What the heck happened to that Dev?

[Sarmos]

In recent times, I decided to feel nostalgic and purchase Banjo Kazzoie on Xbox Live. After finishing it, I couldn't help it and bought Banjo Tooie on Xbox live shortly there-after. Then over the summer, I ended up buying the last in the series, Nuts & Bolts.

But then something magical happened. Something horrid and made me realize alot.

I took a look at the company who made it. Rareware. My god, what the hell happened?

Looking at Rare since I started playing video games, (Super NES) And dam. Just look at all the awesome games they bloody well made.

Donkey Kong Country, Banjo Kazzoie, goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, Banjo Tooie, Hell, the super NES and 64 were good to Rare. The only games thats not from my favorites list from that system is Gaunlet, Mario Kart 64, and Zelda OoT, and Zelda MM.

I look at Rare now and wonder what the happened. Yeah I know that pretty much half of the staff who made the games awesome left the company and pretty well started its downfall, But I'm just shocked that from a studio that made so many awesome games are now left making pinata games and somewhat okay remakes.

My question to you escapists is this, What do you think of Awesome Devolpers that have fallen to worser things? Do you have/had a favorite deveolper that had a hard downfall? Are they still around? Moved on to better things? favorite game that they made? What made them great? Did they have 15 mins of fame? Or are they still going strong? Or now left to be some subsidary of some large Mega-Corp that may become.... cough* Microsoft! cough*

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Ritual Entertainment comes to mind. Once they made the best content Quake ever saw and one of the great shooters of the old style. Now they make casual games.

 

[RatRace123]

I hate to blame developers and place exclusivity, but when Rare went from a second party for Nintendo to one for Microsoft, it destroyed them, and it also destroyed any chances of seeing Diddy Kong Racing on the virtual console, the DS remake sucked in comparison, way to ruin the first game I ever played dicks!!![/rant]

OT: I miss Pandemic, they created the Star Wars Battlefront, Mercenaries and Destroy All Humans series, awesome games.
Their last one was The Saboteur, which was OK, but definitely not worthy of being what they went out on. Pandemic is no more, not even swallowed up by a larger brand, it's just dead.

 

[Sarmos]

I remember Pandemic and being kinda sad when they closed. Seeing as Mecenaries was one of my favorites back in my PS2 days. Oh those North Korens and their devious want to take over the world.........

 

[Critical_Sneeze]

EA got their hands on Bullfrog and that was the end of that

 

[Mr Pantomime]

For me its not that the developers start to suck, its that they sell the rights to the series to someone when they start something new. This happened with Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. Their current incarnations are terrible. At least Insomniac and Naughty Dog learnt from this, and kept their brands from the PS2 generation, even making Ratchet and Clank games for the PS3.

Actually I do have one, Square Enix. I know people say they sucked after the merger, but I really liked FF12 and they Kingdom Heart Series. Its just that in this Generation, theyre not really doing very well. Its like their dying. On a lighter note, we can drink at their funeral.

 

[LupusDei]

For me its not that the developers start to suck, its that they sell the rights to the series to someone when they start something new. This happened with Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. Their current incarnations are terrible. At least Insomniac and Naughty Dog learnt from this, and kept their brands from the PS2 generation, even making Ratchet and Clank games for the PS3.

Actually I do have one, Square Enix. I know people say they sucked after the merger, but I really liked FF12 and they Kingdom Heart Series. Its just that in this Generation, theyre not really doing very well. Its like their dying. On a lighter note, we can drink at their funeral.

I have to agree with this, 12 was really rather good but the new one... Oh god.... It's painful to experience the utter fail of it.

Also, Im assuming that your avatar is from Persona 3?


Love it.

 

[NeedAUserName]

Activision. They used to be cool dammit!

 

[Haloperidol]

Activision. They used to be cool dammit!

Activision was awesome before Satan took control of it

 

[Sarmos]

Activision. They used to be cool dammit!

Activision was awesome before Satan took control of it

THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU TO REALISE ACTIVISON, SATAN!

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I remember Pandemic and being kinda sad when they closed. Seeing as Mecenaries was one of my favorites back in my PS2 days. Oh those North Korens and their devious want to take over the world.........

Mercenaries is still the best sandbox game ever made IMO. Once I played Mercenaries, I was able to tell Rockstar was and still is bad at making sandbox games. However, Mercs2 was very disappointing.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Nuts and Bolts is a pretty sweet game, imo. As are the Viva Pinata games. Awesome little garden sims.

Your nostalgia for old Rare is just overpowering. I never had any nostalgia for old Rare. Mine was a Sony household!

New Rare is worse than old Rare, but they're still a good developer.

 

[SNIPERFOX ft. Harry P.Ness]

DICE


Battlefield 1942,2,1942, Bad company 1, Battlefield play 4 free (in beta) and heroes were all AWSOME games. then came Bad Company 2, my my my, what happened> so many bugs and glitches, people clipping though walls and killing you all the time, the Carl Gustav,and being a blatant console port

 

[Sarmos]

Nuts and Bolts is a pretty sweet game, imo. As are the Viva Pinata games. Awesome little garden sims.

Your nostalgia for old Rare is just overpowering. I never had any nostalgia for old Rare. Mine was a Sony household!

New Rare is worse than old Rare, but they're still a good developer.

Yeah, I will admit that I really do like old Rare, and I've never been a big fan of the Pinata games. When I played Nuts and Bolts, I just kept on thinking it could've been done better. Awesome concept of a game though. It was an alright game.

 

[tomtom94]

All the good Rare developers went to Free Radical and made Timesplitters, then they made Haze, which bankrupted them and meant that Battlefront III and Timesplitters 4 are probably never going to see the light of day.

OT: What happened to SonicTeam?

 

[AlternatePFG]

I hate to blame developers and place exclusivity, but when Rare went from a second party for Nintendo to one for Microsoft, it destroyed them, and it also destroyed any chances of seeing Diddy Kong Racing on the virtual console, the DS remake sucked in comparison, way to ruin the first game I ever played dicks!!![/rant]

OT: I miss Pandemic, they created the Star Wars Battlefront, Mercenaries and Destroy All Humans series, awesome games.
Their last one was The Saboteur, which was OK, but definitely not worthy of being what they went out on. Pandemic is no more, not even swallowed up by a larger brand, it's just dead.

Yeah, I wish Pandemic was still around. This pretty much kills any chance of us getting a decent Star Wars Battlefront 3.

 

[northeast rower]

Pandemic was absolutely brilliant. I miss them.

Square Enix was brilliant. They just wore it out.