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Stamper brothers leave Rare to pursue other opportunities


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Just read this from Kotaku which get them from 1up: The Stamper brothers (Founders) are leaving Rare :o

 

Kind of a shocker to me. I wonder what their reasoning behind this is. Could Microsoft be involved in this, ie telling them what to do. Or is it really just because they've grown tired of it and really wants to do something new? If so, what would they do? Start a new gaming company? Go teaching on schools? Apply for a job at one of those great "industry analysts companies"? Haha.

 

It really makes me think what is left of Rare after their golden years in the SNES/N64 era. It's just a label now. And one that lost most of it's glory long ago. Though Viva Pinata seems like an interesting game.

 

So what's your take on it?

 

Edit: oh and if this should belong in another forum, feel free to change its place. Or if worse, lock this one up :P

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YES! This is fantastic news, Tim and Chris are very talented designers and come up with some very unique ideas but they've never been able to admit that practically everyone who made Rareware what it was had left to form Free Radical and Zoonami (aside from the grunt programmers and the music composers of course)

 

Hopefully, Chris and Tim will head off to Free Radical to join their old buddies and some how get back together with Zoonami (They haven't made a single game thus far so maybe they'd be willing to team up again) If somehow that were to happen, then it's possible that the Rareware of old may live once again!

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Most likely Microsoft forcing requirements of XBOX Live on Rare and their games that they don't want to use or are not ready to use.

However they should be expected to do so (in the eyes of Microsoft's first party studio) to set a good standard for third party developpers. Even though they lack experience in the department maybe they're not ready- maybe they are simply skeptical about Live downloadable content etc..

 

If Ubisoft sees Rare not meeting XBL requirements they're gonna be like "well fuck this, we don't want to do downloadable skins and maps- they don't so neither will we"

 

It is a huge problem at Rare. Viva Pinata lacks almost any live features and Banjo won't either.

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I'd like to hope they're gonna form a new developing company and start making games for all systems or at least for the Wii. It might be that they like the idea of the wii and really want to devlop for it but can't due to their Rare contract so they would have left. According to wiki, the company had been losing people since 1998 though.

It may just be that they're loaded and want to get out of the game(heh) though, maybe they don't enjoy it like they used to, maybe Microsoft squezed the fun out of them. How old are they? Maybe they just want to settle down into life and have an early retirement?

It would be very nice if Zoonami(weird company, what the hell do they do? The site is kind of amusing though) and Free Radical, but it might not happen, nobody knows what goes on behind the scenes, and why people originally left Rare. Either way, I'd say the Stamper Brothers and their company have done alot for kids around the world at different times, and the industry itself too. They seem like two guys who are just generally very good at what they do, and I really hope they start something new.

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Yeah I think Nintendork is on to something about the live aspect of things, can't remember where I read it, but a hack of market place has revealed some very small file downloads for viva pinata, leading to speculation that you are really just downloading files that activate content already on the disk, like Microsoft almost went to Rare, lock some stuff off for downloads.

 

As for them leaving it does mean Rare is becoming more and more like just a label now, in much the same way Atari is, and even to some point Sega is as a publisher.

 

I mean even though Viva is a creative game and very innovative and different, I still get the feeling that Microsoft will have gone to them and said we need to increase our demographic, make us a kids game.

 

I can only hope that they want something fresh and that the wii will offer this experience for them and that they create some new characters on a par with their current ones, that lead to some great franchises.

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They've gone to create an unofficial sequel to Goldeneye... In all honesty, the company hasn't produced anything spectacular since the end of the 64 days. RARE aren't the the same company that gave us the classics we know and love. In my opinion Free Radical is the closest to old RARE as you're going to get. The Timesplitters series feels, and plays like, the true sequel to Goldeneye/Perfect Dark.

 

R.I.P RARE

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I'd have to agree with you there, TimeSplitters is a truly awesome game, truly, especially 3 with all it's different play modes. Got great single player, and great multiplayer. I really look forward to 4, if there is one, which should hopefully appear on the Wii.

I suppose the Stampers are loaded from their sale of Rare to MS, but this does mean that any IP owned by Rare is in fact owned by MS now, so they won't be able to use any of their old stuff really, I'd feel a bit gutted if it was me and wanted to break away and start afresh.

