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.
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