If I Was The Main Leader (Studio Manager) Of Rare Right Now...

[John Enigma]

...I would do so many things. So many, MANY things.

If was the studio manager, the first task that I would do, is that I would have intense negotiations with Mr. Phil Spencer and we would negotiate about coming to various agreements: That Rare would be focused solely on making classic games only and no more Kinect-related games like Kinect Sports or Kinect Adventures. Let other companies handle the Kinect-related stuff, that is if there are any.

For my next task, I would also fire (if it was possible) the artist or artists, that drew the "boxy-looking" version of Banjo and Kazooie, ever since B-K: Nuts N' Bolts. Instead, I would actually be conducting a type of contest on the Internet to see which artist can draw a classic, but modern (at the same time) version of both Banjo and Kazooie. And I'm being seriously picky about this. I'm willing to make a game of Banjo and Kazooie with artstyles like this one:


or this one:


One of my next tasks that I would actually as studio manager of Rare, would do, would be, like I said before, making classic style games. I would actually be making reboots, reboot-remakes, prequels, sequels, and new Rare IP's. Here's my list:

1. Prequels: Banjo-Kazooie (like all games start, this game would be codenamed "B4"; Codename B4).

2. Reboots: Banjo-Kazooie (considering that I want to make the BK prequel first, I'm also willing to make reboots of Banjo-Kazooie, and Banjo Tooie before making Banjo-Threeie), Jet Force Gemini (I want to give it a little bit of gameplay style similar to Ratchet N' Clank. And who knows? I would also be willing to make a Jet Force Gemini and Ratchet N' Clank crossover, if it's possible.)

3. Reboot-remakes: Conker's Bad Fur Day, Perfect Dark, Viva Pinata.

4. Sequels: Banjo-Kazooie (Nuts N' Bolts, in my opinion, doesn't count, so I would be making a proper "Banjo Threeie"), Conker's ("Conker's 2: Squirrel Days" or "Conker's 2: Conker's Other Bad Days", and "Conker's 3: Conker's Glory Days"), Jet Force Gemini ("Jet Force Aries", "Jet Force Sagitarius", etc.)

5. New Rare IP's: Rare Racers (if you take from this perspective, it would be two things: Rare's very own kart racing game IP [with some minor elements, like building your own vehicle a la Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts N' Bolts] and Rare's sort-of spiritual successor to Diddy Kong Racing [which it was developed by Rare, but published by Nintendo]). I would basically include any kind of Rare IP in this particular game. Who knows? Maybe you can as Bottles, or Tooty, or *chuckles* Dark.

I would also have to revise the entire Rare library to see if they also need remaking, revamping, prequels, or sequels. If it would be possible, I would also make a program like Square Enix Collective, in where fans can write their own stories for the almost forgotten Rare library.

To ease the pain, those games that I just mentioned wouldn't just be developed for the XBOX One. They would also be developed for the PC! Yay!

My final task would be doozy. I would need to talk to Nintendo. Again, why? Think about this for a sec. Nintendo seems to be making a lot of DLC Packs for Mario Kart 8, right? Well how about this? Since Nintendo makes a lot DLC packs for that said game, I would negotiate with them on making a Diddy Kong Racing DLC Pack. The Pack would include the top four favorite tracks that everybody loved playing in Diddy Kong Racing, and they would also include Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, Tiny Kong, and Funky Kong as playable characters. (Okay. That last part is not Rare-related. But it would be cool, right?)

So what do you guys think? Pretty good ideas if I was in charge of Rare, right?

[Chrysalis_Blossom]

Nothing about Perfect Dark?

[John Enigma]

[Chrysalis_Blossom]

Right, my apologies.

[Loggo]

Your ideas aren't bad. I'd probably want to do the same if I was the leader and Rare had unlimited resources.... but they don't.

As it stands right now they probably only have enough resources to make 1-2 games at a time.

