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 exciting games. It is a studio of Xbox Game Studios and is based in Twycross, England. Rare makes many types of games, like platformers, shooting games, adventure games, fighting games, and racing games.
Some of their most famous games include Battletoads, Donkey Kong, and Banjo-Kazooie. 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).
Rare was started in 1985 by Tim and Chris Stamper. They also founded another game company called Ultimate Play the Game. In its early years, Rare got a lot of money from Nintendo to make games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). During this time, Rare created successful games such as 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 series, 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 name, logo, and most of its game ideas. Since then, Rare has made games only for Microsoft's video game consoles, like Grabbed by the Ghoulies (2003), Kameo (2005), Perfect Dark Zero (2005), and Viva Piñata (2006).
The Stamper brothers left Rare in 2007. In 2010, Rare started focusing on games for Xbox Live Avatar and Kinect, releasing three Kinect Sports games. In 2015, Rare made Rare Replay, a collection of 30 of their games for Xbox One. This game celebrated their 30th anniversary. Rare's most recent big game, Sea of Thieves, came out in 2018.
Many former Rare employees have started their own game companies. For example, Playtonic Games made Yooka-Laylee (2017), which is similar to Banjo-Kazooie. Rare is well-known in the video game world and has won many awards. Some of Rare's games, like Donkey Kong Country and GoldenEye 007, are considered among the greatest and most important games ever made.
Contents
How Rare Started (1985–1993)
Rare grew from a company called Ultimate Play the Game. This company was started by Tim and Chris Stamper in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, England. They made very successful games like Jetpac and Knight Lore. Ultimate Play The Game was one of the biggest game companies in the UK.
However, their main computer, the ZX Spectrum, was mostly popular only in the UK. The Stampers thought this would stop their company from growing. They looked at a new console from Japan called the Famicom. They believed it was the future because it was more advanced, sold worldwide, and its games loaded instantly.
So, Rare was created in 1985. Its main goal was to figure out how the Famicom worked and learn its programming secrets. When they succeeded, they sold the Ultimate brand and stopped making games for the ZX Spectrum.
The Famicom's maker, Nintendo, thought it was impossible to figure out their console's secrets. But Rare showed Nintendo's executive, Minoru Arakawa, some amazing tech demos in Japan. Nintendo was so impressed that they gave Rare an unlimited budget to make games for the Famicom.
When they returned to England, they moved to Twycross and set up their new studio in a Manor Farmhouse. 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. They worked with many publishers like Tradewest and Acclaim Entertainment. They made over 60 games for the NES and some for the Game Boy.
Rare created new game ideas like R.C. Pro-Am, a racing game with car battles, and Snake Rattle 'n' Roll, an action platform game. They also made Battletoads, a beat'em up game inspired by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Battletoads became famous for being very hard. It was so popular that Rare made many 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 make versions of other games for the NES. Rare wanted to make as many games as possible when they had the chance. While they made a lot of money, not all of these early games were big hits or very creative.
When the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) came out, Rare wasn't ready. They focused on a few Battletoads games and used their NES profits to buy expensive Silicon Graphics computers. These computers helped them make 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.
Working with Nintendo (1994–2002)
Rare showed Nintendo a boxing game demo they made using their new SGI systems. The SNES couldn't handle all the SGI graphics at once. So, Rare used the SGI systems to create 3D models and then put these graphics onto the SNES game cartridges. This process was called "Advanced Computer Modelling."
Nintendo was very impressed with their 3D graphics. In 1994, Nintendo bought 25% of Rare, and later increased it to 49%. This made Rare a second-party developer for Nintendo, meaning they mostly made games for Nintendo. Rare still got to decide which games to make without much help from Nintendo.
During this time, Rare started using the name "Rareware" for their games. Nintendo even offered Rare their famous characters to make a 3D game. The Stampers chose Donkey Kong. The game they made was Donkey Kong Country. About 20 people worked on it for 18 months. Rare staff even visited Twycross Zoo to watch real gorillas.
The game was a huge success. People loved its amazing graphics and art style. Donkey Kong Country sold over nine million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling games on the SNES. It won many "Game of the Year" awards and led to two sequels, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!.
Nintendo buying part of Rare helped the company grow a lot. The number of staff went from 84 to 250. Rare also moved out of their old farmhouse headquarters. Rare also made a 3D arcade fighting game called Killer Instinct. It was supposed to be for Nintendo's new Nintendo 64 console, but it came out for the 16-bit SNES instead, with simpler graphics. Killer Instinct sold 3.2 million copies and had a sequel.
