Where’s my games, Rare?
Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 2:52pm by Jake
First a little back story. The glory years of the N64 were short, but sweet thanks to many titles by respected developer, Rare. Acquired by Nintendo in the early 90’s, Rare acted as one of Nintendo’s top second party developers which produced many high quality games for the N64 during 1997-2001. Known best for developing Ninty-like, polished titles which took full advantage of the current hardware to improve both gameplay and graphics.
You know the games…Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Blast Corps, Perfect Dark, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong 64, Jet Force Gemini, and the famed GoldenEye 007. Rare’s line of excellent game developing was stopped abruptly during the end of 2001 when Microsoft began making offers for the dev. By 2002 Microsoft had bought Rare from Nintendo for $377 million and immediately put them to work on their new Xbox system. IPs were split: Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Star Fox stayed with Nintendo, while Banjo, Conker and others went to Rare and Microsoft. Though Rare continued to develop new titles for the Xbox, Xbox360, and even the GBA and DS they never did quite get their stride back.
So what? Well as you might have heard, a few months ago Microsoft was to release GoldenEye 007 for XBLA when Nintendo (Satoru Iwata himself) stepped in and put a stop to the deal. Even though the “deal” allowed both companies to put Rare’s games on their own systems (VC, and XBLA), Nintendo didn’t think that N64 games should be made available on rival systems. Though Iwata’s reason is a good one and makes sense, why would Nintendo get caught up in a deal like this in the first place? What many don’t realize is that this “standoff” between Nintendo and Microsoft not only puts 007 on hold, but stops all of Rare’s classics that were in the pipeline.
This really is a bit of a downer (I looooved the Banjo series) that these two giant companies couldn’t just work out some kind of royalties deal with each other instead of getting all tied up in a “corporate money battle”. When asked in August 2007 if we could see Banjo or Conker on the VC, Rare responded
“As for VC, it’s ultimately Nintendo’s decision what gets released. 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.”
Sounds to me like Rare is all for adding their old content to both platforms, but ultimately it’s not up to them.
Just a little thought for today, but ultimately I’d like to make a clear, straight message to both companies…cut the crap and give me Banjo. So what do you think? Will Microsoft and Nintendo ever work it out, or have we seen Pierce Brosnan in 64 bit glory for the last time?
March 17th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Only game I would be interested in buying is Jet Force Gemini, other than that one; I could careless about the others (I don’t see Conker coming, so I ain’t getting my hopes up).
March 17th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Rare really went downhill after it split from Nintendo. It had some of the most relevant and entertaining IP in gaming a decade ago. Now, all of those games and franchises have either faded or become irrelevant. It’s a real shame, actually.
Good article, Jake. Way to call out Rare and Nintendo. But I have to disagree with you…I support Iwata-san’s stance on this one. N64 games should be available on the Virtual Console exclusively; it makes sense, both financially and ethically. At least, to me.
March 17th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Heh, I just bought Banjo yesterday for this very reason.
March 17th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
^^
I totally support Iwata’s decision, but his way of stating it is a bit strange.
Nintendo and Microsoft make this “deal”, then Iwata backs out right when Microsoft is finished spending months upgrading and porting Goldeneye 007. That just spells out bad business. Though maybe we’re missing a bigger chunk of the pie… hmm
Either way it all comes down to money, money, money. Yes, they are companies who’s purpose is to make “make money”, but it seems like you can’t do anything in this world without stepping on someone’s toes…err…games.
March 17th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Rare was just the name of a company after microsoft bought them. As I understand it, the Timesplitters series is the true sibling to Perfect Dark and Goldeneye. Free Radical was supposedly born of x-rare devs. Lets face it, the group of people who made those games were what made them great, once they changed that make-up, even just a little bit, the company was changed forever and unable to recapture that ‘magic’. It shows as early as Starfox Adventures and is proven by the new iterations of Perfect Dark and Conker.
With that said, I want those Rare N64 games some way, some how. I could care less about them also. A LOT LESS. Bring ‘em.
March 17th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
“I would totally get this for the VC!!! OMG! LOL!”
