Alright, let’s dive into this mess. So, picture this—a day way back when, on August 4, 1985, a little something called Rare was born, spun off from Ultimate Play the Game. Fast forward a bit, and they’re the folks behind some of the coolest games you’ve ever played, like Donkey Kong Country and, oh, that classic, GoldenEye 007. Banjo-Kazooie ring a bell? Yeah, them too.
Anyway—or wait, maybe not yet—fast forward to this not-so-happy 40th birthday of theirs, and what do we get? A snazzy Xbox controller thanks to a team-up with 8BitDo, all decked out in Rare’s greatest hits. But oh boy, talk about timing. Xbox and Rare haven’t exactly been buddy-buddy lately. Cue drama.
Now, let’s backtrack—Microsoft and Xbox, these big happy business families, right? Nah, not so much. Turns out, since 2023, they’ve been dropping jobs like they’re hot potatoes but telling everyone finances are hunky-dory. “More players, games, gaming hours,” they shout. Yet, they let go of thousands—seriously, thousands. Guess the Xbox gadgets aren’t flying off the shelves like Nintendo’s or PlayStation’s.
And guess who gets hit hard? Xbox’s crew and their developer pals. Big boss Phil Spencer says, “streamlining,” whatever that means. Like, how about Xbox’s turn at shrinking? Turn 10 Studios kicked 70 folks to the curb, and King (yeah, those Candy Crush dudes) said goodbye to 10% of their squad.
Then some sad music starts playing for games too. A bunch of ’em scrapped mid-development, like The Initiative’s Perfect Dark reboot—I bet that one was a doozy. Even Rare’s Everwild got the axe. Oh, and not to forget, The Initiative closed shop right after. Boom, goodbye.
So, we hit another tangent here—or wait, scratch that. Back to Rare and their rocky Everwild journey. Everwild was going all magical world and flair. Sounded cool, right? Started in 2014, then got a redo in 2021. We saw some trailers, enough to keep our hopes, until, oops—a big nada on gameplay. Some whispered it was like Viva Piñata in third-person. Not sure what that means, but hey, it tantalized the imagination.
Amidst all the chaos, writing was certainly on the wall when Gregg Mayles, the grande olde dude of Rare, decided to say bye-bye as well. This guy was rocking it since 18—almost mythical, right? Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie were his playground. A legend stepping down does bring the party down a notch. Oh, did I mention a plaque went up in Ashby-de-la-Zouch? Yeah, commemorating the Rare legacy—kinda poetic, I guess.
So, yeah, the whole Rare turning 40 thing? Bit of a mixed bag with a fancy Xbox controller on one end and, well, a question mark about their future looming large. Who knows what’s next for them? Meanwhile, we ponder if any more nostalgic controllers are in our gaming journey.
