Rare Ltd.

Rare, sometimes referred to as Rare, Ltd., Rare Limited and, previously, Rareware, is a British video game development company. They have developed a huge amount of games. Many were for Nintendo, but the company is now owned by Microsoft. Rare has two studios: one in Twycross, in Leicestershire, England and one in Digbeth, in Birmingham, England.

As Ultimate Play the Game
Before Rare was founded, Tim and Chris Stamper created Ultimate Play the Game in 1982. They made games mainly for the ZX Spectrum, like Jetpac and the Sabreman series.

As Rare
In 1995, Rareware made an agreement with Nintendo, and began publishing games for them. In 2002, Microsoft bought Rareware. Since then, Rareware has made console games strictly for Microsoft, but also made handheld games for Nintendo, by publishing them through THQ. During the summer of 2010, Rareware opened a new studio in Digbeth, in Birmingham, England.

While working for Microsoft, Rare has also helped create the Xbox Live Avatars. They have stated that they are focusing more on Microsoft's new controller-free peripheral, Kinect. Rare's first game to be released for Kinect was Kinect Sports.

Famous Games

 * Jetpac (1983)
 * Sabre Wulf series (1984)
 * Battletoads (1991)
 * Donkey Kong Country (1994)
 * Killer Instinct (1994)
 * Goldeneye 007 (1997)
 * Diddy Kong Racing (1997)
 * Banjo-Kazooie (1998)
 * Donkey Kong 64 (1999)
 * Perfect Dark (2000)
 * Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001)
 * Star Fox Adventures (2002)
 * Kameo: Elements of Power (2005)
 * Viva Piñata (2006)

Famous Members

 * Tim and Chris Stamper: The original founders of the company. They left in January 2007 to pursue "other opportunities".
 * Grant Kirkhope: Composer for most of Rare's Nintendo 64 games, and also the composer of Rare's most recent games. Possibly most famous for the music of Banjo-Kazooie. He left Rare in July 2008, to work with THQ's studio, Big Huge Games, as audio director.
 * Robin Beanland: Composer for many of Rare's games. He was also the composer for Conker's Bad Fur Day (and its remake, Conker: Live & Reloaded) and co-wrote the script with Chris Seavor.
 * Chris Seavor: Originally working as a graphic designer for Rare, he eventually designed Conker's Bad Fur Day. He co-wrote the script with Robin Beanland, and voiced many of the characters, including Conker. He also voiced Slippy Toad and Peppy Hare in Star Fox Adventures.
 * Martin Hollis: Left in 1998 and began working with Nintendo on the GameCube. He eventually formed the company Zoonami.
 * David Doak: Left after Hollis and helped form Free Radical Design, the company behind the Timesplitters franchise.
 * Kevin Bayliss': Co-character design and animation, motion capture.
 * David Wise: Composer for Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, and Diddy Kong Racing just to name a few.
 * Eveline Fischer: One of the few female staff members at Rare. She composed the music for Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble and voiced Joanna Dark in Perfect Dark.
 * Chris Sutherland: One of the programmers, voices of Banjo and Kazooie.
 * Gregg Mayles: Designer of Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.
 * Mark Betteridge: Main programmer on many of Rare's games, including Battletoads. He was also the Studio Director from 2007-2010. He left the company that same year.