One of the most important things a developer or publisher can have in the video game industry is an IP. IP’s means “Intellectual Property”, which is two very long words meaning it’s something you and you alone can own, distribute and do with as you will. In video games, every title and franchise is an IP, and the more you make and own, the better off you are. Many developers have a long list of IPs under their disposal, including Rare, the team behind the recent Sea of Thieves.
But that’s just their most recent title, they’ve worked on many franchises over the years, and created quite a few classic ones. For example, there’s the Battletoads, Perfect Dark, Killer Instinct, Conker, and of course, Banjo-Kazooie. The question for many for a while now is, “Will Rare ever use these franchises again?”
Well, the answer might be “yes”, but not in the way you think.
You see, while the team is working on Sea of Thieves right now still, they’re apparently very open to the idea of another team working with Rare to bring one of their old IP back to life.
“Rare has this 32-year back catalog of heritage and IP, and while I wouldn’t say we were Disney or even Nintendo or SEGA or any of the other kind of long-term IP stalwarts in our business, people ask us to use stuff,” said studio head Craig Duncan in an interview with IGN.
He went on:
“It’s absolutely not out of the realm of possibility, but not only does the ‘why’ have to be right, but the team, and the people, and ‘who’ have to be right.”
That’s completely fair, and something we would expect from a team like Rare. After all, there’s nothing worse than an IP being brought back only for it to be terrible. We’ll just have to see if any of these “right teams” make the “right offer”.
