In one of the most mind numbingly obscene decisions ever in the video game industry,
Rare's PR rejects free publicity in the form of a fan doctumentary by a nearly ten-year running fan community. In doing so, they have caused one of their last remaining fanbase communities to lose faith in the company, and so they shut down their own site.
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After more than 9 years, our friends at MundoRare closed the doors of their website. Their departure has generated a bunch of stir in the network, so there’s no one better than their proper members to tell us what happened: Alberto Riol, Iker Pérez, and Mark Mazzei.
-You closed the site after more than nine years. Why?
Iker: It’s a combination of things. Principally, because Rare doesn’t make games that interest us. Rejecting the documentary project didn’t help, either. There’s no further mystery.
-Why didn’t you close it before?
Alberto: Despite losing interest in Rare, they still produced good games. They never repeated something like Goldeneye or Conker, but the quality of Viva Pinata or the new Banjo for me are beyond doubt. However, the constant cancellations of unofficial games (Perfect Dark 2 and Kameo 2 existed) and the rejections of making sequels that the whole world was asking for (Killer Instinct 3) weighed like a stone in a moment where their only offering has been a mere clone of Wii Sports.
Mark: I agree, Rare kept making games that were worth commenting on. Personally, I thought that E3 2010 would have games for the new audience that Rare is going after as well as their traditional fanbase. Unfortunately, I was proven wrong.
-What was the documentary about?
Iker: It was going to be a one-hour film, taking place in Birmingham, Twycross, and Ashby, the little town where the studio was founded. We thought of interviewing a lot of Rare employees and letting them answer how the first 25 years at the company were, game by game, interspersing their stories with glimpses into their current work developing for Kinect. We were going to go with a team of people from Spain and the US. We made a lot of preparations, and we presented it formally, including necessary legalities. During this time, Rare’s management considered doing it.
-Why wasn’t it done in the end?
Iker: Rare’s PR considered that the idea did not comply with the objectives of the company.
-Do you think that the deal between Rare and Microsoft has been beneficial for both parties?
Alberto: It’s difficult to say. From the point of view of profitability, Microsoft acquired a company with a large amount of games in development, some of which came out in the Xbox’s first years. However, it seems like Rare’s creative freedom with Microsoft has stayed very limited; I at least want to think that it wasn’t Rare who voluntarily raised their hand when Microsoft said, “Alright, who’s going to make Wii Sports for Kinect for us?”
Mark: Yes and no. I think that, at least for Microsoft, having Rare is something fruitful on paper. For Rare, I think that the only advantage is technology. Nintendo doesn’t have anything like Xbox Live, or the same horsepower at the 360. But in terms of popularity and the audience, I don’t think the deal’s been beneficial for Rare.
Iker: It doesn’t seem so. Microsoft spent 375 million dollars on Rare, which in 8 years have launched a pair of games that reached a million in sales. Companies like Epic Games have released blockbusters that have sold up to three million in a matter of months. On the other hand, Rare haven’t been able to steal Nintendo’s audience, and their games have lost quality. At least until today, there’s not the impression that this has been beneficial for anybody.
-What went wrong?
Alberto: The public that bought Rare’s games in masses aren’t on Xbox. But, at the time, the games that could’ve sold on Xbox didn’t see the light: why no sequels to Killer Instinct or Jet Force Gemini instead of a Banjo game or a second Pinata title? Apart from that, Rare’s creative direction seems to have gone south. It can’t be that in these years, they’ve cancelled many more games than the ones that have been released. And I’m not talking about the ideas only on paper, or including prototypes, but of games in development or near completion like Sabreman Stampede, Goldeneye XBLA, Battletoads GBA, or The Fast and The Furriest. It’s a waste of resources in every way, from the creative to the personal, to the economic.
Mark: Like Alberto says, the absence of an audience. Rare has done a lot to attempt to expand the primary userbase of the Xbox, but they haven’t achieved the expected sales. Looking back, I also think that Rare coming to the Xbox in the middle of its life-cycle gravely affected their development. If they joined Microsoft earlier, the order of game releases would’ve been very different.
