On this day in 2002, Microsoft purchased Rare for $375 million. It almost turned into a disaster. Today, Rare is one of the most successful studios.
- Thread starter FarSight XR-20
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So glad to see the studio find its new identity - that is the most difficult thing (and something its obvious a studio like 343 is still struggling with)
Didn't even know about Everwild. Looks dope!
The company has had their highs and lows. After the buyout they did hit bit of a slump. I mean Viva Pinata and Kameo were good games but not great. Especially when compared to their output from late 90s till buyout. Didn't play Nuts & Bolts but at least it looked good and after that I feel like they didn't make games for me until Sea of Thieves. But seems like they are on track to be one of the best studios around, long as new Battletoads and Everwild will pan out good.
The company has had their highs and lows. After the buyout they did hit bit of a slump. I mean Viva Pinata and Kameo were good games but not great. Especially when compared to their output from late 90s till buyout. Didn't play Nuts & Bolts but at least it looked good and after that I feel like they didn't make games for me until Sea of Thieves. But seems like they are on track to be one of the best studios around, long as new Battletoads and Everwild will pan out good.
It's the same identity as it has always had. Making new IPs or games with new ideas. :)
It had 3 million monthly active players a few months ago. And it has sold aprox 2.5m+ on Xbox/Windows 10. Probably near 5 million total units sold, or more.
I feel like I'm having this discussion way too often. Sea of Thieves is a successful game. If Rare is one of the most succesful studios? Eh, that depends how you look at it. In the past 4 or so years? Yea, possibly. Overall? Nah.
Its simple - Nintendo like a lot of Japanese companies (but nintendo most of all) never understood or wanted to understand how to manage and grow non japanese developers. They sold off and shut down all their western studios/3rd party years ago
True - i just mean in game style
People want an old rare or an old whatever game dev to come back
You can't - the past is the past and you have to move on to what works for the team you have now
Yeah, that's a fair point.
Rare gone through like five or six widely different eras. With the Kinect era being my least favorite by far. I have big hopes for the current era though.
Yeah i think people need to understand that by a sales and performance metric every era has been successful for rare
Fan feelings aside
People seem to love Sea of Thieves outside of this forum. Every session is a unique experience and that goes for everyone playing.
Like i said most publishers would not be happy with the sales for the size of the project and investment. 3m active users is good but not a major success like people in this thread is making out but when considering a success for MS is difficult as their focus is gamepass and not pure sales. Dont get me wrong I really like Rare as a studio and hope that their games are really good but just making the point that when your dealing with AAA, crazy money development cost games that the level to be successful is very high. for example if Last of US 2 sold 3m copies people would say its a success but Sony (internally) would not see it as a success.
As successful as Sea of of Thieves has become, calling Rare "one of the most successful studios" today is quite a stretch. It's still basically just a shell of the company that it was in its golden age and nothing they've put out in the last decadr can match their 90's/early 2000's output.
Having 3 million active players 2 years after release is a success. Attracing 15 million people to an IP is a success. And let's not compare a Naughty Dog title to a Rare title, as the production costs will be very different. For most of the development 100 - 150 people worked on Sea of Thieves. That's lower end of triple A production.
Rare is doing fine. Sea of Thieves is a great and unique experience and I loved how the game evolved. Everwild is also really promising.
My only request to Rare is a Banjo remake or a new Banjo.
My only request to Rare is a Banjo remake or a new Banjo.
The acquisition always bummed me out. I felt like the quality of their games took a dip, and I always liked when Rare made "Nintendo" games. They were practically synonymous with the brand!
If I ever catch an Xbox One for like $150 I may pick it up with Rare Replay, lol. I'd like to play through Banjo-Kazooie and Conker again. Nuts & Bolts is overrated also, imo.
If I ever catch an Xbox One for like $150 I may pick it up with Rare Replay, lol. I'd like to play through Banjo-Kazooie and Conker again. Nuts & Bolts is overrated also, imo.
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Sea of Thieves was the fastest-selling Rare game ever tracked at launch in the US while simultaneously launching day one in the Game Pass (and, as Game Pass was new, MS was pushing a lot the 10-day free trial of Game Pass at this time for those who remember).
It was also the best-selling game in the UK on its first week with physical copies only (PC and digital purchases not counted). The previous time a Rage game topped the charts was in 1998 with Banjo-Kazooie and 2015 with Rare Replay.
3 months after launching on Steam, the game is still in the top 10 weekly sales.
In a generation where MS was struggling and had a lot of failures, especially regarding their attempts at new IPs (Quantum Break, ReCore, Sunset Overdrive...).
And a 22% retention rate of active players compared to total number of players more than 2 years after launch is very good also.
Also, Rare has like 200-250 employees and several teams working on different projects. We can't compare SoT's budget with The Last of Us 2.
Rare couldn't wish a better result actually. It's their biggest success ever.
Rare revealed that the game beat the three months sales target in a single day.
Sea of Thieves hit three month target in a single day
Rare's Sea of Thieves beat its three month sales target in a single day, and Xbox Game Pass played a significant role.S…
www.gamesindustry.biz
Kinect aside, i think they have mostly been better than ever. Some of the games on N64 aren't really good. (Tooie, DK64 and Conker) DK64 might be the worst 3D platformer i ever played and Tooie isn't far behind. SFA being mediocre wasn't suprising. Even if it stayed as Dinosaour Planet it would likely be just as bad.
