Rare, a developer with a great history...

    Today’s blog is going to be about Rareware, a software company that has a unique history with the video game industry. Founded by brothers Tim and Chris Stamper, Rare began its days in the video game industry in the mid 1980s as an independent developer. Developing many classic games for the NES, including Slalom and Battletoads. Nintendo was happy with the company’s progress and bought a minority share in the company.  

    This gave Rare the capital to produce hits that remain classics to this day.  Due to the success of the company, Nintendo gave Rare the option to pick one of Nintendo’s franchises and create a new game. In 1994, the Stamper Brothers picked Donkey Kong, and the resulting game Donkey Kong Country became the Super Nintendo’s highest selling standalone title. This success prompted Nintendo to increase their share in the company to 49%, making Rare a second-party developer for Nintendo and expanded the company tremendously. This led to the Nintendo 64 era, where Rare created titles that gave importance to the console against its biggest competitor, the Sony Playstation. It revolutionized the multiplayer first person shooter genre with Goldeneye 007, and continued with solid platformer hits like the Banjo-Kazooie series. With such a great success on the N64, it was almost certain that Rare would continue as a key developer for Nintendo’s next console. However, it was not meant to be. Surprisingly, in 2002 Nintendo refused to give Rare the extra money it needed to cover new development costs. This led Rare to look for a new buyer, and Microsoft decided to buy it for a hefty sum. Nintendo IPs remained with the company, but all of Rare’s IPs were now tied with Microsoft. Rare failed to adapt to the business culture of Microsoft and many of their key employees, including the Stamper brothers, left in frustration. Although the company did create somewhat decent sequels to their classic N64 games on the Xbox and Xbox 360, these titles failed to create a significant impact as Microsoft preferred to focus on their mass-market titles. Today it is slowly regaining its strength on the Xbox One, but it is still nothing compared to its days under Nintendo.

    This leaves one to wonder, what would have happened if Rare stayed with Nintendo? For one thing, it would not have affected the sales of the Xbox as Rare’s titles were not the driving factor of the console’s success. However, the GameCube would have been much more of a success. Unlike its predecessor, the GameCube was severely lacking in mature titles, and this is one of the reasons why it lost out to the PS2 and Xbox. In addition, many of the sequels that made it to the Xbox and Xbox 360 were originally planned for the GameCube. Although they were not the driving factor for Microsoft’s systems, it could have easily boosted sales for the GameCube. If Rare was still under Nintendo’s wing, the Wii would have been a much bigger success than it was as it would have retained the mature market. Today, the Wii U might be in a much better place with Rare as a key developer.

    In conclusion, Rare is a developer that has impacted the industry tremendously, and today remains a shadow of what it once was.

Dreamcast's Demise...and what the industry could be like if SEGA was still in the hardware business

            Today we’re going to talk about the demise of one of video game history’s greatest hardware icons, SEGA.  In the 16 bit era SEGA was nearly neck and neck with Nintendo with its classic Sega Geneisis system.  Unfortunately, after a slew of unsuccessful Genesis add-ons and the failure of its successor, the Saturn, SEGA was unable to make any mark on the 32/64 bit market.  Yet in 1999, SEGA was about to be the first on the market with a 128-bit console.

            Titled, SEGA Dreamcast, with this new system the company introduced many new innovations to the video game industry. Its controller had a miniature screen that interacted with on-screen gameplay, almost like a precursor to the modern-day Wii U.  In addition, the system boasted something that was truly ahead of its time – a built in modem for online play.  When it launched in 1999, it was a huge success selling over 400,000 units. Gamers were drawn to it due to its stellar lineup of games and online connectivity. However, there was one thing that worried SEGA – the Sony PlayStation 2. Although the PS2 had a slow start, its technological power and the added capability to play DVD movies really helped sell the system. In addition, the Dreamcast was falling to piracy as the system lacked any copy protection thereby enabling the games to be copied on any computer with a CD Drive. These factors and more eventually caused the Dreamcast to suffer in sales, and by the time Microsoft and Nintendo entered the market the Dreamcast was already discontinued.

            Now, one question remains – what would the market be like today if the Dreamcast had not failed? Well, here comes my theory. If the Dreamcast remained strong even when the Microsoft Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube came in, it would have been an interesting sight to see the market split four ways.  Dreamcast’s main competitor would have had to be the GameCube, due to both systems selling to roughly the same demographic with software titles that were franchises with long histories. The sixth generation would’ve ended with the Dreamcast as a distant fourth unless something major happened to upset the market. Now coming to the seventh generation, it really depends on what kind of console Sega would’ve came up with.  Had Sega tried to compete with Microsoft and Sony, I truly think they would’ve fallen rapidly as the company did not have as much technological prowess as the other two companies. However, throughout its history SEGA had always been innovative, bringing new concepts to the industry that were ahead of their time. Had SEGA released a console before Nintendo’s Wii with the new trend of motion control, the company could’ve easily gained enough market share to be sustainable.  Although Nintendo would have still survived due to its handheld sales, it’s fair to say it could’ve lost to SEGA due to how big of a factor motion control was during that generation.  In today’s eighth generation SEGA’s next system might have been in the same place as the Wii U is today, and Nintendo may have been relegated to its handheld business.

            All in all, SEGA’s run in the hardware business will be remembered by all, and I hope you enjoyed my theory on what it could be like if SEGA was still making consoles.