Editing Rare Ltd.

|logo          = [[File:Rare logo 2015.svg|225px|Rare]]

'''Rare''' is a British video game development studio based in Twycross, Leicestershire, England. The origins can be traced back to 1982 when Tim and Chris Stamper founded '''{{iw|wikipedia|Ultimate Play the Game}}'''. The studio saw early success on personal computers like the {{iw|wikipedia|ZX Spectrum}}, {{iw|wikipedia|BBC Micro}}, and {{iw|wikipedia|Commodore 64}} with titles like ''Jetpac'', ''Atic Atac'', ''Sabre Wulf'', and ''Knight Lore''. Ultimate eventually became particularly well-known in the U.K. for their isometric game engine "Filmation" and the secretive marketing of their titles and brand, down to advertisements not showing any screenshots of games whatsoever. However, knowing that microcomputers were only popular platforms for gaming in the U.K. and therefore a financial dead-end, they decided to branch out into other markets. The studio decided to focus on the then-Japan-exclusive Famicom due to its potentially worldwide reach and high specs, thus creating a subsidiary called ''Rare'' in 1985 to reverse engineer the hardware and learn its inner workings, something [[Nintendo]] claimed to be impossible. After impressing Nintendo with its tech demos, Rare was granted unlimited budget for developing Famicom games, now called the Nintendo Entertainment System in the PAL region. At this time, the company decided to sell the Ultimate Play the Game brand to {{iw|wikipedia|U.S. Gold}} (though they would regain the rights in 1988) and officially renamed the whole company to Rare. A string of successful NES releases followed, including ''R.C. Pro-Am'', ''Snake Rattle 'n' Roll'', and ''Battletoads'', as well as several licensed games based on brands such as ''{{iw|wikipedia|Beetlejuice}}'' and ''{{iw|wikipedia|Sesame Street}}'', and outsourced NES ports of PC and arcade games.

In 1994, Rare acquired several SGI computers with profits from their NES titles and used them to create a boxing game tech demo, which eventually became ''Killer Instinct''. Nintendo was so impressed with this demo that they would purchase a 49% stake in the company, making Rare a second-party developer. Nintendo would entrust Rare with the {{uv|Donkey Kong}} license, which resulted in the ''[[Donkey Kong Country]]'' series, as well as the ''Donkey Kong Land'' series on Game Boy and ''Donkey Kong 64'' on the Nintendo 64. Rare would go into what many consider their "golden age" during the lifespan of the Nintendo 64, with titles like ''Blast Corps'', {{uv|GoldenEye}} ''007'', ''Diddy Kong Racing'', {{uv|Banjo-Kazooie}}, {{uv|Perfect Dark}}, and ''Conker's Bad Fur Day''. Another game in development for Nintendo 64 was ''Dinosaur Planet'', but this was changed to a {{uv|Star Fox}} game at Nintendo's request. During the development of this title, Rare was in talks with [[Microsoft]] and {{iw|wikipedia|Activision}} to be bought out in full, with Nintendo showing little interest. On September 23rd, 2002, ''{{s|lylatwiki|Star Fox Adventures}}'', the last Rare game released during their partnership with Nintendo, was released on the GameCube. One day later, Rare was fully acquired by [[Microsoft]], with all their in-development projects either being moved to the Xbox; reworked to feature Rare's original stable of characters in place of the ''Donkey Kong Country'' characters, which Nintendo retained the rights to; outright cancelled; or - in the case of ''Donkey Kong Racing'' - all of the above.

Now a part of Microsoft, Rare would make games exclusively for {{iw|wikipedia|Xbox}} brand consoles and eventually PC. These titles include ''Grabbed by the Ghoulies'', ''Kameo: Elements of Power'', and the ''Viva Piñata'' series. While few of the original titles under Microsoft were critical failures, many fans of Rare's output before the buyout were opposed to the company's new direction, in part due to their controversial attempts to revive their existing characters in the vehicle-building sandbox title ''Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts'' and the heavily censored remake ''Conker: Live & Reloaded''. Rare would also briefly collaborate with {{iw|wikipedia|THQ}} to publish several games for Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS based on their existing franchises and characters, as well as partner with Nintendo again for remakes of earlier ''Donkey Kong'' games, followed by a drought in content for Nintendo platforms between 2007 and 2019. Through the early 2010s, Rare would choose to primarily work on the moderately successful Xbox Live Avatars and games utilizing them, particularly with the Kinect accessory. Rare would eventually find the biggest success they had experienced since their collaboration with Nintendo in the pirate adventure game ''Sea of Thieves'' for Xbox One and PC. They additionally assisted with outsourced installments of the ''Battletoads'', ''Conker'', and ''Killer Instinct'' IPs for Xbox hardware; and are currently working on expansions for ''Sea of Thieves'' in addition to the upcoming ''Everwild''.

Rare is credited for the modern version of  of [[Donkey Kong]] for virtually all of his future video game appearances and were the original creators of four characters that appeared as fighters in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series: [[Diddy Kong]], [[King K. Rool]], [[Banjo]] and [[Kazooie]]. All ''Donkey Kong'' music sourced or rearranged from Rare games credit them for their compositions, even after the Microsoft buyout and before the collaboration to bring Banjo & Kazooie to ''Smash''.