Rare (company) facts for kids
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Headquarters in Twycross
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Video games |
| Predecessor | Ultimate Play the Game |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Founders |
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| Headquarters |
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England
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Key people
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| Products | List of video games developed by Rare |
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Number of employees
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200+ (2020) |
| Parent | Xbox Game Studios (2002–present) |
Rare Limited is a British video game developer that creates games for computers and consoles. It is a studio of Xbox Game Studios and is based in Twycross, England. Rare makes many kinds of games, including platformers, shooting games, adventure games, fighting games, and racing games.
Some of Rare's most famous games are the Battletoads, Donkey Kong, and Banjo-Kazooie series. They also made popular games like GoldenEye 007 (1997), Perfect Dark (2000), Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001), Viva Piñata (2006), and Sea of Thieves (2018).
Tim and Chris Stamper started Rare in 1985. They had also founded another game company called Ultimate Play the Game. In its early years, Rare got a lot of support from Nintendo and focused on making games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). During this time, Rare created successful games like Wizards & Warriors (1987), R.C. Pro-Am (1988), and Battletoads (1991).
Rare became a very important developer for Nintendo when they released Donkey Kong Country (1994). Nintendo even bought a large part of the company. In the 1990s, Rare started selling their games under the name "Rareware." They became famous worldwide for games like the Donkey Kong Country trilogy (1994-1996), Killer Instinct (1994), GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie (1998), Perfect Dark (2000), and Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001).
In 2002, Microsoft bought Rare. Rare kept its original name, logo, and most of its game ideas. Since then, Rare has made games mainly for Microsoft's Xbox consoles. These games include Grabbed by the Ghoulies (2003), Kameo (2005), Perfect Dark Zero (2005), and Viva Piñata (2006).
The Stamper brothers left Rare in 2007. Around 2010, the company started focusing on games for Xbox Live Avatar and Kinect. They released three Kinect Sports games. In 2015, Rare made Rare Replay, a collection of 30 of their games for the Xbox One. This game celebrated Rare's 30th anniversary. Rare's most recent game, Battletoads, came out in 2020.
Many former Rare employees have started their own game companies. These include Free Radical Design, known for the TimeSplitters series, and Playtonic Games, known for Yooka-Laylee (2017). Rare is well-known in the video game world and has won many awards. Some of their games, like Donkey Kong Country and GoldenEye 007, are considered among the greatest games ever made.
Contents
History of Rare Games
Starting Out (1985–1993)
Rare grew from a company called Ultimate Play the Game. This company was started by Tim and Chris Stamper, who used to make arcade games. Ultimate Play the Game was very successful in the UK. However, they realized that the computers they made games for were not popular worldwide.
They looked at a new console from Japan called the Nintendo Famicom. They thought it was a great new platform because it was more advanced and popular around the world. So, Rare was started in 1985. Their main goal was to figure out how the Famicom worked and how to make games for it.
Nintendo said it was impossible to figure out their console's secrets. But Rare's team managed to do it! They showed Nintendo some test games. Nintendo was so impressed that they gave Rare an unlimited budget to make games for the Famicom.
After this, the team moved to Twycross, England, and set up their new studio. The Famicom was later released in North America and Europe as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
With a huge budget, Rare could make many different games. Their first project was Slalom, a skiing game. Over five years, they worked with many game publishers. They made 60 games, mostly for the NES, and some for the Game Boy and Sega Genesis.
They created new game ideas like R.C. Pro-Am, a racing game with car battles, and Snake Rattle 'n' Roll, an action platform game. Rare also made Battletoads, a beat'em up game inspired by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Battletoads became famous for being very difficult. It was so popular that Rare made several sequels and even a crossover game with Double Dragon.
Rare also worked on games based on movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street. They also helped bring popular arcade games like Marble Madness to home consoles.
In the early days, Rare wanted to make as many games as possible. They made a lot of money, but not all their games were big hits.
Working with Nintendo (1994–2002)
Rare invested their money in powerful Silicon Graphics computers. These computers helped them create amazing three-dimensional models. This made Rare one of the most advanced game developers in the UK. They decided to focus on making high-quality games instead of many games.
Rare showed Nintendo a boxing game demo made with their new 3D graphics. Nintendo was very impressed. In 1994, Nintendo bought 25% of Rare, which later grew to 49%. This made Rare a special partner developer for Nintendo. Rare could still decide what games to make without much help from Nintendo.
