Rare Ltd.



Rare Ltd., formerly known as Rareware, is a British video game developer formed in 1985 by Tim and Chris Stamper. Rare has created Conker and the Conker series. They are also known for developing the Donkey Kong Country, Perfect Dark and Banjo-Kazooie series. The company also developed Conker's debut game, Diddy Kong Racing.

Starting with the release of Donkey Kong Country, Rare used to exclusively develop titles for Nintendo units, but on September 24, 2002 the company was acquired by Microsoft. Their logo was changed the following year, in 2003, and the company was only officially known as simply "Rare"; their alternate name "Rareware" was officially dropped. The 2003 logo was used in Conker: Live & Reloaded.

As a result of the acquisition, the Conker franchise fell under Microsoft's ownership. A sequel to Conker's Bad Fur Day, known as Conker's Other Bad Day, was in early development at the time, but was cancelled after the acquisition.