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Rare Ltd.
Rare, Ltd., also known simply as Rare and, formerly, 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.
History
Rare was founded in 1982 by Tim and Chris Stamper. They published their games as Ultimate Play The Game, for 8-bit consoles like the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and BBC Micro. 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 will be 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 of 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 of 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 the Squirrel. He also voiced Slippy Toad 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.
