Rare Ltd.

Rare Ltd. Logo

Rare, Ltd. (formerly known as Rareware) is a British Video game development company. It was founded in 1982 by brothers Tim and Chris Stamper as Ashby Computers and Graphics Ltd. (ACG). Publishing as Ultimate Play the Game, they developed games for 8-bit platforms such as the ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64 and the BBC Micro, before the name was sold to U.S. Gold in 1985. In 1995, Rare entered an exclusive publishing agreement for Nintendo gaming consoles. In 2002, Rare was acquired by Microsoft.

The company is notable for having created an unusually high amount of successful games, and for the company's price tag: Microsoft paid US$375 million for the company, a record for a video game developer.

On 2 January 2007, it was announced that Tim and Chris Stamper have left Rare to pursue "other opportunities". Neither Microsoft, Rare, nor the Stamper brothers have stated specifically what they intend to move onto post-Rare.

Overview

Rare is located in Twycross, Leicestershire, UK. It has developed many games for Nintendo's gaming consoles, including Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country (and its sequels), Killer Instinct, Banjo-Kazooie (and its sequels, excluding Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts), Blast Corps, GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong 64, Jet Force Gemini, Star Fox Adventures, Diddy Kong Racing DS, and most recently, Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise.

One of Rare's most critically acclaimed and popular series was the Donkey Kong Country series on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, due to its use of pre-framed 3D graphics on a largely 2D console. It was also the first game to feature the Classic Rareware logo. Rare then released several critically acclaimed games for the Nintendo 64, such as the shooter GoldenEye 007 and the platformers Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Donkey Kong 64, and Conker's Bad Fur Day.

Staff departures

Key members of the GoldenEye development team left Rare soon after beginning work on Perfect Dark. Head of software Martin Hollis was the first to leave in 1998, working at Nintendo of America on the GameCube, and in 2000 he started his own company, Zoonami. Other members, such as David Doak, left soon after Hollis and formed Free Radical Design who went into administration in December 2008. Doak left prior to this and set up a new games development company, Pumpkin Beach.

However, prior to both of these events, Rare had already publicly lost staff from other teams. In 1997 a small number of employees (Oliver Davies, Oliver Norton, Steve Patrick, Jeff Stafford, Christopher Gage, and Adrian Smith) left and formed a new studio to be known as Eighth Wonder. They were signed with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (who made sure this defection was well publicised in the games press) and were all set to develop a new PlayStation game. There were high hopes that this would produce an amazing game; provisionally titled "Popcorn". EDGE magazine even profiled the project, showing a game that looked like a 3D version of Bomberman. However, despite being shown by SCEE at the 1998 ECTS, the game was never released. Eighth Wonder are believed to have experienced a number of internal problems and, by 1999, the studio no longer existed.

Microsoft era

Up from the end of 2000, people from Activision and Microsoft visited Rare. In November 2001, Microsoft trademarked It's Mr. Pants, a game that was released three years later. In September 2002, the Stamper brothers sold their 51% interest in Rare to Microsoft; following this, Nintendo sold their 49% stake in the company as well. Microsoft paid a total of $375 million to own 100% of the company. Because of this, Rare is now a first-party developer for Microsoft's Xbox and its successors. This left Donkey Kong Racing, which was due to be released for the GameCube, unreleased. The trademarks of the characters from the games that Rare made for Nintendo consoles (such as Conker of Conker's Bad Fur Day and Banjo of the Banjo-Kazooie series) were retained by Rare (apart from intellectual properties originally developed by Nintendo, including Donkey Kong and Star Fox). Despite the acquisition, Rare still developed games for Game Boy Advance, and now develops for the Nintendo DS, as Microsoft is currently not participating in the hand-held video game console market. Rare has never developed for Sony platforms.

In August 2003, Rare and Microsoft made a deal with THQ for Rare to publish games for the Game Boy Advance, which, Template:As of, have included Sabre Wulf, a game based on its Ultimate character, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, an interquel to the two Nintendo 64 games, and It's Mr. Pants!, a puzzle game that was originally developed as "Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers", and featured the company's unofficial mascot. January 2005 saw the completion of this deal, with the release of Banjo Pilot (which, before being acquired by Microsoft, was in development as "Diddy Kong Pilot"). Rare also ported and extended the Donkey Kong Country series, which was published by Nintendo.

At E3 in May 2004, Microsoft's Ken Lobb stated that Rare had obtained Nintendo DS development kits and was working on two games for the Nintendo DS. Shortly after, Microsoft issued a statement saying that the company and its studios had no plans for Nintendo DS development. However, on 8 July 2005, Rare posted job openings for Nintendo DS development on its official website, and stated that it was "creating key DS titles". The first of these games is Diddy Kong Racing DS, an online-capable port of Diddy Kong Racing.

