have also left, like veteran Mark Edmonds, one of the remaining members of the original GoldenEye 007 team, who abandoned Rare in late 2008 after 14 years of work at Twycross."

[DrRobotnik]

Rare better jump ship quick, back to Nintendo before they become another memory of the video game industry.(Acclaim,Midway,Squar esoft). They're probably cutting themselves right now, watching the Wii and DS take hold of the gaming industry.

[Bumpmapping]

Jump out.

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Yup, Rare has had the life sucked right out of them.

I think you can see a trend here and why MS has such a hard time having a strong first party. They just are absolutely horrible at it.

[blu_yu_away]

Its like watching them die right in front of me... :(

[MonopolyRSV]

The Chinese Democracy of gaming.

[darkmurder]

Why is everyone blaming Rare? Its MS that's screwing them over.

[RememberThe357]

So when you talk one you have to talk about the other.

[Legionaire2005]

When Rare was with Nintendo Rare had an empire, but when they sign a deal with the devil(Microsoft) they lost everything in the end!!! including their legendary game designers. Long live Rare. Perfect Dark N64 will always be the best FPS of all time. Well what next? Maybe another legendary game company like Rare will build an empire, but lets hope they don't sign a deal with the devil to screw them in the long run.

Rare Legendary Game Company
1982-2009 R.I.P.

[biggame901]

It's sad to see a formerly great developer such as Rare crumbling like this before our very eyes. Since they left Nintendo, Rare has just been falling apart.

Rare is about to quickly become just a footnote in gaming history unless something changes, and changes fast.

[Obama]

Seems like everyone major at Rare hates MS and decides to abandon ship. Can't blame them.

[kingnick]

For the ignorant RARE had shown signs that things were going south before MS bought them out, a lot of their talent had already left by the time MS bought them out.

While other staff doubtlessly left later because of MS' policies and the changing nature of business it would be ignorant to think that MS alone caused RARE's downfall.

It sucks that PDZ2 and Kameo 2 were cancelled, I was looking forward to both of them.

EDIT: Accidentially typed Kameo instead of Kameo 2.

[ZeroX9876]

Microsoft stole from us so much good games and sequels we could have seen. Banjo nuts and bolts was a total failure compared to what we were hyped for. When I first saw that extremely short trailer of banjo and kazooie in High def 3d, I was like "oh my god! here comes the legacy of Rare, finally reborn on a new console!"..... I was wrong.

After waiting since the original xbox for games or sequels of Conker, Banjo and maybe even something totally new, I can confirmed that Rare isn't what they were back in the time and I'm probably not the only one to have notice.

Microsoft, If you want to do a great move (with what's left of Rare, if anything), make a new Conker game and a new banjo Kazooie, but PLEASE, no more american cars thing. Putting cars and option to modify them with big guns and all isn't what, as North Americans(canada also),wants. Your games before microsoft were very good. I know you can't create anymore games with Donkey Kong or Fox, but you could still rock the Xbox 360 with other awesome games.

I own all 3 consoles (wii, xbox 360 and ps3). I don't care on what console you do your games on, but don't rush on doing a game because the head of the company (nintendo, sony, microsoft) is pushing you to.

They should have gone third party if they wanted to work on other consoles or go with either sony or Nintendo. Microsoft doesn't really invest in too much first party games, they just take exclusive deals with other third party by paying them more. If they can do it, then good for them, it gives Xbox gamers a lot more games to play, but don't release stupid games like banjo Nuts and bolts.

[downwardspiral]

He's responsible for all those classic songs in the donkey kong country series.

[CDbiggen]

Search "Stickerbush Symphony" or "Aquatic Ambience" for some nostalgia ;)

[STRAIGHTASL]

so the designers and other staffs left RARE because of stupid M$!!! 360 fanboys, wake up! you failed to save RARE! very sad!

Sony, go buy RARE and make this shiny new retro AAA video games!!!

[lizard81288]

i've played that game so many times, it isn't funny, and the sound track is great too. one of the few game rips i have.

i think RARE started to slide during the n64 days, but really tumbled down after M$ ate them up.

makes me wish nintedno would do something with the donkey kong series, other than the crap games he has. i want DKC4!

[PS360PCROCKS]

lol no offense but your all saying "rare is doomed!!!" "R.I.P Rare!!" and this story is about a composer and a musician lol. I mean no offense but those would seem to be the easiest spots to fill. With that said, yes Rare is going downhill and should shed the name because they are not what they used to be.