20 Years On From Microsoft's Acquisition Of Rare, What's Come Of It All?

Kotaku: “It's been 20 years since British developer Rare was acquired by Microsoft. Join us as we have a look at what those 20 years have brought.”

[badboyz09]

😥

[SullysCigar]

Umm...next question, this one hurts too much.

[BrainSyphoned]

Next: 20 years after the acquisition of Bethesda where is Elder Scrolls 6?

[Bathyj]

Pretty sad Rare an industry leader at one point, and the best game they've made in 20 years is Viva pinata.

[Concertoine]

Viva Pinata is actually a really good game, too.

The problem is MS and everyone else thought the best thing to do was make sequels and remakes of existing IP’s, but the studio itself wanted to make new ones. I still maintain if Nuts and Bolts wasnt a Banjo game, it would’ve been a modern classic.

At least Sea of Thieves turned around and became a success.

[poppatron]

Totally agree about nuts and bolts. Banjo was never really my thing, but I absolutely loved nuts and bolts

[1Victor]

@bathy
Rare became a shell of itself shortly after the acquisition as all those legendary developers left the company for other studios. No freedom no motivation to create greater new thing 🤷🏿

Wait I thought killer instinct was made by rare and they didn’t mentioned it on the article 🤦🏿

[deleted]

It really bugs me that they couldn't even be bothered with making a proper Battletoads revival.

They outsourced some indie company that made basically a mobile phone game out of it. They butchered the artstyle, nerfed the Dark Queen. Gameplay-wise it's okay.. but just okay. This is Battletoads, and deserved better.

[Lightning77]

That's Rares fault. They're the ones who didn't want to work on their old games and outsource Battle Toads. They're also the ones who actually WANTED to work on Kinect games. They sabotaged themselves.

[jznrpg]

The game looks horrible I hate the art style. They basically took a bunch of mini games and tried to make into one singular game and it just makes no sense .

[Knushwood Butt]

Am I seeing a trend here?

[jznrpg]

A pile of 💩

[SurgicalMenace]

Compelling point....

[TriniOutsider]

Nothing has come of it. Rare is just a husk of a company now. They were better under Nintendo or they could've just gone 3rd party.

[Workshyskiver]

A flurry of good but not great games from Xbox to the 360 and then Sea of Thieves which I hold as an all time great game (now, certainly not when it launched). Sea of thieves is the best pirate game out there and some of my favourite gaming memories have been had.

I think a few of their games are underrated such as Banjo N&B and the Viva Pinata games but the core developers from the heady N64 games are all largely gone as far as I know.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

"underrated such as Banjo N&B"

Oh no we've entered the time in history where Nuts and Bolts swung back around to underrated. Get me off this timeline.

[Workshyskiver]

Looking at this thread it absolutely is underrated and whats more I am almost positive the vast majorities of you all degrading Rare's output have never spent any significant amount of time playing their titles whatsoever.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

Okay now you fully lost me. Once you react like that to the vast majority of people you lose any good faith you had in the discussion.

Clearly, based on reception and sales numbers, Rare 2001-and-forward are a shell of their former selves both in quality and the people behind the scenes. You can absolutely enjoy those games from that era, but be realistic and realize why so many people dislike those games and the company as a whole now.

Pre-2001 Rare is one of the greatest companies of all-time, that much is a given. That era is gone and never coming back, and Microsoft mishandled the company severely. Hell, they messed it up from the first day. They thought because they bought Rare they got Donkey Kong. That alone should have told people what was in store going forward.

[giovonni]

Right, I was about to say the same thing. Viva Piñata, battle toads, killer instinct, sea of thevis, Kameo, Kinect sports, grabbed by ghoulies have all been good games that released under the MS gaming catalog in those 20 years. One or two of those games from their catalog has been underwhelming, but other than that it hasn’t been that bad a lot of you just don’t like MS so you’ll hold a certain bias toward Rare.

[TheColbertinator]

"That era is gone and never coming back, and Microsoft mishandled the company severely. Hell, they messed it up from the first day. They thought because they bought Rare they got Donkey Kong. That alone should have told people what was in store going forward."

Hahahaha that was a classic. I thought everyone forgot about that.

[EvertonFC]

Didn't the actual original RARE leave long ago ? It's never really been RARE since forever ago.
RARE haven't been RARE since N64 imo

[MrBaskerville]

Most of the team behind Goldeneye and Perfect Dark formed Freed Radical and debuted with Timesplitters. But I think this happened before MS and they had made some divisive games on Gamecube before this.

Free Radical made Haze, so not sure there's a timeline where all was well.

[EvertonFC]

Haze looked great, unfortunately played shite lol, dam forgot about haze

[sinspirit]

Most of the key players quit around 2008-2010ish when Phil Spencer became in charge of XBox Europe gaming studios. 2010 he became Director of Games for all their studios, also seems to coincide with the uplift in Kinect development and steering their developers towards Kinect as he took control, and onward into XBox One's generation until the public backlash. Rare did best with Nintendo's guidance.

[glennhkboy]

Actually Kinect 1.0 was a great success at that time. So it was logical for MS to focus a bigger focus on Kinect games.
Currently, Sea of Thief is a good game, with constant new contents.

[Elda]

Sigh.

[Z501]

That stench.

[Crows90]

The state of most Ms 1st party.. rare had a diverse portfolio of games...their other 1st party didn't so they had no idea what to do.

[Profchaos]

One disappointg banjo game and what feels like a lifetime of shovelware for the Kinect of and can't forget a kids pirate live service game.

Basically 20 years of disappointment.

[MetroidFREAK21]

Not a whole lot

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Imo Microsoft didn't maximize rares greatness at all for the last 20 years

[lonewolf10]

SoT is doing well, anyone that disagrees needs a head check up.