During this time, Rare started using the name "Rareware" for their games. Nintendo even let Rare use their famous characters to make a 3D game. The Stampers chose Donkey Kong. The game they made was Donkey Kong Country. It was a huge success, with critics praising its advanced graphics. Donkey Kong Country sold over nine million copies worldwide. It was one of the best-selling games on the SNES. Rare made two more games in the series, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!.
Nintendo's investment helped Rare grow a lot. The number of staff grew from 84 to 250. Rare also made an arcade fighting game called Killer Instinct. This game was very popular and later came out on the SNES.
Rare then developed Blast Corps for the Nintendo 64. After this, Rare split into different teams, each working on a different game. One of their most famous games, GoldenEye 007, was made by a team that was new to game development. It was based on the James Bond movie GoldenEye.
GoldenEye 007 started as a simple shooting game but became a free-roaming first-person shooter. It added new ideas like stealth and headshots. A split-screen multiplayer mode was added at the end of its development. GoldenEye 007 was a huge hit, selling over eight million copies worldwide.
Rare then made Diddy Kong Racing, their first game they published themselves. It was a racing game that became one of the fastest-selling games at the time. This game also showed characters like Banjo and Conker, who would later star in their own games.
Rare was also working on a big platform game called Dream: Land of Giants. The main character was changed to a bear named Banjo, and a bird named Kazooie was added. Banjo-Kazooie came out in 1998 and was loved by critics. A sequel, Banjo-Tooie, came out in 2000 and sold even more copies.
After Banjo-Kazooie, Rare started another game called Perfect Dark. It was a shooting game with a focus on lighting. Perfect Dark was released in 2000 and was also highly praised.
Conker the Squirrel got his own game, Conker's Bad Fur Day. Unlike Banjo-Kazooie, this game was made for older players and had some grown-up humor. It got good reviews but did not sell well because it came out late in the Nintendo 64's life.
Rare's last game for Nintendo was Star Fox Adventures in 2002. It was originally a different game called Dinosaur Planet, but Nintendo suggested making it part of the Star Fox series for their new console, the GameCube.
Microsoft Era (2002–Present)
Making games became more expensive, and Nintendo did not want to buy the rest of Rare. So, Rare looked for other buyers. Companies like Activision and Microsoft were interested. In the end, Microsoft bought Rare for $375 million on September 24, 2002. Rare became a main developer for Microsoft's Xbox.
Rare kept the rights to characters like Conker and Banjo. However, Nintendo kept characters like Donkey Kong and Star Fox. About 30 employees left Rare during this change.
Since Microsoft did not make handheld consoles, Rare continued to make games for Nintendo handhelds for a while. They made games for the Game Boy Advance like Sabre Wulf and Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge. They also made Diddy Kong Racing DS for the Nintendo DS in 2007.
In 2003, Rare released its first game for Microsoft, Grabbed by the Ghoulies. It was an action-adventure game set in a haunted mansion. It got mixed reviews and was not as popular as Rare's earlier games.
Rare also released Conker: Live & Reloaded in 2005, which was a remake of Conker's Bad Fur Day with better graphics. When the Xbox 360 came out in 2005, Rare made two of its launch games: Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power. Both games were originally planned for the GameCube. They received good reviews and sold over a million copies, but some people felt they could have been better.
In 2006, Rare released Viva Piñata, a unique game about gardening. It was praised for being new and creative. However, it did not sell as well as expected. On January 2, 2007, Rare's founders, Chris and Tim Stamper, left the company.
Rare then started working on games for Xbox Live avatars and new games in the Viva Piñata and Banjo-Kazooie series. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (2008) was different from previous Banjo-Kazooie games because it focused on building vehicles.
Around 2010, Rare started focusing on Kinect, a motion-sensing device for Xbox. Their first Kinect game, Kinect Sports, came out in November 2010. It was a big commercial success, selling three million copies. Rare also worked on a sequel, Kinect Sports: Season Two.
In 2013, the Killer Instinct series was brought back. Rare helped develop this new game. Another Rare character, Conker, also appeared in the Microsoft game Project Spark.
