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Another day, another snippet of news from everyone’s favourite third party developer (if you’re an Nintendo fan at least) – Rare. This time comes the news that two prospective Gamecube and GBA releases, Donkey Kong Racing and Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers have been struck of future release schedules, possibly forever. Which begs the question, have Rare finally bitten the bullet and cut their ties with Nintendo? If they have, then this causes repercussions that will reverberate all around the gaming world. This post will examine the potential effects that Rare ‘going solo’ would have, not only on Gamecube and Nintendo, but on the dynamics of the industry as a whole.
About a year ago now, Sega were struggling. Sales of the Dreamcast were slipping, despite arguably one of the best software line-ups of any console ever. Money spent on advertising was reaping fruitless rewards, their killer app, RPG/action adventure hybrid Shenmue was not widely accepted as they hoped it would, especially in comparison to Square’s flagship franchise Final Fantasy, and with the Playstation 2 on the horizon (not to mention Microsoft and Nintendo’s efforts) the future was anything but rosy. But with one decision, their fortunes changed. By deciding to cease production of Dreamcast and switching to software production only, overnight Sega went from a struggling company to one of the hottest commodities in the industry – every major console player wanted Sega games to grace their console, and there was speculation of a Microsoft takeover. It didn’t materialise, but in one swift move Sega’s share price rocketed and their fortunes took a turn for the better.
The point of that little history lesson was to make certain comparisons between Rare and Sega. Sure, Rare aren’t in the console business, and they certainly aren’t struggling, but Rare could too make the transition that Sega could. From being restricted to Nintendo only, if Rare went multiformat they could become even bigger players in the industry, not to mention tripling their games sales, and ultimately revenue – an attractive proposition for any company. As has been well documented, the days of exclusive games are practically over –despite a few ties, most developers understand the financial benefits at least of making their games appearing on all consoles.
How will Rare going multi-format affect Nintendo? Arguably, Rare saved the N64. With the long droughts between major releases and a lack of major third party support due to the high cost of cartridges, Rare’s games kept the ’64 afloat – Banjo Kazooie, Conker, Blast Corps (well, maybe not that), Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, DK64, etc. Nintendo owe Rare a lot – without those games their place in the industry might have been under threat, and despite the part-ownership element, Rare could have made a lot more money than they did from multiformat releases. Miyamoto has also made his appreciation of them clear, citing when asked about his favourite developer (bar Nintendo of course) as Rare, saying they make “very good games”.
But now? Well, there is only one release on the way – Starfox Adventures, which seems to have been an age in development. Kameo hasn’t been seen since two Spaceworlds ago, and the aforementioned DK games have both been struck off release dates. The mischievous, and now infamous, Christmas card could have been an indicator of their discontent, maybe Nintendo are restricting their creative licence - who knows what goes on behind the scenes. Perhaps any potential animosity might arise from the fact that Nintendo have lazily farmed out old franchises, in this case the Starfox crew, to Rare rather than let them stick with the Dinosaur Planet ones. I may be clutching at straws here, but it is valid nonetheless. Also, Nintendo aren’t as dependent on Rare anymore – they have the support of Square and Resident Evil franchise, not to mention their new philosophy.
But let’s look at another perspective. Sure, it can be argued that Nintendo might not be able to live without Rare, but think of it this way –can Rare live without Nintendo? Some of Rare’s most popular games have been from the Nintendo ‘stable’, whilst some of Rare’s own creations – Blast Corps, Jet Force Gemini haven’t been as successful. It can be argued that, FPSs aside, games featuring more established characters have done better. Plus, Nintendo have been very patient in allowing Rare to take as much time as possible when creating games – others might not be so understanding.
Would a Rare multi-format decision hurt Gamecube? Probably. Would it bother Nintendo? Maybe, but they always maintain that they don’t pressurise anyone else to make games for their console. Whatever transpires, in this industry of card games, Rare hold a powerful hand, and what they do with it could determine who wins the game (what a dodgy analogy).
Thank you and goodnight.
