Can someone explain to me what is going on with Microsoft and Rare Ltd., and why they're still treated like the gaming equivalent of Area 51 despite disappointing and underwhelming for almost two decades?
>purchased by Microsoft in 2002 for (adjusting for inflation) half a billion dollars >had almost all of its pitches and prototypes rejected by Microsoft during the 6th and 7th console generations >most of its games during this era were either already in development on older platforms, and/or low-budget titles for Nintendo handhelds >every single Xbox/360 game they've developed has been a commercial failure, most notably Viva Pinata and Kinect Sports Rivals, which MS were banking on being massive successes >their first game in years, Sea of Thieves, took four years to develop (while using a flexible engine), and with barely any content and fanfare from MS >still gets considerable funding from MS, has one of the most upscale headquarters in the industry, and is still considered one of the most coveted developers to work for in terms of reputation and employee benefits >located in the middle of nowhere in rural England, not convenient to commute to by any means >completely surrounded by vegetation - impossible to see at street-level, only visible via satellite mapping >only accessible via a single, narrow, 700+ meter road with CCTV and a gate >tours of the studio are only permitted if they're part of official promotional material
Is that a soccer field? And what are those patterned fields? Farmed land?
Jason Hall
They're hiding a real life bear with a bird in its backpack in their basement
Ayden Perez
Back in the old days, Rare was creating quality content for Nintendo. (Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Diddy Kong Racing, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini al score higher than an 8 on Metacritic and got released within 3 years of eachother). However, Nintendo didn't want to buy them, since they want studios to be "free". Meanwhile, the owners of Rare, the Stantler brothers, didn't give an actaul shit about video games and were just in it to make money.
An ideal situation for Microsoft. They just bought the company from the Stantler brothers to slow down their competition, not to make quality games themselves. People who want to play platformers and cartoonesque games would buy a Nintendo anyway. People buy an Xbox to play Halo, not Banjo Kazooie.
The people that made Rareware such a good functioning company all left to other studios, since they didn't enjoy the partnership with Microsoft.
Adam Harris
That doesn't make sense, even Lionhead wasn't that secretive while they were alive. Playground Games and Turn 10 are UK based devs, are they as secretive as Rare?
Lucas Sanchez
rare sux!
Sebastian Smith
MS let's Rare do their own things while Rare lets MS manage their IPs. After KI, I am very interested to see other studios take up their IPs
Nolan Butler
>After KI, I am very interested to see other studios take up their IP After seeing Battletoads at E3, my optimism is more cautious than before.
Brayden Flores
that's all true but it doesn't really answer OP's question about why MS treats rare like a golden goose
Alexander Lopez
>Buy out Rare and all of their IPs >Proceed to do nothing with them for a decade and a half
why are companies allowed to do this, bros?
Jose Sullivan
Rare has always been a very private company, they don't like having visitors in the middle of their development or really show off anything until a game is actually finished.
Luis Clark
It's all in there:
>Microsoft never bought Rare with the ointention to make lots of games >All the good devs left over the years so they have a smaller team that produces lower quality games >Rare doesnt make the right genres for Xbox anyway.
Elijah Walker
This is honestly kind of weird now that you bring it up.
Liam Lee
I'm on the fence. I'm in the minority that think it looks fine, and from what I heard, the gameplay is just as tough as the original.
Brody Bennett
It's an old farmhouse, them owning all that isn't exactly irregular.
Jason Evans
What in the blue hell do they need all that property for anyway? Do something constructive with all that green god dammit! Make a fucking vegetable garden are something, geez.
Joshua Richardson
This video is cringeworthy but in it you can see all the CCTVs and just how long the road in is. Also the description seems kinda fishy.
Jason Reyes
but then why does MS not just shut them down? that's an incredibly expensive boondoggle if you're not even expecting anything you can sell, ever
unless it's some tax/accounting fuckery to show a loss when there's not one it's still odd to lavishly fund such a useless developer
Iwata had said that if he had been president one year earlier, Rare would have never been up for sale. Part of me wants to think that if Microsoft dropped Rare, Nintendo would scoop them up before they hit the ground.
They wouldn't, but it's a nice dream.
Liam Cooper
My theory is that they were always tempted to, but Kinect Sports on 360 made too much money, and even though it bombed on Xbone Sea of Thieves ended up surviving and doing well enough as a Game Pass title for them to be spared.
Leo Peterson
There's a reasonable explanation for the "paid actors" line. These are people who were invited to play Sea of Thieves early for a promotional video, and then got called paid actors based on that video.
Bentley Diaz
Rare was a huge part of the Kinect, I think they were the ones that helped design xbox avatars, and Rare is one of their most valuable studios. Even with how SoT started, from what I heard it's a really fantastic game now. Unlike Lionhead, they had the potential to grow from their .mistakes
Adam Parker
Firing people is fucking expensive. Besides, they're not "useless". Most current Rare devs are used for important side projects such as Kinect sports.
Easton Price
I am still Amazed how they fucked up Sea of Thieves so bad. Basics are solid, atmosphere and graphics are good but THERE IS FUCKING NOTHING TO DO. It would be one thing if it was shit at its core but it’s decent, can’t you fucking add more enemies at least, it took them years to add new things.
Josiah Gray
Kinect Sports Rivals was a massive failure and was one of Rare's biggest losses. After that, Rare Replay sold under expectations, and Sea of Thieves has been a commercial flop, hence MS pushing it through Game Pass.
Adam Wilson
>Rare Replay sold under expectations No, it was sold on the wrong console.
Nathaniel Butler
>Building complex looks like a Space Invader sprite
Hmm
Robert Thompson
This is the likely answer imo. They let Rare fuck around and make a game occasionally, but if the Microshit ever runs into trouble, they can just dump a bunch of their debt into Rare and liquidate it, similar to what happened to Toys R Us last year.
Nathan Bell
>Some devs leave to form a new studio >Their game flops hard
Microsoft cursed them.
Aaron Cooper
Rare was always known for being really secretive, this isnt a new thing
>and Sea of Thieves has been a commercial flop Hasn't Sea of Thieves been their most successful game since their N64 days though?
Easton Smith
Virtually all of Rare's post-buyout games have been commercial failures, and a good chunk of them have received poor critical reviews.
Isaiah Cruz
MS gave Rare the money to make the pirate game they have always wanted to make since the SNES, but the released the game too early.
Carter Jenkins
Retard
Jackson Perez
It's not a curse. To make good games you need a good team, not just some good devs. In the N64 days, Rare was a bunch of friends with the ability to create fun stuff, helped by their good connections with Nintendo.
Without some key members, or a supportive partner and producer, they are nothing.
They did, for a while. Viva Pinata, Conker Live & Reloaded and Nuts & Bolts were all relatively good games. However, they weren't the amazing quality as the good ol days and they weren't really the right genre for Xbox. The producers would rather see something else. The good devs left over the years and the quality dropped.
You don't have to see tall this as a sudden impact. rare's downfall is something that took many years.
Parker Price
I mean with Lionhead, as disorganized as it was Peter Molyneux was at least able to keep MS away from certain aspects of game development, until he left. With MS sinking $75 million into Fable Legends, Lionhead wouldn't even be able to learn from their mistakes when the company wouldn't even be able to greenlight something safe like Fable 4, or even something new.
Sea of Thieves IIRC isn't a commercial flop, since it still has players and a small but relatively big viewerbase on Twitch, and Game Pass is basically keeping it alive.