-Do you believe that Rare was better off with Nintendo?
Alberto: The truth is that it’s ironic to see how Rare “left” Nintendo’s side when they were going to radically change the industry with the Wii to –finally—see them making games like Kinect Sports for Microsoft. It’s like Rare had reached the same point on what would’ve been 8 years ago, only without the creative freedom expected had they have stuck with Nintendo. Also, for the type of games that they are, and given that everything that has the Nintendo seal generally sells like hotcakes, games like Ghoulies, Viva Pinata, Kameo and Banjo probably would’ve fared better in sales on the Gamecube or Wii.
Iker: They would’ve sold more, that’s for sure. Ghoulies, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, and Donkey Kong Racing surely would’ve come out much earlier for the Gamecube, and in the case of Perfect Dark, with a different design. Viva Pinata would’ve come out in one way or another. There wouldn’t have been a Conker remake. With the Wii, it’s impossible to say, you have to realize that the games that Rare have been, until recently, dragging since 2002 from the console change. If they stayed with Nintendo, they probably would’ve had many more releases and better sales. But I don’t know if the games would’ve been better.
Mark: Rare unveiled three titles in 2001 (StarFox Adventures, Kameo, and Donkey Kong Racing), and they had five more in development (Perfect Dark, Pinata, Ghoulies, Quest, and Arc Angel). It’s not unreasonable to think that all those games would’ve sold much better than those that finally arrived on the Xbox and the Xbox 360. It’s probable that they would’ve released more titles for the Game Boy Advance. It’s difficult to say how they would’ve supported the Wii, taking into account their huge success.
-We get the impression that Rare, in their years with Microsoft, have only gained modest success using ideas that they dragged since their time with Nintendo. Do you agree? Do you think that, for all that Rare says, Microsoft has drastically cut the wings of the company?
Mark: With what’s happened recently, I’d say so. The portable team has been put to work on Kinect, PDZ and Kameo were shoehorned with the 360’s release, Microsoft didn’t allow the Conker Team to develop the sequel to Bad Fur Day and Stampede wasn’t going anywhere (although this isn’t just Microsoft’s fault). In that case, I’d say that the answer is yes, mostly. Ghoulies, Pinata, Jetpac Refuelled, and Nuts & Bolts are the only games that seem to have escaped Microsoft’s clippers.
-It’s been said that Rare’s games aren’t what they were due to the “brain drain.” What truth is there in this?
Iker: This was always exaggerated. Not even half of Rare left to fun Free Radical, nor the other half abducted by aliens. Also, the drop has been occurring sporadically over many years. The rumors started after six members from the Goldeneye Team left the company, including director Martin Hollis, and that didn’t stop from releasing Perfect Dark. From then on, people believed an urban legend that talked about the second biblical Exodus. Not many left, nor those that did were essential. At Rare, there has always been, and they still have, talent.
Mark: On the other hand, Banjo: Nuts & Bolts is an example of a game that was developed by the same group of people as always, and its quality has been questioned by many.
Alberto: Employees come and go. It happens at Rare as much as Nintendo, Microsoft, or Valve. Over the years, it’s been given extreme importance to whatever “brain drain” of prominent people at Rare, and many of those employees haven’t shown much on their account. Martin Hollis was said to create “the New Rare” after leaving the company and founding Zoonami. But Zoonami has not been capable of making anything decent in all this time. Others, like Free Radical, have done much better. However, I am reluctant to think that those early departures had great impact in a company with 200 employees.
-A year ago, Peter Molyneux said that he’d like for Rare to have “an identity.” Now Rare has announced Kinect Sports. Is there a connection?
Alberto: Peter Molyneux is a smoke seller. Nothing that comes out of his mouth should be of major interest.
-Rare is making Avatars and clones of Wii Sports; Nintendo is making Donkey Kong Country Returns and Goldeneye…what’s going on here?
