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Nintendo should buy Rare Studio back

benjohn

benjohn

Member
Greetings

I was watching a Reggie Fils-Aime interview on YouTube and he was expressing his opinions on Rare Studio and how their history is actually tied with Nintendo. I had this thought at the moment that after all these years, considering the fact that Microsoft doesn't consider Nintendo and Sony as rivals but business partners, maybe there's a window of opportunity for them to acquire the studio back. It's just a fan wishful thinking of course but what's your opinion?
 
What's the point? No talent is left at that studio, it's just a husk.

Would be better if they just bought back IP's like Banjo Kazooie and developed them in-house.
 
fuck-no-robin-williams.gif
 
You would have to round up all the ship jumpers who created their own companies and even some of those companies aren't around anymore.
 
Rare has found success in a difficult genre. (Original GAAS title).

How much valuable do you think they would be?

And buy them to work on Banjo Kazooie again? LMAO.
 
Bad idea. It would be a collosal waste of money. The Rare of today isn't the Rare from the N64 era. They are only known for Sea of Thieves now. No one is left from those early days. The last key developer from the early days, Greg Mayles, was either let go this year or left on his own accord. What good is buying Rare when all the games they are known for are not being pursued by the Rare of today. Sequels to games like Banjo Kazooie, Killer Instinct, and Perfect Dark haven't been touched by a Rare developer since the N64 days. When they have been pursued other dev teams handled them, and some never even got a full release (Perfect Dark sequel). I would be much more interested to see if MS is willing to sell or license some of these dormant Rare properties to a third party that knows what they are doing, but judging by the MS treatment of great IP, they seem to be happy to let the great games of Rare's past die on the vine.
 
Rare is like Kaliningrad (Königsberg) these days. An absolute worthless shithole, run down by the current owners and a huge possible money sink, if you ever want the studio to return to its former glory days.
 
Plenty of characters they could stuff into Mario Kart. Even if Rare isn't what and who it was, maybe under Nintendo's guideance they could release a decent Banjo platformer, or a racing game. Or give them Wario or something.
 
Ozzie666 said:
Plenty of characters they could stuff into Mario Kart. Even if Rare isn't what and who it was, maybe under Nintendo's guideance they could release a decent Banjo platformer, or a racing game. Or give them Wario or something.
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It's a good point. There's no denying that Rare Sudio isnt in the best shape but I thnik it's more of the Microsoft culture that doesnt fit with the Rare history. No studio is good or bad in vaccum. Ther're as good as they're managed.
 
And what would a 2025 rare studio who just got a major game cancelled add to Nintendo?? Some of you act like you understand how these things work but I swear to god if you had any power at a company you will fuck it up worse than Phil Spencer and Jim Ryan ever did
 
Never forget Microsoft execs thinking they scored DK after buying Rare from Nintendo.

Like others have said, Rare is just a name at this point & would make 0 business sense for Nintendo.
 
Hookshot said:
Lets wait to MP4 before asking for more western devs. Retro haven't done anything in ages.
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Next Level Games is a very decent recent purchase btw, and I feel like if they would buy any studio they should go for MercurySteam or at least sign an exclusivity deal with them
 
Nintendo should have buyed Rare when they was at its peak and still doing N64 games.
Now Rare is just a name, nothing worth over there.
 
As many have already said, there's no value left in the studio itself, just the IPs, and Nintendo doesn't need more intellectual properties.

This is basically why they passed on Rare in the first place: they were afraid all the talent would flee post acquisition and they'd be left with a diminished studio that they overpaid for.

So they made the right call from a business perspective, as much as I would love to see a new Banjo.
 
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I mean their biggest IP is probably Banjo or Perfect Dark?

Not sure they really care about Perfect Dark and a Banjo would just overlap a lot with 3D DK/Mario games imo. They could probably make it work but I doubt it makes sense.
 
Nah their games are not great imo…
Plus Nintendo was wise declining the option of purchasing their remaining shares for ownership.
 
Nintendo letting go of Rare precisely when they did was one of their best-calculated moves ever.
Rare was already declining at the time. DK64 was a bloated mess, and Star Fox Adventures a sorry mistake that somehow some people still think was ever a good game. Kameo only proved that their best times were behind them.

Sure, any studio could do great things under Nintendo's supervision. But they'd have to overhaul the studio completely and make them start from scratch. And for what? To redeem Rare's name? No reason to, really.
 
Why ? Rare isn't the rare of old. Not even close to the same people. And they were never in a state where the old crew taught the new.
 
Are you the guy who told Sony to buy Bungie because the original Halo creators were surely hiding in a closet somewhere?

The Rare that you're thinking of are grandpas in nursing homes right now man. Check the calendar and do some math.
 
They should buy the old IPs, instead. Banjo, Perfect Dark, Conker, Jet Force Gemini, Battletoads, these are pretty much Nintendo titles in essence. The studio itself is a shell of it's former self and it's just a matter of time before MS shut it down.