Rare then made Blast Corps for the Nintendo 64. It sold one million copies, which Rare thought was not enough. Rare had many teams working on different games. A big platformer game was planned but got delayed. So, Rare released smaller games first.
The first was GoldenEye 007, based on the James Bond movie. An inexperienced team made this game. It was first planned as a shooting game where you just aimed, but the team changed it into a free-roaming first-person shooter. They added new things like sneaking, headshots, and reloading. A split-screen multiplayer mode was added at the end. GoldenEye 007 was Rare's first console shooting game. It came out two years after the movie. The game was highly praised and won many awards. It was one of the best-selling games for two years, selling over eight million copies.
Rare then made Diddy Kong Racing, their first game they published themselves. It was originally a strategy game about cavemen, but it became a racing game before it came out in 1997. It was one of the fastest-selling games at the time. Diddy Kong Racing also showed characters who would star in future Rare games, like Banjo and Conker.
Rare was still working on the big platform game. It was first called Dream: Land of Giants and featured a boy named Edison and pirates. The main character was changed to a bear named Banjo, and Kazooie the bird became more important. These characters were inspired by Walt Disney Animation Studios movies, and Rare hoped kids would like them. Banjo-Kazooie came out in June 1998 and was loved by critics. A sequel, Banjo-Tooie, came out in 2000. It was also a success and sold 3 million copies.
After Banjo-Kazooie, another project started. It was supposed to be a game for the movie Tomorrow Never Dies, but Rare lost the bid. So, Rare made a new game with new characters. This game, called Perfect Dark, focused a lot on lighting. The game was released in 2000 and was highly praised. It sold about 2 million copies.
While Perfect Dark was being made, Rare released two other games: Jet Force Gemini and Donkey Kong 64. In 1999, Nintendo and Disney agreed that Rare would make racing and adventure games with Mickey Mouse. These games became Mickey's Speedway USA and Mickey's Racing Adventure.
Conker the Squirrel also got his own game. It was first called Conker's Quest, then Twelve Tales: Conker 64. But people said it was too kid-friendly and too much like Banjo-Kazooie. So, the team changed it to Conker's Bad Fur Day and showed it again in 2000. Unlike Banjo-Kazooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day was for older players and had violence and profanity. Critics liked it, but it didn't sell well because it came out late in the Nintendo 64's life and Nintendo didn't promote it much.
After Diddy Kong Racing, another team worked on Dinosaur Planet for the Nintendo 64. But Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto suggested they change it to be part of the Star Fox series for Nintendo's new console, the GameCube. Star Fox Adventures focused on exploring a big world on the ground, unlike other Star Fox games. It got good reviews when it launched in 2002. Star Fox Adventures was the only game Rare made for the GameCube.
Rare and Microsoft (2002–present)
Making games became more expensive, and Nintendo didn't give Rare more money or buy the rest of the company. Rare started looking for other companies to buy them. In the early 2000s, people from Activision and Microsoft visited Rare with offers. Many companies wanted to buy Rare. On September 24, 2002, Microsoft bought Rare for $375 million. Rare became a first-party developer for Microsoft's Xbox.
Rare kept the rights to characters like Conker and Banjo. But Nintendo kept characters like Donkey Kong and Star Fox. This meant a game called Donkey Kong Racing, planned for the GameCube, was never released. About 30 employees left Rare during this change.
Since Microsoft didn't have handheld game consoles, Rare kept making games for Nintendo handhelds after the purchase. In 2003, Rare and Microsoft made a deal with THQ to publish Rare's games for the Game Boy Advance. These included Sabre Wulf, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, and It's Mr. Pants!. This deal ended in 2005 with the release of Banjo-Pilot.
In 2003, Rare released their first Microsoft game, Grabbed by the Ghoulies. It was a funny action-adventure game in a haunted mansion. It got mixed reviews and was seen as one of Rare's less popular games. In 2005, Rare said they were making "key" games for the Nintendo DS. They released two: Diddy Kong Racing DS in 2007, a remake of the Nintendo 64 game, and Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise in 2008, a life simulation game.