Alberto: Nintendo gave a grand slam this E3. They personally sold me on a Wii this past June, while Microsoft preferred to flirt with the casual audience, showing off fitness games and various clones of Wii games. The creation of a fourth DKC entry is something that should’ve been made long ago, especially after Rare’s failed DK64. That Nintendo decided to take their time to promote something like that, and finally giving Retro Studios the responsibility to create a sequel to a great trilogy, is grand news. After the great work that Retro has shown with Metroid, there’s no doubt that they are the best option.
On the other hand, the decision to create a new Goldeneye seems to be a really uncomfortable move. More so than what EA did years back with Goldeneye: Rogue Agent. This time, the game has been made with the intention to sell it as if it was the original with improvements, and it’s been done after Nintendo blocked the launch of the XBLA and Wii Ware versions of the remake, developed by Rare a few years ago, now that Iwata was not capable of seeing “outside” a Nintendo console. If avoiding that all of us could’ve seen a remake of Goldeneye in its tenth anniversary was already a selfish decision, this new chapter hasn’t improved things much.
Mark: The fabric of reality decided to get drunk beyond imagination. E3 2010 was like Bizarro World. As a fan of DKC, I love to see the franchise under the wing of someone that appears to respect it. As for Goldeneye, it’s an obvious attempt on Nintendo’s part to get the title on their system and only their system. Losing Goldeneye XBLA has been one of the hugest injustices in the industry, because Microsoft and Nintendo would’ve both benefitted from this.
Iker: I’m going to say one more time for everyone that doesn’t know about it yet, what went on: Rare adapted Goldeneye in high definition and with an online mode for the Xbox 360 in 2007. Microsoft offered Nintendo a simultaneous launch on Xbox Live and Wii Ware. Activision agreed with the plan. But, Nintendo denied it because, at the cost of sacrificing a good project, they could eliminate the competition’s benefit without losing theirs. We know this because we’ve talked to members on the development team, as well as members from Microsoft and Activisions. One of the people included faced a legal problem for saying what was said. They took the game in which Rare put a lot of heart in compared to the past ten years. And now they’re leaving us with a strange remake with Daniel Craig as James Bond, and I’m presuming Tobias Menzies as Moneypenny.
-Do you think that Kinect and the like are gaining way too much ground on the games that have been there forever? The gamers are very susceptible or is it that tragic how it seems that companies that have given us great games are wasting their efforts on projects of those types?
Iker: To us, Rare developing for Kinect didn’t appear to be bad. The way they’ve done so, yes. The theme is that technology as it is doesn’t have to aim at undemanding users without experience in the field of games. But Nintendo opened a new front, and Microsoft has decided to imitate them. If this benefits them and they want to do it, go for it. Unfortunately, this strategy results in uninspired, insipid, and irrelevant games. It could be that someone who has never held a controller in their life, but the rest can see that there’s much more that can be done. We’re not here to make proposals to the market, but to simply comment on the quality of video games. Kinect, Wii, and Move are great ideas, and shouldn’t bee seen as the enemy. But the form of what these systems tend to be exploited is very disappointing on an artistic and creative level.
-What future do you think waits for Rare?
Alberto: They’ve played a single card with Kinect. And, from what I’ve seen, this card only includes casual games. It could come out great if the peripheral succeeds, even though I personally believe it won’t. Sports isn’t even a pack-in title with Kinect’s launch, and that’s going to be a problem for Rare. If their next titles don’t sell well, I fear that the excuse of their audience being in another place will be over, and Microsoft could close the studio down.
Iker: I hope that it goes well for those that work there, with or without Rare. But that’s all. As I study right now, I no longer count myself among their supporters, or their target audience. I prefer to think about the future of Valve, Bethesda, or the uncles of Limbo.
Mark: Taking into account that our film was not in line with their interests, I think that the direction that Rare is going is difficult to follow. I will always respect them for what they’ve done, they have great employees with a lot of talent, and I wish them all the best. Yet, their lack of conviction beyond the chatter of PR talk isn’t very comforting. Anything can happen, but I suppose that the uphill battle will continue, given that Kinect Sports isn’t even a pack-in with Kinect.
Picanté sauceWell freakin' done, Rare. You've just murdered your own fandom. I hope you have fun with your Wii Sports clone.
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move like this to their own fans?
Arguably indeed...