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Guest Stefkov
I wonder if Microsoft hold all the old Ultimate IP's aswell? guess they probably do seem as they are still the same company... just they changed their name.

I hope not, then if we are very lucky and hopeful they could form up something and brin goldeneye, banjo kazzoie, pefect dark, jet force gemini to the VC. However i dont see that happening.

 

(so many good games have come out of Rare for the N64)

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I hope not, then if we are very lucky and hopeful they could form up something and brin goldeneye, banjo kazzoie, pefect dark, jet force gemini to the VC. However i dont see that happening.

 

(so many good games have come out of Rare for the N64)

 

I think all of those will be covered under Rareware to be honest, I was thinking further back like that isometric game where you were an explorer...its name escapes me for now...

 

EDIT:

 

Saber Wolf! that was it....

 

EDIT 2:

 

OOOOHHH and Knight Lore

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Rare was the result of a 'perfect storm', all the right elements in the right place at the right time, and thus the results were spectacular. Once people started leaving it lost that special feeling. It's finally gone now Tim and Chris have left, they were the founders and the heart of the company. A sad day, but one that was always coming when Nintendo let them go, they never really felt the same under Microsoft.

 

Some companies work well together, I believe Silicon Kinights will work better with Microsoft than they did Nintendo, as they are more suited. Rare on the other hand were far to close to Nintendo, and their creative genius went hand in hand.

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name me a truely good game they have put on the 360???

 

perfect dark was a complete let down and cudnt shovel shit to the original...

 

kameo was a dissapointing rpg, that was hardly original or epic...

 

ghost and ghoulies or w/e it was called was pure shit...

 

i honestly dont think rare have matched the form they showed at nintendo m8, maybe there change it round with banjo kazzoie if it comes out...

 

kameo isn't an rpg for one and viva pinata is the "truley good game " your looking for.

 

grabbed by the ghoulies was on the xbox not 360.

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yea true ^

 

rare were always a traditionally slow company, who needed alot of time to perfect the development of there games - nintendo always supported this and as a result got back good results... i believe at microsoft, they are being rushed into creating stuff (mainly due to microsofts impatience after spending so much to buy them out) and as a result there is a dip of quality & this has made tensions within the camp...

 

shame to see tbh

 

I don't think this is completely true, although I do believe to some point what you are saying about microsoft to be honest. the decline started before this, think Starfox Adventures, a good game, but by no means a great game and they were given plenty of time to develop it..it was originally an N64 game called dinosaur planet lets not forget and surely Nintendo meldled to get fox and chums in there...

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Last good Rare game I played was on the N64. Starfox Adventures was just a bog standard adventure game with great graphics, and the gameplay in the Conker remake on the Xbox just didn't age well at all.

 

Shame really.

 

Hope Banjo Threeie will be good though.

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It's surprising they left but understandable. Free Radical has many of Rare's original members and it's hardly a surprise that if so many people left the quality declined.

 

What I am wondering now, however, is if Nintendo saw this coming when they sold Rare to Microsoft. After all they got a lot of money for it and what Rare put out in these past years wasn't worth it I suppose.

Maybe Nintendo already realized the decline in quality and with MS offering a lot of money it was a win-win situation for them.

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So the Stamper brothers I take it retain none of the IPs of Rare? Its original projects again if they are still making games? They are blatently jumping on board the Wii train.

 

thats what I was saying earlier whether or not Microsoft bought all the old Ultimate Play The Game(the companies name originally) IP's aswell, such as Saber Wolf and Knight Lore etc...

 

Anyway remember ages ago and some game (can't remember which) the adventurer out of Saber Wolf said he would be seen riding the Dolphin (the cubes development name), that never happened maybe we could see him riding the wii?!

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I do miss Rare from back in the day. Pretty much every N64 game they made, I owned, and loved. I still play them all on a regular basis. I sold Dinosaur Planet after completing it in a couple of days.

Either the Stamper brothers make multi-console games with a new company (so there's no bigger company breathing down their necks) or they'll just retire. They're loaded, they don't need to make any more money, and they've left Rare still standing so nobody loses a job.

I'm not keeping my hopes up for any new games by them. But it would be nice.

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