With the passage of time and the shifting trends of this ever-evolving industry, we've seen many great game developers/publishers come and go over the years. Some former greats had to close shop for one reason or another while others maybe saw a change in ownership or management that forever changed them for the worst. Whatever the case, I'm sure many of us here who've been gaming most of our lives have found ourselves wondering what the gaming landscape would look like if certain shifts hadn't occurred.
So this thread is our opportunity to postulate what might be if we were given the opportunity to travel back and time and prevent one game company from closing, merging with another company, or experiencing a change in ownership.
My vote is somewhat timely given all of the Banjo Kazooie revival rumors leading up to E3.
I'd go back in time and prevent Microsoft from poaching Rareware from Nintendo.
Man, very few falls from grace within the gaming industry have hit me as hard as post-Microsoft acquisition Rare. In a blink of an eye, Rare suddenly went from being one of the premiere developers in gaming to one that labored in the shadows of its former glory. From Battletoads to Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct all the way through to their beloved N64 games like Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, and the Banjo games, Rare had maintained a remarkably consistently level of quality through all of their games that suited their partnership with Nintendo at that time.
Back then, you knew a Rare game when you played one, especially post-DKC. They pioneered the Silicon Graphics-rendered 3D-to-2D sprite graphical style with Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct, and their visually appealing style carried over to their fully 3D N64 projects as well. Rare games of that era on Nintendo consoles always tended to be supremely polished with tight gameplay, a unique sense of humor and whimsy, and absolutely killer soundtracks. It's no exaggeration to say that their SNES/N64 games had some of the best music in the industry at that time.
Killer Cuts was one of my very first CD's, and it showcased Rare's excellent musical compositions at the time.
After Microsoft bought them, nothing was ever the same. I don't even need to go into detail. Everyone knows that it was an immediate and lasting fall from grace. That's not to say that modern-day Rare makes bad games, but they've never reached the heights of their 90's run with Nintendo.
So, yeah. I'd go back in time and undo that acquisition, just so I could see what games they would've continued to produce if they stuck with Nintendo.
So this thread is our opportunity to postulate what might be if we were given the opportunity to travel back and time and prevent one game company from closing, merging with another company, or experiencing a change in ownership.
My vote is somewhat timely given all of the Banjo Kazooie revival rumors leading up to E3.
I'd go back in time and prevent Microsoft from poaching Rareware from Nintendo.
Man, very few falls from grace within the gaming industry have hit me as hard as post-Microsoft acquisition Rare. In a blink of an eye, Rare suddenly went from being one of the premiere developers in gaming to one that labored in the shadows of its former glory. From Battletoads to Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct all the way through to their beloved N64 games like Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, and the Banjo games, Rare had maintained a remarkably consistently level of quality through all of their games that suited their partnership with Nintendo at that time.
Back then, you knew a Rare game when you played one, especially post-DKC. They pioneered the Silicon Graphics-rendered 3D-to-2D sprite graphical style with Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct, and their visually appealing style carried over to their fully 3D N64 projects as well. Rare games of that era on Nintendo consoles always tended to be supremely polished with tight gameplay, a unique sense of humor and whimsy, and absolutely killer soundtracks. It's no exaggeration to say that their SNES/N64 games had some of the best music in the industry at that time.
Killer Cuts was one of my very first CD's, and it showcased Rare's excellent musical compositions at the time.
After Microsoft bought them, nothing was ever the same. I don't even need to go into detail. Everyone knows that it was an immediate and lasting fall from grace. That's not to say that modern-day Rare makes bad games, but they've never reached the heights of their 90's run with Nintendo.
So, yeah. I'd go back in time and undo that acquisition, just so I could see what games they would've continued to produce if they stuck with Nintendo.
