Topic: Did Rare do better with Nintendo or Xbox

Personally I think they did better with Nintendo 64 with games like Banzo Kazooi

You're asking this like there's room for debate.

Unless you're the biggest diehard fan of both Viva Pinata and Sea of Thieves and also hate the entire N64/Ps1 era of gaming, there's absolutely no contest here.

There's got to be at least one Kinect fanboy still out there.

Personally, I think Rare were best back in their days as Ultimate Play The Game on the ZX Spectrum though.

Speaking from a more objective pov, many of their N64 games were some of the highest-rated games on the system, whereas the company has long been a shell of its former self under Microsoft.

Although I like the Viva Pinata games WAY more than their tedious 3D platformers, so, personally, I'd still give it to the Microsoft era.

I think they did better with neither

Just from looking the games that came out on N64, and are still well known today, I say Nintendo.

You can't really compare the two as it was made up of totally different people. Once the Stamper Bros sold it to MS it became a different company with only the name the same.

@Tasuki Things certainly went downhill badly after the Stampers left, but that was in 2007 and five years after the sale to Microsoft. That intervening period is well worth a second look at, with at least a few gems deserving comparison with their NES/SNES/N64 period.

Nintendo, with games like DKC and Banjo. What does Xbox's Rare have to show for? Kinect Sports?

Yup, I have some Kinect games on XBOX 360.
I saw Rare logo on it.

@Rambler Finally someone with taste

A lot of Rare bigwigs (still active or former employees) through the years have sung the praises for the freedom that Microsoft gave them.

I'm not sure if they had that with Nintendo or if Nintendo was equally as flexible in letting Rare follow their internal dreams, but it certainly paints a picture that suggests their diminished success post-Nintendo seems to have been more an internal problem rather than the direct fault of their current ownership. So it very well may not have been much different had they stayed hooked up with Nintendo.

I'm surprised with their relative lack of success and Microsoft's lack of patience with other internal or 2nd party studios, that they're even still around. They've not been shy at shuttering or selling-off 1st party studios, or ending long-term relationships with 2nd party studios after a single under performing release (Bizarre Creations being perhaps the most famous 2nd party casualty, with the well done Project Gotham Racing 4 releasing amidst lots of high profile games in a crowded holiday season, selling a bit poorly as a result, and the studio immediately losing favor at Microsoft).

It has to be said that Rare fared rather better under Microsoft than most of the other developers they acquired prior to the past few years. All of those have either been closed down or sold on. I guess you could say that Bungie left with their heads held high, the others not so much.

Also, I'd think that they were given Kinect with the best of intentions. Microsoft's upper management genuinely thought that it would be a winner and wanted their top teams working with it. Only with hindsight can it truly be seen as the blind alley that it was, and I say that as someone who was always doubtful of it.