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Rareware


Barnard

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Seems to me that Microsoft would have been far better to buy up Rockstar and the GTA license, that would have really done wonders for the Xbox.

Bit of a stupid move buying Rare since the Xbox turned out to be the platform for serious adult games whilst the GC has become the platform for all the cute and colorful games which everyone can enjoy. Hmm, I wonder which catorgory Rare's games fit into best (with the exception of PD of course, but since that has disapered of the face of the planet, I really think for Rare they would have had better sales of thier games on the cube just becuase they were well known and the type of games they produced were ones that would have sold well on the cube).

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Piñata is going to be a game that you get free on the XBOX2 hard drive. You put seeds in a virtual garden and water them and watch them grow. The more games you buy the bigger your garden gets. Nice idea I think it was SHIGERU MIYAMOTO who came up with the idea for the GameCube but didn't bother to implement it as he thought it would be a waste of time.

Cool! First free game since Alex Kidd.

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Blimey, RARE are screwed.

Read all of it, and if its true about the Ex-RARE staff saying things in forums, particulerly those things...

It explains quite a bit though, I mean...with the lack of games released and all.

Such a loss to lose one of the greatest developers at there prime. Only to watch them swim and drown.

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Ive seen and heard of this happening in other companies. The problems stem when the company grows. A compay with 30 people is easy to manage, but as it grows the founders take a back seat, hire in people to take their place and this is when it all starts to crumble. They are so scared of losing their jobs they'll do anything to keep it, also being paid lots they need to look busy and proactive for the company, and more often than not, many dont even know about the industry they are working in, be it video games, media, retail etc. Its money to them they have no interest in the company or the sector.

Personally im not surprised it has happened as the company has grown to big and got idiots employed in key positions, many companies do it now and thats why they always, always fall down.

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I dunno if that is true or not, but i had a friend working at Rare. He worked on Banjo Kazaooie, JFG and Banjo-Tooie and then he left.

Things were great in the early days (Goldeney, Banjo Kazooie and Diddy Kong Racing) but he told me after that, the management were making them do unreasonable amounts of work, and sometimes sacked people if they didnt do the workload they were given.

He quit after Banjo-Tooie was made, because he heard about the MS takeover rumors and also the fact that lead programmers were getting the sack, and other people (paid less) were expected to take over the work.

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in the long term a valuable asset like rare is worth much more in terms of game sales, image and console sales.

Maybe, maybe, although I don't think Rare are being particularly well utilised by MS, but then again, would Nintendo have done any better at this point in time? Who knows......

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Just wondering since Mircrosoft spent something like 350 million on buying Rare does anyone think that they could have brought Rockstar for the same money and grab the GTA license, or are Rockstar worth even more than 350 million. Becuase if I were Microsoft and I could buy either Rockstar or Rare, I know which one I would go for. Just think launching Xbox 2 with an exclusive GTA game...

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Just wondering since Mircrosoft spent something like 350 million on buying Rare does anyone think that they could have brought Rockstar for the same money and grab the GTA license, or are Rockstar worth even more than 350 million.  Becuase if I were Microsoft and I could buy either Rockstar or Rare, I know which one I would go for.  Just think launching Xbox 2 with an exclusive GTA game...

They probably could have easily done the deal before GTA3 came out as the one thing many forget is it was hardly hyped at all before it's release. I know a few old GTA fans who were looking forward to it, but I think it's success shocked many including Rockstar.

As for Rare their output has been slow this generation, worse than normal for them anyway. I refuse to judge them just yet, Starfox was painfully average as was GBTG, but then I'd imagine Starfox was rushed towards the end to cut ties with Nintendo and GBTG appeared to be rushed out too.

I hope they return to form soon, they offered some of the best games of the last generation and it would be sad to see one of the last high profile British developers go to the dogs.

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I'm not in the games industry, but I am in the software industry and the kind of management issues that are spoken about in this thread are not unique. I've seen bad management, bad decisions and mass layoffs in my experience. Thankfully, I've survived all of these (most of the managers haven't!) and now, things have changed radically and for the first time in almost 3 years, starting to pick up and look very positive.

Hopefully, Microsoft know how to handle this situation. It sounds as though Rare have lost some key talent, but , I'm assuming that there are still some employees there who were responsible for making it the company it was and can be again... As the owner of Rare, the responsibility is now on Microsoft to sweep into the office and make changes where necessary. They may not be nice, they may hurt, however, if MS knows software, which I suspect it does, then ultimately they should be for the best.

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