About a year ago now, Sega were struggling. Sales of the Dreamcast were slipping, despite arguably one of the best software line-ups of any console ever. Money spent on advertising was reaping fruitless rewards, their killer app, RPG/action adventure hybrid Shenmue was not widely accepted as they hoped it would, especially in comparison to Square’s flagship franchise Final Fantasy, and with the Playstation 2 on the horizon (not to mention Microsoft and Nintendo’s efforts) the future was anything but rosy. But with one decision, their fortunes changed. By deciding to cease production of Dreamcast and switching to software production only, overnight Sega went from a struggling company to one of the hottest commodities in the industry – every major console player wanted Sega games to grace their console, and there was speculation of a Microsoft takeover. It didn’t materialise, but in one swift move Sega’s share price rocketed and their fortunes took a turn for the better.
The point of that little history lesson was to make certain comparisons between Rare and Sega. Sure, Rare aren’t in the console business, and they certainly aren’t struggling, but Rare could too make the transition that Sega could. From being restricted to Nintendo only, if Rare went multiformat they could become even bigger players in the industry, not to mention tripling their games sales, and ultimately revenue – an attractive proposition for any company. As has been well documented, the days of exclusive games are practically over –despite a few ties, most developers understand the financial benefits at least of making their games appearing on all consoles.
How will Rare going multi-format affect Nintendo? Arguably, Rare saved the N64. With the long droughts between major releases and a lack of major third party support due to the high cost of cartridges, Rare’s games kept the ’64 afloat – Banjo Kazooie, Conker, Blast Corps (well, maybe not that), Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, DK64, etc. Nintendo owe Rare a lot – without those games their place in the industry might have been under threat, and despite the part-ownership element, Rare could have made a lot more money than they did from multiformat releases. Miyamoto has also made his appreciation of them clear, citing when asked about his favourite developer (bar Nintendo of course) as Rare, saying they make “very good games”.
But now? Well, there is only one release on the way – Starfox Adventures, which seems to have been an age in development. Kameo hasn’t been seen since two Spaceworlds ago, and the aforementioned DK games have both been struck off release dates. The mischievous, and now infamous, Christmas card could have been an indicator of their discontent, maybe Nintendo are restricting their creative licence - who knows what goes on behind the scenes. Perhaps any potential animosity might arise from the fact that Nintendo have lazily farmed out old franchises, in this case the Starfox crew, to Rare rather than let them stick with the Dinosaur Planet ones. I may be clutching at straws here, but it is valid nonetheless. Also, Nintendo aren’t as dependent on Rare anymore – they have the support of Square and Resident Evil franchise, not to mention their new philosophy.
But let’s look at another perspective. Sure, it can be argued that Nintendo might not be able to live without Rare, but think of it this way –can Rare live without Nintendo? Some of Rare’s most popular games have been from the Nintendo ‘stable’, whilst some of Rare’s own creations – Blast Corps, Jet Force Gemini haven’t been as successful. It can be argued that, FPSs aside, games featuring more established characters have done better. Plus, Nintendo have been very patient in allowing Rare to take as much time as possible when creating games – others might not be so understanding.
Would a Rare multi-format decision hurt Gamecube? Probably. Would it bother Nintendo? Maybe, but they always maintain that they don’t pressurise anyone else to make games for their console. Whatever transpires, in this industry of card games, Rare hold a powerful hand, and what they do with it could determine who wins the game (what a dodgy analogy).
Thank you and goodnight.
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Hmm.. well, I hate to say it but it looks worryingly suspicious. And it worrys me even more that I think that losing their backing from Nintendo will be more than made up for by the increased sales...
Maverick - here's one part of the Christmas card:
http://www.gamesradar.com/upload_images/ news/space1/rarecard/rarecardmain.jpg
Notice the presents are in shape of various consoles!
http://www.gamesradar.com/upload_images/ news/space1/rarecard/rarecardmain.jpg
Notice the presents are in shape of various consoles!
Maverick42 wrote:
> What is this suspicious Christmas Card hint Uncle Albert speaks of?
In their last Christmas Card, Rare depicted a Christmas Tree with three presents underneath, one in the shape of an Xbox wrapped in black and green paper, one in the shape of a PS2 wrapped in blue and a GC wrapped in purple, which many perceived to be a hint of an impending decision to go multiformat.
> What is this suspicious Christmas Card hint Uncle Albert speaks of?
