Rare, ltd.

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Rare, Ltd., also known simply as Rare and, formerly, Rareware, is a British video game development company with approximately 200 employees. They have developed a huge amount of games. Rare has two studios: one in Twycross, in Leicestershire, England and one in Digbeth, in Birmingham, England.

Rare was founded in 1982 by Tim and Chris Stamper. They published their games as Ultimate Play The Game, for 8-bit consoles like the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and BBC Micro. In 1995, Rareware made an agreement with Nintendo, and began publishing games for them. In 2002, Microsoft bought Rareware. Since then, Rareware has made console games for the Xbox family of systems, but also made handheld games for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance and DS, with THQ as a publisher. During the summer of 2010, Rareware opened a new studio in Digbeth, in Birmingham, England.

While working for Microsoft, Rare has also helped create the Xbox Live Avatars.

Source: Rare Fandom