NeoIkaruGAF said:
Nintendo letting go of Rare precisely when they did was one of their best-calculated moves ever.
Rare was already declining at the time. DK64 was a bloated mess, and Star Fox Adventures a sorry mistake that somehow some people still think was ever a good game. Kameo only proved that their best times were behind them.

Sure, any studio could do great things under Nintendo's supervision. But they'd have to overhaul the studio completely and make them start from scratch. And for what? To redeem Rare's name? No reason to, really.
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No, it wasn't. Rare was still highly relevant and capable of delivering some of the best-looking games of that generation — Star Fox Adventures is consistently ranked among the GameCube's most impressive titles visually. What really hurt Rare was Microsoft's inability to manage the studio properly. No wonder the Xbox brand has been slowly declining.

If we follow that logic, then I guess Nintendo should have dumped Retro Studios as well, since they also went through a talent exodus and were a complete mess at one point. Fortunately, Nintendo decided to restructure the studio, and now they're developing Metroid Prime 4. Nintendo should have taken the same approach with Rare, but Iwata wanted to shut down the western development division and centralize power and decision-making in Japan (and, to some extent, around himself).

This whole "Rare was already going downhill and selling them was a smart move" argument has always sounded more like fanboy damage control than anything based on actual facts.
 
Midway-AGNC- said:
No, it wasn't. Rare was still highly relevant and capable of delivering some of the best-looking games of that generation — Star Fox Adventures is consistently ranked among the GameCube's most impressive titles visually. What really hurt Rare was Microsoft's inability to manage the studio properly. No wonder the Xbox brand has been slowly declining.

This whole "Rare was already going downhill and selling them was a smart move" argument has always sounded more like fanboy damage control than anything based on actual facts.
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I can't agree on this.
Who cares if SFA was impressive visually? They used fur shading as a pitch to make people overlook the messy development and the complete incoherence and poor design of the final product, and people and press alike still fell for it somehow. SFA is not a good game, and never was. I had to force myself to finish it, and I was disappointed from the first sitting with it. There's very little Nintendo in that game, and all the signs of a western studio trying to come to grips with the early 2000s way of making western games while still being tethered to a Nintendo IP. How Rare's design skills dropped that low from the heights of the Banjo games in less than five years was horrible to see.

No fanboy damage control from me. Banjo-Tooie was already too much of a good thing, and after that one, the final Rare games for Nintendo were already showing clear signs of decline in game design.
 
NeoIkaruGAF said:
I can't agree on this.
Who cares if SFA was impressive visually? They used fur shading as a pitch to make people overlook the messy development and the complete incoherence and poor design of the final product, and people and press alike still fell for it somehow. SFA is not a good game, and never was. I had to force myself to finish it, and I was disappointed from the first sitting with it. There's very little Nintendo in that game, and all the signs of a western studio trying to come to grips with the early 2000s way of making western games while still being tethered to a Nintendo IP. How Rare's design skills dropped that low from the heights of the Banjo games in less than five years was horrible to see.

No fanboy damage control from me. Banjo-Tooie was already too much of a good thing, and after that one, the final Rare games for Nintendo were already showing clear signs of decline in game design.
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That's just nonsense — pure subjectivity being passed off as objective fact.

Yes, Star Fox Adventures absolutely is one of the best-looking games on the system, and plenty of people genuinely enjoy it. It's constantly mentioned in GameCube recommendation lists, and even recently here on GAF, when people were asked what kind of Star Fox revival they'd like to see, a lot of users said they wanted something closer to Adventures. You may dislike the game, but pretending that your personal experience represents some universal truth simply doesn't hold up.

Rare could have remained a major asset to Nintendo if there had been interest in maintaining that partnership. And it wasn't just Rare — almost every major western partner Nintendo had was cut loose after Iwata took over. The only real exception was Retro Studios. That speaks far more to a strategic shift within Nintendo than to any supposed "decline" at Rare.

It wasn't a collapse of talent — it was a change in corporate direction.
 
I asume most of the talent that were in their old well known games is no longer there, and that if something they should buy the IPs including the rights for the old games.
 
simpatico said:
Are you the guy who told Sony to buy Bungie because the original Halo creators were surely hiding in a closet somewhere?

The Rare that you're thinking of are grandpas in nursing homes right now man. Check the calendar and do some math.
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🤣
Ya, the Stamper Brothers have to be pushing 70 by now, if not already there. Even if all the old talent stayed at Rare, they would have already retired or be in the retirement window.
 
benjohn said:
Greetings

I was watching a Reggie Fils-Aime interview on YouTube and he was expressing his opinions on Rare Studio and how their history is actually tied with Nintendo. I had this thought at the moment that after all these years, considering the fact that Microsoft doesn't consider Nintendo and Sony as rivals but business partners, maybe there's a window of opportunity for them to acquire the studio back. It's just a fan wishful thinking of course but what's your opinion?
Click to expand...
No
 
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