Another lost fragment of Rare found...

[Weltall]

Big gaming publishers seem to just not quite understand how to manage the talent in studios they buy, so they ruin things and leave those companies in ruins or closed.

I believe that Microsoft's purpose in acquiring Rare was to hurt Nintendo and give the Xbox an advantage, not to actually utilize Rare as a developer in more than a token manner. After all, the GameCube was actually (for a while, anyway) legitimate competition to the Xbox. Acquiring Rare took a lot of wind out of Nintendo's sails as Rare was one of the pillars that kept the N64 from an even more obscure existence.