Here's my suggestions:

Short term:
*Continued support for Killer Instinct (season 3+)
*Continued support for Conker's Big Reunion (at least finish the story)
*Salvage the jet ski minigame from Kinect Sports Rivals and turn it into a downloadable game with controller support. Maybe Rare-ify it a bit with guest characters such as Joanna Dark and Jago.
*Conker Live & Reloaded Anniversary Edition for L&R's 10 year anniversary this june (probably too late for this)
*Let Rare finish whatever it is they're working on.
*Battletoads (pretty sure this is happening)

Long term:
*New Banjo game. Either by Rare or by an up and coming indie studio.
*Banjo-Kazooie & Friends Allstar Racing by Sumo Digital. Mostly Rare characters from Banjo, Battletoads, Viva Pinata and so forth, but also characters from Minecraft and other Microsoft IPs. Maybe even Rayman and Sonic as guest characters?
*New Perfect Dark game. 343 Industries or Black Tusk Studios would be interesting picks, but they're probably going to be busy with Halo and Gears for the forseeable future. Someone like Machinegames would possibly be able to do justice to the series. An option that's a bit "out there" would be to form a new studio in the UK with ex-devs from Rare, Free Radical and Eurocom. Gameplay-wise they would have to switch it up a bit so that it wouldn't have to compete against Halo or Gears. Maybe take influence from games such as Deus Ex or Mass Effect.
*New Viva Pinata game for console + a companion game for mobiles/tablets made by Frontier. They have a lot of experience with both colourful games and sim games. They also seem to have a close relationship with MS.
*Rare-tual console. Port as many Rare games as possible. Try to sign a deal with Nintendo to make sure that Goldeneye XBLA gets released (for instance by making it for the NX as well, and making sure that it has feature and graphical parity with the Xbox version).

[BanjosBack]

I don't want that to happen.

See, for me it's about principal. Microsoft wanted to compete with Nintendo so they hired it's best game producer (Rare) and effectivley put it to work as it's janitor (making kinect crap).

Rare in this time got ALL KINDS of flak over this, go look at their youtube page/facebook page..Rare knows what we want and they refused to give it to us..

So now that rare has waited till Playtonic has splintered off, started a kickstarter and has made a ton of money, well..I say that making a Banjo Kazooie 3 or another conker would be dirty pool.

I say that the Rare exec who thinks "Hey, lets make one of THOSE games...yeah..Thatll make money!!" is a total Smeghead.

No Rare, you made your bed, you lie in it and snuggle right up next to those kinect sports games you apparently LOVE so much.

There's a new kid in town. Playtonic.

I hope Playtonic buys those IP from Rare/Microsoft and thats the only way we will get an authentic Banjo Kazooie 3..

[John Enigma]

[FarronFox]

[Scrubber]

[Nanirourou]

I don't want to demonize Rare for having been bought up by Microsoft, and then doing what their new boss overloads told them to do. I'm sure most of the employees at Rare guys didn't necessarily want to do the Kinect stuff, but the people giving them money told them that's what they had to do. Looks like many of the people fed up with the modern corporate scene of being owned Microsoft, especially considering what their days under the Stampers was like, expressed their displeasure by leaving. Having never worked for either, though, I can't claim to know. Since they've had their run of putting out marginally successful games that took little to no risks, they're probably looking at the strategies that will make them competitive again that also gave them the wild success back in the day.

I think the formation of Playtonic and their announcement of what they want to achieve will change the outlook and goals of Rare. I hope this makes them more adventurous with what they develop going forward.

[John Enigma]

[Scrubber]

[NPChilla]

In all seriousness, John - your ideas make me wish you were studio manager.

Because Rare's big reveal is THIS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaieVt3M72c

[Rueckkoppler]

I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone, but isn't this thread a little pointless? As gamers, we're imagining how we'd run a company... and to what does it boil down? To what we want to play of course! And we aren't the majority, we are a community of hardcore-Rareware fans. Not that this is a bad thing, but it's easy to forget to view it from an overall perspective. This isn't an objective or logical discussion in any way, as we already saw in someone's wish to fire the artist behind Banjo's blocky design.

[John Enigma]

[John Enigma]

[Rueckkoppler]

[John Enigma]

[NPChilla]

Once Sea of Thieves is released - it seems to be the only thing Rare is making right now since all sources are devoted to it and Microsoft downsized the company after the Kinect Sports Rivals fiasco - I think that's when we'll see Rare's new direction.

If Sea of Thieves tanks, who knows where they'll end up.

If Sea of Thieves is a success, then Rare could rise again.

[nicholas362]