*breaks out N64*
*breaks out Goldeneye 007*
*plays*
“Oh wait… why again? That’s right, I already own it.”
*smacks self*
“Silly me.”
March 17th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
No mention of Killer Instinct?
Anyway, Being the FPS system of choice, the 360 would gain much more having Goldeneye than the Wii would. Why can’t Rare just release it on the VC and enjoy the royalty payments? Sure Microsoft wants it on the XBLA as well, but that is just greed talking. If you guys really want Goldeneye available, tell Microsoft you won’t stand for their greediness.
March 17th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Well, Rare isn’t called Rare these days. It’s called Free Radical. Haze is releasing soon :).
Nintendo should have just gone through with the deal. I’m sure they’ve stopped the games from being emulated on the 360, but nothings stopping them from being remade and enhanced for the system. Remeber Conker Live and Reloaded(or whatever the name is ) for Xbox? Who’s to say the same thing can’t happen for Jet Force Gemini and Banjo-Kazooie for the 360? It’d actually be a better service to fans for such a thing to happen. Rare has the complete rights to Perfect Dark, they could always retool the N64 one with a Bond skin after getting the license and making it similar to the one for the N64. The only company that really loses out on all of this is Nintendo and its’ customers. We lose out on having our complete collections on the VC, there’s nothing to stop Rare games from hitting Live in a new form except for the Bond license which EA can easily obtain.
Jet Force Gemini would probably get the best benefits of an update since it was essentially a last gen game on a two generations old machine. It should have been a gamecube game.
March 17th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I dunno much about this, but a thought crossed my mind when I read the first part: Could this and the Reggie/E3 thing be somewhat related? I mean, Banjo, Gemini, Star Fox… those would be great. (Yes, I sound vague today. >.>)
March 17th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I LOVED Rare. They used to be my favorite company back in N64 days. I got all excited for their first romp onto the Gamecube, and then they delivered the sack of crap that was StarFox Adventures (StarFox meets Legend of Zelda-style gameplay? No thanks) After I saw them fall apart like that, all I could say was good riddance. As unfortunate as the circumstances were, I think it was for the best that Nintendo sold Rare, as I doubt they could ever have come up with anything up to par with what they’d already created. With Brawl recently releasing, sad memories of a younger me wishing for Banjo and Kazooie to be in Smash Bros were revisited. Alas, now it would not work, or be a good idea… *sigh*
March 17th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Rare is just not the same company it once was. I still cant get over how much of a change, in a bad way, that has happened to Rare.
Many key members left the company, while others are now in more managerial rolls and less hands on making games. All Microsoft did was buy the NAME, not the heart and sole of the once great comapny.
They have the same name, but are a much different company with less talented folk, to be honest. And Nintendo helping them out also was a bonus during the N64 days.
Help me Banjo 3… Your my only hope !
March 17th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
To be accurate, Nintendo never acquired Rare, and Microsoft never bought Rare from them.
After the success of Donkey Kong Country, Nintendo bought a 49% sahre of the company from the Stamper Bros, leaving them with the majority share and overall control, though obviously Nintendo would hold a lot of influence (I believe Nintendo paid $80 million at the time).
Years later, Microsoft negotiated to buy the Stamper Bros. out of their share while keeping them onboard to direct things. As much as we now wish it was due to Nintendo’s foresight and genius, the reality is that once Microsoft owned the 51% controlling stake, the share split represented a legal conflict of interest, and so far as I know Microsoft were legally obliged to Nintendo out at a fair price. Now because the company was never publicly traded, the precise figure for the total purchased was never made official to my knowledge. I’ve heard claims as wild as Nintendo being paid $250 million for their share alone, meaning the expense could have been astronomical.
As far as talent and employees goes, several key members left right after Goldeneye with David Doak, several more left and formed Free Radical after perfect dark, 50 left during the 2002 handover, a further 30 left in the 3 or so following years, including the departure of the Stamper Bros last year. There are several stories of horrible treatment and working conditions in the company throughout the years which I’m sure would have been exaserbated by rampant peer defection, the worst cases of “development hell” I’ve ever heard of, forced release dates, orders from a new owner with an agenda different to the founding principle of the company and as a fundemental misunderstanding of their capabilities in the market, and British/American culture clash. I’m sure in the the coming years it will make one of the best ‘what went wrong’ merger and acquisition case studies in gaming industry.
