Rare Ltd. is a British video game developer located in Twycross, Leicestershire, England. The company was established in 1985 by Ultimate Play the Game founders Tim and Chris Stamper. During its early years, Rare primarily concentrated on Nintendo Entertainment System games, creating successful titles such as Wizards & Warriors, Battletoads, and R.C. Pro-Am. In 1994, Rare became a Nintendo second-party developer and achieved great critical acclaim with their subsequent releases, which include Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct, GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark and Conker's Bad Fur Day.
In 2002, the company was wholly purchased by Microsoft and has since focused on developing games exclusively for Microsoft video game consoles. Rare since then has developed Kameo: Elements of Power, the Viva Piñata series, and the Kinect Sports series, among others. On January 2, 2007, founders Tim and Chris Stamper left the company to pursue "other opportunities". Rare's current Studio Creative Director is Simon Woodroffe, who previously worked at several studios including Midway Games, Ubisoft, and Sega.
Famous quotes containing the word rare:
“How much we forgive to those who yield us the rare spectacle of heroic manners! We will pardon them the want of books, or arts, and even of gentler virtues. How tenaciously we remember them!”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)