Europe-nintendo.com writes "Rare were the stars of the 5th generation. Releasing the famous Donkey kong 64, Banjo kazooie and Banjo Kazooie tooie, and of course the legendary Goldeneye. They made millions on the Nintendo 64, however this tempted Microsoft as they entered the console wars. They were snapped up by Microsoft for a hefty $375 million, the most ever payed for a gaming studio. However since their purchase by Microsoft Rare haven't yet made a truly blockbuster game, either in terms of sales or reception.
Grabbed by the Ghoulies and Conker reloaded were the first two Xbox games Rare made while under Microsoft's rule, both of which barely scraped along the average mark and neither of which sold particularly well, and Grabbed by the Ghoulies was the biggest flop in Rare's history. Rare's mass appeal on the Nintendo 64 was the massive casual market. Although the Playstation dominated the scene, the Nintendo 64 still had millions of casual gamers, games such as Banjo Kazooie and Donkey kong are the sort of colourful games that appeal to these gamers. One of the reasons Rare have underperformed on the Xbox and Xbox 360 is probably due to the fact that the Gamecube and Playstation are more appealing to the casual gamers."
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
Huzaifa from eXputer: "2008 was home to the likes of Call of Duty: World at War, Dead Space, GTA 4, Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, and many other hits, which is outright remarkable."
Just about every year in the 7th generation was great and something we most likely won't experience again.
2009 for example had Assassin's Creed 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dragon Age: Origins, Uncharted 2, Halo 3: ODST, Killzone 2, Borderlands, Bayonetta, and Demon's Souls to name a few.
One of the reasons Rare have underperformed is because they have never made casual games.
Oh, and the fact they're a shadow of their former selves.
microsoft,bring back the original rare team and the 360 will be the greatest system of all time without a doubt,ms and nick borton knows that very well.
To summarize the article:
Rare used to be great then microsoft bought them and they havent done anything good since. They are still around and might make something awesome in the future.
End Summary
In closing: This can be said about almost any game studio that had some big hits but are still alive and kicking the crap out like a cow patty factory.
Why?Why Rare?Why you have betrayed BIG N?Nintendo fans are crying for your games,they want little cute pathetic games like viva pinata/liehard wannabe pokemonfather,Fatjoe & Babooie,and,and,and so for!Are you OK?Can you be normaly please?Can you die please?Micromof can close your plastic studio,you know?
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