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Rare Co-Founders Leave Company
1up reports on the departure of Rare co-founders Chris and Tim Stamper. They, along with company president Joel Hochberg, founded the company more than two decades ago. They've been with Rare through the good (Wizards and Warriors) the great (GoldenEye), and the disappointing (Perfect Dark Zero). The news site now reports they left the company at the end of last year. From the article: "The Stampers' exodus comes just four years after Microsoft acquired Rare from Nintendo for $375M. Since that acquisition, Rare has published five games for Microsoft Game Studios. In addition to Pinata, the Rare released Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero at the Xbox 360's launch and shipped Conker: Live & Reloaded and Grabbed By the Ghoulies on the original Xbox. While it seems unlikely that Microsoft has recouped their original investment in Rare, the company maintains that the studio is 'the cornerstone of Microsoft Game Studios' broadening strategy.'" N'Gai, over at Newsweek, has an interesting additional viewpoint on this departure: Phil Harrison's view on Rare. The unpublished exchange from his earlier interview with the PlayStation worldwide studios boss is interesting, as is N'Gai's blunt appraisal of the company since its purchase.
In the game industry, it takes multiple years just to make a game. So no, that isn't very long. Particularly for a company that has been around as long as Rare.
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Sorry to drift slightly off-topic, but why do people always bash Conker's Bad Fur Day? It seems like no one played it since it came out so late in the N64's lifetime, thus it's OK to just write it off as a Banjo clone with potty humor...
...Well it is, more or less, but it's also an awesome game! Of RARE's three N64 platformer titles it is easily the best. Also, probably my favorite ending to a game, ever. Right up there next to Planescape: Torment. (Seriously-- and if you're interested, don't spoil it, you've got to play it through yourself!)
If you loved Banjo-Kazooie but were a bit disappointed by the less-than-inspired Banjo-Tooie, you really need to give Conker's Bad Fur Day a try. If you're not sold by the time you reach the giant singing poo-blob boss, then I guess you just wouldn't understand true genius if it poked you in the eye with a sharp stick.
Don't forget Blast Corps for the N64. My teenage years would never have been the same if I hadn't had the opportunity to pilot a giant mecha through a metropolis knocking over anything in the path of a runaway semi carrying nuclear missiles. Hmmm... don't tell Jack about that one.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
The Stamper brothers offered first sale of their 51% share in the company to Nintendo. When Nintendo declined the offer, they also agreed with the Stampers' plans to sell to the next bidder on the list, Microsoft. Nintendo sold their 49% back to the Stampers so as to remove themselves immediately from any press about a potential bidding war that would look like they would ultimately lose (a distortion of events they themselves were setting underway), then the Stampers sold and Microsoft bought. There was no secret transaction between Nintendo and Microsoft over Rare. It was the Stampers playing middleman.
If anyone doubts this, remember one thing: Nintendo never had to sell their 49%. Nobody could have forced them to do that. They could have held on to it and Microsoft would have been left in the cold, holding 51% in a company that they shared with their rival. Nintendo sold because they saw the sense in doing so. At the same time, MS would never have had to buy if Nintendo didn't sell first. They would have required that Nintendo release partial ownership before agreeing to anything with Rare. In this way, MS had the least powerful hand in these three-way negotiations - they played the role of willing buyer waiting for two partial owners to figure out how to split the payment.
The Stampers, guaranteed, would have had to come along with the company as part of the deal - but the required period has likely expired, leaving them free to leave rich men.
In short, the Rare sell-out was not profitable for Microsoft or for Rare itself. It was profitable for the Stampers and for Nintendo. MS will likely never profit from the deal, except by making sure that Rare never develops for a competing platform again. (GBA and DS are not in deirect competition to the whole Xbox project, so that's why we have and will continue to see Rare games on both platforms.)