Rare released Conker: Live & Reloaded in 2005, a remake of Conker's Bad Fur Day with better graphics. It got good reviews but didn't sell well. The Xbox 360 came out in 2005, and Rare made two of its launch games: Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power. Zero was a prequel to the first Perfect Dark. Kameo was a new game where the player could change shapes to solve puzzles. Both games got good reviews and sold over a million copies, but some thought they could have been better.
In 2006, Rare released Viva Piñata, a game about gardening. It was praised for being new and different. However, it didn't sell very well. On January 2, 2007, Rare founders Chris and Tim Stamper left the company. Gregg Mayles became Rare's creative director. That year, they released Jetpac Refuelled, a remake of Jetpac.
In 2008, Rare showed new projects: games for Xbox Live avatars, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Nuts & Bolts was made by the same team as the first Banjo-Kazooie. Players criticized it for focusing on building vehicles instead of traditional platforming. Even though Rare's games for Microsoft got good reviews, they often didn't sell well.
In March 2010, Rare opened a new office in Birmingham. Later that year, Microsoft said Rare would focus on Xbox Live avatars and Kinect. Rare's first Kinect game, Kinect Sports, came out in November 2010. It was a big success, selling three million copies by May 2011. Rare and another Microsoft studio worked together on a sequel, Kinect Sports: Season Two.
In 2011, Craig Duncan became Rare's senior studio director. In 2013, Rare helped develop a new Killer Instinct game. Another Rare character, Conker, was also in a Microsoft game called Project Spark. A new Conker story for that game was canceled in 2015.
Rare released Kinect Sports Rivals in 2014. About 150 people worked on it. The game didn't sell well. After Microsoft said Kinect was no longer a main focus, about 15 Rare employees were laid off. In 2015, some former Rare employees started a new studio called Playtonic Games. Their first game, Yooka-Laylee, was like a new Banjo-Kazooie game.
At E3 2015, Rare announced Rare Replay, a collection of 30 games to celebrate their 30th anniversary. It came out in August and was very popular. It only included games where Rare owned the game ideas, which is why GoldenEye 007 was not included.
A new game, Sea of Thieves, a multiplayer adventure game about pirates, was also announced at E3 that year. It came out on March 20, 2018. The game got mixed reviews but was a commercial success. By January 2020, Microsoft said it was their most successful new game idea in the eighth generation of consoles, with over 10 million players.
Since 2018, Rare has been working with Dlala Studios on a new Battletoads game, which came out in 2020. In 2019, Microsoft and Rare also worked with Nintendo to add Banjo & Kazooie as playable characters in the fighting game 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 and has been growing steadily.
Rare's Culture
Rare wants 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 conditions became more stressful. Microsoft brought in more rules and meetings, which some Rare members found hard to get used to. However, some changes, like allowing teams to talk about other projects and letting staff listen to music at work, helped morale. The head of Microsoft Studios at the time, Ed Fries, tried to keep Rare's unique culture.
Rare has a reputation for being very secretive. Their offices were monitored by cameras. The company was divided into different "barnes," where teams worked only on their own game. Tim Stamper said Rare didn't have much contact with other game companies. He said Rare was a group of game fans working together to make the best games.
Even though they were secretive, Rare allowed some exclusive tours of their studio by fan websites. In 2010, Rare turned down an offer from a fan site to film a documentary about their studios. The fan site later closed down, saying they couldn't support Rare's new direction.
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 fans, inviting them to help develop their latest game, Sea of Thieves.
Games Rare Has Made
Rare has made many video games since it started. By 2002, their games had sold almost 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 doesn't 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.
Since Rare has often worked closely with game console makers like Nintendo and Microsoft, most of their games have been made only for specific consoles. In 2018, Rare released Sea of Thieves, a pirate-themed open world sandbox game for Xbox One and Windows 10. At Microsoft's X019 event, they announced a new fantasy action-adventure game called 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" because they made so many great games for the Nintendo 64.
Rare won the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Moving Images Award in 2000 for making Perfect Dark. Tim and Chris Stamper were named "Development Legends" at the 2015 Develop Industry Excellence Awards. Rare was also listed among Gamasutra's Top 30 Developers of All Time and ranked as the 36th best video game maker by IGN. In 2018, the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum had a special show about Rare's work.
Images for kids
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Rare's current logo
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Rare's headquarters in Twycross
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Rare's logo from 2010 to 2015
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The Kinect sensor, which Rare focused on for several years
See also
In Spanish: Rare para niños