[Profchaos]

Sure it might be doing ok now but is it any good being the main question. It feels like just something to pass time playing easily forgotten overall bit like rare 25 years ago thatade timeless games.

Problem is comparing their calabre when they mostly worked for Nintendo vs what they output at ms

[lonewolf10]

It has had high numbers for a long time so for those that play it, they must find it good. I don't play it for clarity.

[Workshyskiver]

It absolutely is good and a modern day classic. It has returning players in the millions and a strong twitch presence, so its not like its easily forgotten as you claim.

[FGHFGHFGH]

@Mcardle

I seriously doubt they have millions of players returning. It's #74 on steam with 7622 current players and peaked at 17,328. It isn't doing much better on xbox either, it barely makes the top 50 and is behind Farming Simulator. But credit to Microsoft for not abandoning the game.

[-Foxtrot]

Doing well and being a good game are totally different things

Sea of Thieves in it's best shape doesn't even hold a torch to something like Grabbed by the Ghoulies and that wasn't their best reviewed game back long ago

[lonewolf10]

Some must think it's good with the numbers still playing, regardless of what you and I think about it.

[darkrider]

Died

[LordoftheCritics]

They were rarely used.

[Solitariussaint]

Lol ouch.

[moriarty1889]

All creativity died the day Rare was acquired.

[Father__Merrin]

Rare replay is an amazing collection but that's about it from rare.

[Profchaos]

It really is. Sadly all the good stuff about it was pre ms nostalgia in a hd bundle

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I would love to see that come to PC at some point, I'm still hoping it can happen.

[Hofstaderman]

In twenty years we will be asking the same question except we will replace Rare with Activision and Bethesda

[Lightning77]

Lol suuuure if Starfield and Redfall score great your comment will be vastly outdated.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

Donkey Kong Country 1-2-3, Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tootie, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong 64, ten of the best games in the 90s/early 00s and it was an amazing time to be a Nintendo fan.

Sadly, Microsoft buying them caused a shift and it's never been the same. All the core members left short after that and then all we got was stuff like Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Nuts and Bolts, instead of things we actually wanted like Banjo-Threeie and (before the purchase) Donkey Kong Racing.

If only Nintendo had purchased them instead, who knows what we would have gotten on the GameCube/Wii.

[After10Ben]

Really good points made, but Lol, It's Banjo Tooie not Tootie.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

Ah fuck I thought it looked weird but didn't think anything of it lol

[sinspirit]

I feel like Rare was Nintendo's Insomniac. They were perfect together and their guidance and push towards perfection made a great relationship. They didn't miss a step.

[talocaca]

Truly sad what happened to them 😭 they were such an innovative studio (similar vibes to Insomniac).
Completely destroyed by Microsoft's corporate structure.

[Lifexline]

Yeah it’s too bad Microsoft learned to late into being in the industry to let developers do what they do and cultivate their culture.

But sea of thieves has been a huge success for Rare so it seems they might be turning it around hopefully we’ll see with their next game.

[LoveSpuds]

Problem is, now that they have turned Sea of Thieves around, Rare will be locked into monetising that for the foreseeable future, I'd be surprised if Rare release anything new anytime soon.

[darthv72]

Everwild....?

[LoveSpuds]

Actually Darth, Everwild illustrates my concerns quite well. The game was announced years ago and is rumoured to be in development hell with talk of the game being completely rebooted. I cannot help but think that it seems the studio is unable to fully commit all of its resources to Everwild because it has to continue to focus on Sea of Thieves.

[Auron]

Crap.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

Great question.

[DragoonUS]

A sad history in game industry. Rare was wasted.

[CobraKai]

Under Nintendo, Rare was a name I’d buy a game for. It didn’t matter, it was gonna be good. Then MS bought em and it’s never been the same.

[anast]

Nothing but mediocre and derivative entertainment.

[DarthZoolu]

Failure

[RGB]

Rare had more masterpieces on N64 (one of the worst selling Nintendo consoles), in 3 years than they've had in 20 years at a $2 trillion company... Mental that.

[mastershredder]

Yeah they really broke loose, free and wild huh? Sad day was when Uncle Tusk was no longer able to answer questions or talk smack on the Rare site. That said everything about their crappy acquisition.

[Harryvok]

They went from an industry leading studio in the N64 days to just a footnote in gaming history under Microsoft/Xbox.

[46player]

Nada

[zarbor]

Since folks on here are reluctant to say it, I will do it for them. The acquisition of RARE studios has been an unmitaged disaster and a failure of epic proportion. The question to be answered is who's responsible? MS or RARE?

Not one great game since they were acquired. Heard the really talented staff/developers left upon aquisition by MS. Nevertheless, I personally thought they should have bought SEGA at the time. They could've had access to all of those SEGA titles that need to be resurrected and updated. Would have also helped their efforts in Japan which has also been a disaster.

[Tedakin]

I mean Sea of Thieves has been a pretty big success.

[Orchard]

Their most successful game to date has come of it.

The problem for me is, SoT isn’t really my thing. So there’s not been much from Rare for me. Goldeneye remaster is the first Rare game I’ve been excited for since they were acquired.

[DynDasE]

It means that Microsoft actually can't maintain a healthy development studio if they have to manage themselves.
Viva Pinata and Sea of Thieves are awesome, but notably, RARE should have made more notable titles.
Now, 343 Industries destroys HALO. Fable series is gone. Crackdown is awful. No more JRPG from Mystwalker, and Microsoft cancels Scalebound.
Only Forza is incredible so far.

[HeliosHex]

It's painful to say...but....yeah not much.

[RedDevils]

Rare Is never meant for MS, should have gone to Nintendo where it could stay relevant.

[ChiefofLoliPolice]

This question hurts my heart. I don't have the balls to answer it.