March 17th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
^
Correct, Nintendo never “owned” Rare, but that’s why I said they worked as a second party for Nintendo. Similar to say…the Nintendo and Monolith Soft purchase.
Now that the Rare brothers have left, I think we can say that Rare will continue to decline unless Microsoft gives Rare a jumpstart.
March 17th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
@elmer: I want Michael Moore’s next doc to be about Rare now!
March 18th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Yeah, but even if Nintendo never acquired Rare, and never sold Rare TO Microsoft, surely Nintendo, with their long held support and partnership to Rare would have gotten first call to purchase more shares if they desired. If NOT, that’s just more proof that Rare was falling to crap. SO, you COULD say it was a good decision by Nintendo’s part to part ways with Rare by NOT buying more shares.
March 18th, 2008 at 2:09 am
I’m sorry about taking this off topic, but I forgot about Nintendo’s majority share in Monolith Soft. What are they having those guys do? Doesn’t Nintendo have a 95% share in the company leaving Namco with 5% or something like that?
March 18th, 2008 at 8:49 am
You know, this is just like the Disney/Spielberg brawl concerning Roger Rabbit. That’s why we never saw a sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, why we never saw any more shorts, and why Roger and his buddies pretty much vanished from the parks. Unfortunately, money speaks louder than customer happiness.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Make the deal, but insert a clause to ensure that the XBLA versions will be identical to the VC versions (i.e. Microsoft shouldn’t be able to tinker with classic Nintendo games that only exist on their platform because of Nintendo and then use that tinkering to their competitive advantage).
To those now whining “but I want GoldenEye online”, haven’t you managed to find an online FPS in the last decade? There seem to be plenty of them out there!
March 18th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
hell yes bring rare games to both platforms. a ported xbla version and a wii-mote capable version. that would be amazing. i even busted out goldeneye and P recently- stellar games.
oh and
@Atlantis1982
hell yes for JFG! I sunk so much time in that game finding all the tribals or whatever they were. Loved the explosions, amazing bosses, gratuitous gore. Always wished I had other friends who played it so I could do some serious multiplayer. Can you imagine how amazing that would be on xbl or the wii service? I’d be in heaven.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
“Rare really went downhill after it split from Nintendo.”
Rare had been going downhill before MS bought them, but they were hit ‘n’ miss at that point…as opposed to just another development house that makes decent but not great games.
Having not yet played Viva Pinata, Banjo 3 is going to be Rare’s last shot at redemption, I’d say. They botched Perfect Dark which was their other original IP claim to fame…but Banjo Kazooie was considered to in a league with OoT, Mario64 and GoldenEye (Banjo-Tooie…not so much).
If they drop the ball on BK3, I don’t think anyone will really care all that much about them anymore, sadly.
March 18th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
man, banjo-kazooi was a game I was hooked to as a kid, same with golden-eye. I just need to find 2 more controllers and the game for the N64 though…
March 18th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Arcade Version of Killer Instinct
(I was promised so when I got my N64!)
‘Nuff Said!
March 18th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
“Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Blast Corps, Perfect Dark, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong 64, Jet Force Gemini, and the famed GoldenEye 007.”
Wow, when you just list them out like that, it makes Rare seem pretty lackluster. None of those games are very appealing to me besides 007, and to a lesser extent, Perfect Dark. I’m not really sure how Rare got such a great rep.
These are just personal opinions, but-
Banjo: thought it was boring
Blast Corps: repetitive, frustrating
Perfect Dark: great, but just Goldeneye pt.2
Conker: lame attempt at being “bad”
DKR: slow, outshined by Mario Kart
DK64: do I even need to say anything?
JFG: not sure, the only one I haven’t played
KI: memorizing long combos, no thanks