In 2005, Rare released Conker: Live and Reloaded, a remake of the N64's Conker's Bad Fur Day with updated graphics and sound to suit the Xbox and a reworked multiplayer option. Previously due to be known as Conker: Live and Uncut. The game has an average Metacritic score of 78/100.

Rare made something of a resurgence when Microsoft's Xbox 360 console was released in late 2005. Two of the Xbox 360's launch games were developed by Rare, Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero, with Viva Piñata released the next year. Their latest game, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, was released in November 2008.

On 2 January 2007, Rare founders Chris and Tim Stamper left the company to "pursue other opportunities". Previous lead designer Gregg Mayles reviews as Creative Director and Mark Betteridge replaces as Studio Director at the company, replacing the brothers on a permanent basis.

Media-shy nature

During the Ultimate Play the Game years, the company gained an international reputation for being media shy. The company itself being understaffed, did not commit themselves to trade shows and only granted interviews once their current project was completed. Tim Stamper said in a CRASH magazine interview that the only time off they had during the Ultimate years was two Christmas mornings. They worked all seven days a week, and the only hours in which they did not work were 2:00-8:00 am.

Rare released a VHS tape that could be obtained via mail-in request with the purchase of Donkey Kong Country. The video details the game's creation and shows the animal models Rare used. At the end of the video, the host and some others are seen playing Killer Instinct. They quickly look at the cameraman before pushing him out a door and closing it as the video ends.

In the early 1990s, Gamesmaster was one of Channel 4's biggest shows and was wanting to profile what went on inside Rare's. However, Bad Influence!, a rival show—aimed for a much younger audience—was also keen to film a piece on the company. In not wanting the hassle of having two separate TV crews come and visit, Rare's management came up with a plan. They would grant a filming request only to the Yorkshire Television production team that made Bad Influence, on the provision that the show would then provide Gamesmaster with selective clips of what they filmed. Further clips would also be used to cut together the aforementioned promotional VHS tape.

The plan, however, backfired, when Gamesmaster's producers took offense in losing out to a rival show. Dominik Diamond was always known as a provocateur and as such insisted in vocalising his irritation in the way the show had been shunned by describing Tim and Chris Stamper as the "Physically unattractive Stamper brothers" in his voice-over. Since the broadcast of this episode to an audience of three million viewers, Rare turned their back completely on the broadcast media.

Web video shows have been granted access in recent years, such as Eurogamer in November 2006, The 1UP Show and GameSpot UK's Start Select in May 2008.

Games for Wii's Virtual Console

Three games developed by Rare have been released on Nintendo's Virtual Console service. They are the three Donkey Kong Country games originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System from 1994 to 1996.

Rare stated on their website, "...it's ultimately Nintendo's decision what gets released (on VC). Beyond the DKC games, we don’t have anything in the pipeline at the moment, but that doesn't mean it won't happen in future."

Games for Xbox Live Arcade and Marketplace

Jetpac (released by Ultimate Play the Game in 1983) was released for Xbox Live Arcade on 28 March 2007 as Jetpac Refuelled. In this release, the game was updated with overhauled high-definition graphics and also included Xbox supplements (leader-boards, achievements).

On 3 December 2008, Banjo-Kazooie was released on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace including sharper graphics, access to leader-boards over Xbox Live, achievement support, and the fabled Stop 'N' Swop that was originally intended to connect Banjo-Kazooie with its sequel, Banjo-Tooie. With this release, Stop 'N' Swop can connect Banjo-Kazooie with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, released for the Xbox 360 on 12 November 2008 (for North America), to access parts for vehicle customization.

On 29 April 2009, Banjo-Tooie was released on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. With this release, the game mirrored the enhancements that were made to its predecessor, Banjo-Kazooie (sharper graphics, leader-board support, achievements, and Stop 'N' Swop, as well as compatibility with Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts to unlock extra content). A new feature was also added to the game, Stop 'N' Swop II, which would be unlocked once the player collected the Gold, Silver, and Bronze eggs from inside the three BK game paks scattered in Spiral Mountain and the Isle o' Hags. Once it becomes unlocked after the eggs are hatched by Heggy the hen, a message will appear, telling the player that the items unlocked through Stop 'N' Swop II will be usable in a future Banjo game.

Perfect Dark is set to be released on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace sometime in Winter 2009.

Grabbed By The Ghoulies was released as an Xbox Original on the Xbox Live Marketplace on 16 February 2009.

References

• Rare's letters page http://rareware.co.uk/extras/scribes/30aug07/index.html

External links

• Official Rare website
• Kikizo's interview in Feb 2002 with the Stamper brothers just after they were bought by Microsoft (includes a video of the Q&A)
• Rare profile on MobyGames
• Next Generation: A Short History of Rare
• RareWiki A wiki dedicated to Rare-made games and characters (currently inactive)