In their last Christmas Card, Rare depicted a Christmas Tree with three presents underneath, one in the shape of an Xbox wrapped in black and green paper, one in the shape of a PS2 wrapped in blue and a GC wrapped in purple, which many perceived to be a hint of an impending decision to go multiformat.
Rare for me have always been the best company on the n64 and i hope they will be on the gamecube as well. Does anyone know when the first rare games is coming oout on the cube?
That's a good point Solskjaer, and one I mentioned in the post - can Rare live without Nintendo? They are given as much time as they need to produce their games, next to no intrusion into what they do and the Nintendo fans love them.
What is this suspicious Christmas Card hint Uncle Albert speaks of?
Great post there Russell.
I'm personally not really all that bothered about what happens with Rare, just as long as i'm able to play their great games in one way or another.
I don't think Rare would be able to survive too easily without Nintendo.
As Nintendo fans, we are pretty unique compared to the fans of SONY and Microsoft, we have become used to all the types of games they produce, and have very little bad points to make about more than 1 or 2 of them - if even that many.
The point i'm trying to make here is that other fans may not take-to Rare's work aswell as we have done - if they kept on producing the same old type of FPS and Platform games.
Sure, Perfect Dark and other FPS's may be accepted by them, but they'd just see Banjo and even Conker type games as being to kiddy and immature to them - unlike what they're used to.
Rare will always need Nintendo fans to buy at least SOME of their games as I feel others would not. But by all means, they could still do very well on other formats (like SEGA), just like you said.
I'm personally not really all that bothered about what happens with Rare, just as long as i'm able to play their great games in one way or another.
I don't think Rare would be able to survive too easily without Nintendo.
As Nintendo fans, we are pretty unique compared to the fans of SONY and Microsoft, we have become used to all the types of games they produce, and have very little bad points to make about more than 1 or 2 of them - if even that many.
The point i'm trying to make here is that other fans may not take-to Rare's work aswell as we have done - if they kept on producing the same old type of FPS and Platform games.
Sure, Perfect Dark and other FPS's may be accepted by them, but they'd just see Banjo and even Conker type games as being to kiddy and immature to them - unlike what they're used to.
Rare will always need Nintendo fans to buy at least SOME of their games as I feel others would not. But by all means, they could still do very well on other formats (like SEGA), just like you said.
Hey, this post was pure speculation on my part.
Just a thought - maybe Rare WANTED us to speculate, which is why they made the Christmas Card, because they knew they would be out the spotlight for a while. That way they would stay in the news rather then be left behind with all the GC rush.
Just a thought - maybe Rare WANTED us to speculate, which is why they made the Christmas Card, because they knew they would be out the spotlight for a while. That way they would stay in the news rather then be left behind with all the GC rush.
Indian-DudeY2K wrote:
> all hail the knowledgeable messiah , the rareware boffin :)
you should make that MessiaH, the cut 'n' paste from n-philes.com expert :P
just doin my best to make sure we're all up-to-date.
I think you guys should all remember that in all this confusion RARE HAVEN'T SAID A SINGLE THING. They haven't released any info or comments or anything since many months ago - save for two new screenies of Kameo the other week. Keep in mind that this whole saga has been brought up by rumours and gossip.
And the Christmas Card was released before Christmas, suprisingly - however that's over half a year ago. I would've thought Rare would have announced something since then.
The most likely time Rare are going to announce any more information is nearer StarFox Adventure's release in...November I think. That's when the screenshots and info will increase and Rare will be in the spotlight again.
-Mess out.
> all hail the knowledgeable messiah , the rareware boffin :)
you should make that MessiaH, the cut 'n' paste from n-philes.com expert :P
just doin my best to make sure we're all up-to-date.
I think you guys should all remember that in all this confusion RARE HAVEN'T SAID A SINGLE THING. They haven't released any info or comments or anything since many months ago - save for two new screenies of Kameo the other week. Keep in mind that this whole saga has been brought up by rumours and gossip.
And the Christmas Card was released before Christmas, suprisingly - however that's over half a year ago. I would've thought Rare would have announced something since then.
The most likely time Rare are going to announce any more information is nearer StarFox Adventure's release in...November I think. That's when the screenshots and info will increase and Rare will be in the spotlight again.
-Mess out.
they should just let nintendo buy them out completely , that way they wont have to worry about developing times and life can go on as it always has.
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