Rare a shall what they use to be, They done nothing but mess up and fail when it come to one of the biggest IP they own Banjo-Kazooie they just sitting on it and done nothing with it for.
Sell it off or give it to someone who can or cares its clear Rare not what it was and will never be
oh anyone point to Sea of Thieves how fast you forget how that game come out they where happy with that
Sell it off or give it to someone who can or cares its clear Rare not what it was and will never be
oh anyone point to Sea of Thieves how fast you forget how that game come out they where happy with that
More than 2,000 people from Naughty Dog and multiple studios around the world worked on TLOU2 compared to Sea of Thieves hundred or so developers. Of course it needed to sell better than SOT... Like the level of investment is nowhere near comparable.
I was not comparing sales just using last of us 2 as an example that just because a game has 2m+ sales does not make it a success even though it looks good from the outside appearance. None of us know how much it cost to make SoT but it was not low budget.
If it wasn't a success Rare nor MS would still be supporting it 2 years later.
While this is a great write-up, Rare is, and has been for years, a joke compared to what it used to be. When comparing Sea of Thieves to the output before MS bought them... I don't even know what to say to that. Rare used to be one of the absolute best, top-tier studios. They aren't even in the discussion of top 15 this century.
I don't think the 3m active user base is a failure but could not call the game a success either. MS priority is gamepass so keep supporting the game is in there interest with the active numbers. It's also important that MS continues to support a game even if it's not successful so people have confidence going forward. Same reason Nintendo support the Wii u so long instead of dropping it and moving on. But like I said I don't think SoT is a failure just not the success story people are making it out to be.
Presumably you're going by the end credits figure (which includes a lot of people outside of direct development itself, eg marketing, web, QA etc). Going by the same metric, 455 people worked on Sea of Thieves, which whilst no where near as much as TLOU2, is certainly not 100 or so.
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I remember being so scared before SoT released because as much as I loved what I saw, it looked so niche and there just wasn't a lot of hype surrounding it. I was afraid Rare would go the way of Lionhead if SoT failed. So seeing the immense success it has gotten has as made me so happy.
The combination of Rare Replay as an awesome celebration to Rare's history with the success of Sea of Thieves as made me as excited for Rare's output as I was when I was younger. They even helped with Banjo in Smash! Everwild is legit my most hyped next-gen title now and I hope we continue to get more Rare partnership projects like Battletoads.
The combination of Rare Replay as an awesome celebration to Rare's history with the success of Sea of Thieves as made me as excited for Rare's output as I was when I was younger. They even helped with Banjo in Smash! Everwild is legit my most hyped next-gen title now and I hope we continue to get more Rare partnership projects like Battletoads.
It's completely okay to not like the game for whatever reason
It's completely okay to wish Rare was the same Rare from the N64 games (and with the same crew)
It's not okay to call the thing a failure just because it's not something you like. This is such a childish justification. Rare is doing what they like to do from what we know, and may continue to do so. If in the future we discover that MS was making they do this kind of game, then we can shit all over MS, but still! Not on Rare for doing what they want AND with excelence.
Yeah, i dont know how, i remmber when i played it when it lauched, it was a empty game as fuck !
I never understood why Nintendo didn't buy Rareware back in the day.
That acquisition by MS was shocking and unexpected, similar to what happened with Bethesda just recently.
Very happy nonetheless that they're still going.
That acquisition by MS was shocking and unexpected, similar to what happened with Bethesda just recently.
Very happy nonetheless that they're still going.
To me Rare's sale at that time was even more unexpected.
MS/Bethesda: we all knew Microsoft was looking for studios to buy, and their budget is big.
455 people would still be about 1/5 the development team size, and only 2/3rds of the development time. So 1/5th of the sales would be a resounding success. Especially considering SOT is a live platform that continues to generate revenue.
One of the "most successful" today, huh?
Rare is an iconic company for sure, even today, after virtually becoming irrelevant, but "most successful"? - I'm not sure they can stand with that group of developers right now.
However, if some of you are feeling emboldened by the recent hype surrounding Microsoft and their new console, I can understand you looking around in other areas like, Rare and their recent interesting reveal trailer or how they worked to make Sea of Thieves worth playing for more than early adopters, and conflating those things with being the "most successful", but you'd be wrong. It appears that some of you are accusing others of disagreeing with this thread because of how they feel about SoT, but you would be doing the same thing while denying the dissent.
Rare is an iconic company for sure, even today, after virtually becoming irrelevant, but "most successful"? - I'm not sure they can stand with that group of developers right now.
However, if some of you are feeling emboldened by the recent hype surrounding Microsoft and their new console, I can understand you looking around in other areas like, Rare and their recent interesting reveal trailer or how they worked to make Sea of Thieves worth playing for more than early adopters, and conflating those things with being the "most successful", but you'd be wrong. It appears that some of you are accusing others of disagreeing with this thread because of how they feel about SoT, but you would be doing the same thing while denying the dissent.
Viva Pinata seems like the perfect GAAS game to make and I hope they do. Just make animal crossing with pinatas for Xbox.