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Rare turns 25, celebrates by switching logos
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Sadly, they can't bring over the original Blast Corps, because it was published by Nintendo. At least, that's my understanding.
They could make a new one though, which they really should.
This is me, hoping your understanding is so, so wrong.
I mean, Nintendo published Banjo-Kazooie
And Banjo-Tooie
And Perfect Dark
The only reason GoldenEye was held up so long is because the Bond license is held by Activision
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No, the Banjo games and Perfect Dark were published by Rare.
With Goldeneye XBLA, they'd reached a deal with Activision. It was Nintendo who killed it.
Oh, I think there's a much more sinister agenda going on here.
Please, Activision. Please tell me you're not trying to remake Goldeneye . . . with Daniel Craig slapped in there to make it timely. Remember what happened the last time someone tried mucking with the name?
Sadly though, I reckon there's 2 reasons why we haven't, and probably will never see them, neither of them good. Either the whole copyright litigation on them is simply too thick... or none of the companies involved think very highly of the games to bother with a release.
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Actually, on a cursory Wikipedia glance, both Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie and Perfect Dark were published by Nintendo. The reason they can be on Live is because when Rare split, they took full control of both series with them. While Nintendo got basically all of the Donkey Kong stuff.
The million dollar question though, is where do the other games fall? Nobody seems to ever have a clear answer on that.
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http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/109/1095312p1.html
And that's all the site has for the moment. If Leigh Loveday has been fired I'll be livid.
If that Goldeneye remake actually happens for Wii and plays well, then I'm all for it.
The Wikipedia page has Rare down as a publisher.
If it were just about who owned the properties, they'd only have to strike a deal with Activision, who would basically get free money from it, and who was on board.
More Avatar stuff!
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I think it has less to do to being with the times and moreso with needing to get Brosnan's likeness.
They could have gone with a kind of generic, Brosnan-ish look alike Bond like EA did for their first game with the license, Agent Under Fire, before actually getting Brosnan's likeness for their subsequent ones. Since Craig's "the man" for the forseeable future, I'm guessing (but not certain) that Acti would be obligated to use his likeness for any Bond-related games, if only to have it as a marketing point, but if they're planning to retroactively put him into Goldeneye (if this does pan out), it'd just be weird. Cosmically weird. Like, "recasting John Goodman for Marlon Brando's role in Apocalypse Now" weird.
Oh my god. Is that guy still there? The man who wrote Scribes and Uncle Tusk back in the golden age? He was an utter legend.
Also, +1 to whoever said CBFD has incredible multiplayer. Nudging PD/GE for my favourite multiplayer on the N64. Even with two maps in War mode it was just classic
Yep. Even as of a few months ago he was still spewing his glorious cheeky/abusive British dry wit all over the site. Microsoft's newfound Rare focus on Natal/Avatars makes me fear that they'll force the company to get rid of him, or at least tone him down.
We'll see in a few days, I guess.
It sucks that this mindset is still going, even after Nuts & Bolts ended up being a really good game.
Went back to DKC2 for the first time in a few years the other day and discovered its far easier when you aren't trying to make awful commentary simultaneously.
I bought Nuts n Bolts from a bargain bin recently, haven't tried it out yet, been too addicted to Brutal Legend which I picked up from the same bin.
Rare hasn't mattered to me in a long long time. Viva Pinata was a super pleasant surprise, and I am optimistic about Nuts and Bolts.
I think Viva Pinata was decently popular around here at the time.
It did get a PC release, though.
And it didn't control better. I have it for both 360 and PC, and it's a much better fit to the 360 pad.
Quick, somebody dig up the "awsomesheep" pic from a while back!
VP isn't really my thing, but damn if it wasn't a clever stab at the "sim" type games - raising pinatas for use at parties and creating a whole ecosystem of them with predatory and symbiotic ones is a pleasantly surreal idea.
Then along came 4Kids and the Marketing Blitz. That kinda skewed my perception of the whole thing.
Now featuring DAN GREEN!!!
I dig VP and Nuts and Bolts, but yeah, at the time Nintendo absolutely made the right decision from a business standpoint. Rare really was lost in the wilderness for a good five years or so.
1) Microsoft already owned the majority share at that point
2) Rare only accounted for <1% of their income over the past year.
3) 375 million dollars pays for a lot of games and R&D.
Not to mention how many key staff had recently left the company.
Recently? Is there a source on that? I hadn't heard. Then again I'm not omniscient.
Ah, $375 million. Even if we include the "value added" stuff of the Avatars, they still have a loooooong way to go before they earn that money back. Hell, the debt is probably greater now.
Just for fun let's go over the games they released in the Microsoft era and guesstimate how they did:
Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Sold horribly. Lost money.
Conker Live. Sold weakly, though much of it was re-used design. Hard to tell, maybe broke even.
DK Country 1-3 on the GBA (reprogrammed by Rare). Did well, though Microsoft likely didn't see much of that money.
Perfect Dark Zero. Sold pretty well due to being the "it" launch title, but was in development for an eternity. Probably broke even.
Kameo. In development for an eternity and sold horribly. Money pit.
Viva Pinata. Became a modest success, but that was due to a Herculean push that include a quick drop to $20, two seasons of an animated series, etc. Broke even at best.
Jetpac Refueled. No idea on cost or sales. Probably had negligible effects either way.
Banjo Live re-releases. Easy conversions, sold pretty well. Made some money.
Banjo Nuts and Bolts. Ludicrously long dev time, two previous versions canned and redone, weak sales. Huge money loser.
Viva Pinata 2. Sold about as bad as Guitar Hero: Van Halen. Big loss.
Perfect Dark re-releases. Seem to be doing well, will probably earn some money.
Not exactly looking good overall.
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Had. Before Nintendo sold their shares in them years and years ago. Largely beginning towards the end of Perfect Dark's development.
That's because they're pretty much the only first party Microsoft hasn't jettisoned yet besides Lionhead. Probably because Microsoft is determined to get a return off their investment if it kills them. Also they're guessing Rare's skillset will translate well to Natal, which isn't a bad idea.
Edit: And Tubular, if we're talking about toward the end of PDZ's development, then I had heard that reports of massive staff departures during that time were greatly exaggerated.
No, it was more towards the end of the original PD's development. At least from what I've heard, that's when a bunch of staff left to go form Free Radical, and some company that I don't think ever actually released anything.
Right, I remember that. Those departures were a decent chunk but weren't anywhere close to being a majority of the staff, or even half.
Very interesting stuff, I love reading about these things.
No, this is pretty much due MS reusing Rare's offices as their "Microsoft UK" development house. Rare is just a brand name now, they don't even own their own IPs anymore - Microsoft actually transferred all of them to be under their own name. This is not really a bad thing mind, but they sure didn't get expanded due to runaway success.
Also it's been quoted in numerous interviews that Ensemble actually closed themselves. They were tired of only being greenlit for RTSes.
It's true that is wasn't necessarily a large number of their staff, but the ones who did leave were easily some of their best people.
Related:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ync-5K1-Eo