Rare released Kinect Sports Rivals in 2014. This game did not sell well, and Microsoft decided to focus less on Kinect. Some Rare employees were laid off. In 2015, some former Rare employees started a new studio called Playtonic Games. They made Yooka-Laylee, which was like a new Banjo-Kazooie game.
At E3 2015, Rare announced Rare Replay, a collection of 30 of their games to celebrate their 30th anniversary. It was released in August 2015 and was very popular. They also announced a new game called Sea of Thieves, a multiplayer adventure game about pirates.
Sea of Thieves was released on March 20, 2018. It received mixed reviews but was a big success. By January 2020, it had over 10 million players. The game was also released on the PlayStation 5, which was Rare's first game on a PlayStation console.
Since 2018, Rare has been working with Dlala Studios on a new Battletoads game, which came out in 2020. Rare also reconnected with Nintendo in 2019 when Banjo & Kazooie became playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch.
In November 2019, Rare announced a new action-adventure game called Everwild. As of January 2020, Rare had over 200 employees. In October 2024, it was announced that Joe Neate and Jim Horth would become the new studio heads for Rare. In July 2025, Microsoft cancelled Everwild.
Rare's Culture
Rare's main goal is to make games that people will enjoy, not just to make money. The Stamper brothers gave their teams a lot of freedom to be creative. In the early days, working at Rare could be tough, with long hours.
After Microsoft bought Rare, some employees felt that the work environment became more stressful. Microsoft brought in more business-like rules, which some Rare team members found hard to get used to. However, some changes, like allowing employees to discuss projects they weren't working on, were helpful.
Rare was known for being very secretive. Their office buildings were monitored by cameras, and different teams worked in separate areas. This meant employees mostly focused on their own game. Tim Stamper once said that Rare was a group of game fans working together to make the best games.
However, some critics felt that Rare's secrecy made them "disconnected" from their fans. When Craig Duncan became the studio head, he wanted to change this. Rare's office was redesigned to help teams share ideas. The studio also became more open with its community, inviting fans to help with the development of Sea of Thieves.
In July 2025, to celebrate Rare's 40th anniversary, a special controller for Xbox Series X and Series S was released with the Rare logo and Sea of Thieves designs.
Related Companies
Over the years, many Rare employees have left to start their own game companies. For example, after Martin Hollis left Rare, he started his own company called Zoonami.
Several team members from Perfect Dark started Free Radical Design. They created the TimeSplitters series. Other former Rare staff formed studios like Crash Labs, Gory Detail, Starfire Studios, and Flippin Pixels.
Playtonic Games was founded by several former Rare employees in 2014. They are known for the Yooka-Laylee series, which is seen as a new version of Banjo-Kazooie. Rare founders Chris and Tim Stamper joined FortuneFish, a mobile game company started by Tim's son, Joe Stamper.
Games by Rare
Rare has developed many video games since it started. By 2002, their games had sold nearly 90 million copies. The company is best known for its platform games, like the Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, and Conker series. They are also famous for their Nintendo 64 shooting games GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark.
Rare does not stick to just a few types of games. They have also made action-adventure games like Star Fox Adventures and Kameo: Elements of Power. They made fighting games like the Killer Instinct series, and racing games like R.C. Pro-Am and Diddy Kong Racing. They also made beat 'em up games like Battletoads.
Rare's most recent big game is Sea of Thieves (2018), a pirate-themed open world game for Xbox One and Windows 10. This game is still being updated and is also available on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. The studio also helped with the 2020 Battletoads game.
Rare has also had some game projects that were planned but later cancelled. These include Perfect Dark Core, which was supposed to be a sequel to the first Perfect Dark, and Everwild.
Awards and Recognition
Rare has won many awards. They received a BAFTA award for "Best UK Developer" for their work on GoldenEye 007. In 1997, Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine called Rare the "Most Promising Game Company."
Rare won another BAFTA award in 2000 for developing Perfect Dark. In 2015, Tim and Chris Stamper were honored as "Development Legends" at the Develop Industry Excellence Awards. Rare has been listed among the top game developers of all time by Gamasutra and IGN. In 2018, the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum held a special show about Rare's games.
Images for kids
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Rare's headquarters in Twycross, England.
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Rare's logo from 2010 to 2015.
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The Kinect sensor, which Rare focused on from 2009 to 2014.
See also
In Spanish: Rare para niños
