Microsoft 'Completely Ruined' Rare

Subject: Microsoft 'Completely Ruined' Rare Sun Jul 08, 2012 9:41 am

Quote :: Legendary video game composer Grant Kirkhope (known for his work on Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Piñata, and more) was once the top dog of developer Rare’s music team - but left in recent years to strike out on his own path.

As many of you already know, Rare hasn’t been too well off in recent years. Ever since Microsoft bought the developer, the quality of their titles have slowly dropped - now most of the original team is gone and they’re known for helping out on dance minigame collections and the like. Kirkhope has come out with his viewpoint on this turn of events…and it’s a definite take-down of Microsoft (strong language and all).

Here’s the full quote:

“I think Rare have completely ****ed themselves. And - it isn’t their fault; it’s Microsoft’s fault. They have completely ruined that company, and it makes me cry every day of my life.”

Strong words from a man very much involved in the core Rare team. It’s no secret that Rare has basically shriveled up and died as a developer at this point - all the talent has left the company and they’re a shell of what they were in the N64 era. At that point in time, Rare was the leader in exclusive second party content on the N64, and almost every single title they developed for the platform went on to become a hallowed nostalgic memory in the minds of gamers.

It kills me how Rare went from something so great as Banjo-Kazooie, Conquers Bad Fur Day and GoldenEye 007, to nothing. Microsoft use them for Kinect- it's awful.

Subject: Re: Microsoft 'Completely Ruined' Rare Tue Jul 10, 2012 11:58 pm

used to love banjo kazooie and banjo tooie, also CBFD, but now its just not the same.