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Retro Studios Turns Down Former Rare Composer

Grant Kirkhope, a former composer for Rare wrote on Twitter that he was turned down from Retro Studios as they currently have no vacancies. Kirkhope has worked on a number of huge projects including Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark and GoldenEye 64.

“I already tried Retro …. They’re full up!”

92 thoughts on “Retro Studios Turns Down Former Rare Composer”

    1. Retro is “full up” which means not hiring..its not a bad thing if they have all that they need why hire someone else?

      1. It would make news if they weren’t full up, because there’s some tension there that makes for an interesting story, but no they’re not hiring anyway.

      1. I dont think they do it in a slower pace, they just keep it secret. They release literally no info or screen or even what game it is until the game is pretty much done. Donkey Kong came out of nowhere

          1. I know haha i love it when they just show up and say ” here ya go”. I rememeber the original Wii’s software reel at E3 06-07? And Prime 3 showed up and everyone went nuts

            1. Well games would comen out at a slower pace because todays games are a lot more sophisticated and require much more work in production than in n64 days :p

          2. But yeah 2010 was a damn good E3 for Nintendo, same with 2011, if a little confusing from the WiiU info, probably why 2012 was disappointing

            Least it was the infamous 2008….

            1. Remember people the new RARE sucks now because some people who worked from old rareware have been fired from since

              1. They weren’t fired… all of the cool people left cause, well they even knew what was happening.

    1. Me too :D although i hope they’re working on Star Fox first, maybe a different developers working on Metroid. Can you imagine if that and the WiiU CryEngine3 game were the same game, it would be insane.

        1. Nay Reiren, it was Rare who lost interest in nintendo, as soon as microsoft offered more money to rare

          1. Wrong. Rare approached nintendo NUMEROUS times to match the offer, but nintendo kept declining. Do some research.

        2. wrong.nintendo thought that rare wasnt make good games and they let them go.Dont say bullshits.

          1. ^this
            google it or go on wiki or some shit, nintendo let rare go! end of story! stop pretending like nintendo is the nicest fucking company and cares about your mothers health.
            They don’t.

          2. you both are wrong, nintendo had to sell 60% of rare to microsoft due to it´s crisis (at that moment) but either nintendo and rare are obviously trying to be togeter again

            1. sorry, actually was 49%, but rare still loves nintendo and vice versa, and we fans want them working together again….

              1. They didn’t HAVE to sell their share of rare. There was no crisis with nintendo, they had plenty of $$$$. Stop pulling bullshit out your ass and calling it eagle shit… It’s all still lies. Rare was poor with budgets and was selling 2-5% chunks to nintendo for funding. When nintendo owned 49%, rare didnt want to just sell another 2-5% and lose controlling interest so it was decided to sell outright. Around this time, Microsoft approached them with a buyout. Nintendo felt this was over valued/were jealous/whatever and rejected the buyout stupidly. Nintendo then sold Rares back the 49% share in the company and then rare was sold 100% to ms??THAT is the true story.

    1. It was Nintendo’s decision to sell Rare, all the talented employees left the company. Microsoft only bought Nintendo’s sloppy seconds.

      1. thenintendoreviewer

        That’s pretty much what happened. Most if not all of the talented people who worked on the 90s classic Rare games left the company. Microsoft just owns a company that isn’t nearly as good as it used to be.

      2. Before Nintendo sold Rare, Microsoft had bought 51% of the stocks. Nintendo only owned the other 49%, so there really was no point in keeping the company if Microsoft had the power to make all of the decisions.

          1. that’s absolutely wrong, everything was between nintendo and microsoft, rare couldn´t say anything about it!!

  1. Meh, Retro has decent composers anyway, they just need to use a real orchestra for the parts that were normally artifical, would sound amazing.

        1. Oh im not denying it, the whole game’s amazing, i hope he gets some position with nintendo. Just stating its not a too bad seeing as Retro do a good job with their soundtracks.

  2. That’s too bad. He’s really talented. Did a lot of good work for Rare back in the day. Leave luck to heaven.

      1. He could do well with Insomniac Games, their games match his history, so he’d fit in comfortably

    1. Why nintendo don´t just contract him, they´re so slow, if not, microsh.., sony or any of their lapdogs’ companies will hire him…. come on nintendo…. do it!!!!

        1. Well, that´s true, but Kondo can´t do everything alone, that´s why they have also Mahito Yokota(who is an exellent composer) with him, imagine what he could do with them… well but I have to say (even if someone want´s to kill me for that :) that he´s not as good as David wise, and also Eveline Fisher(she was also good, i don´t know why rare didn´t maintain the same soundtrack in the remake of DK3, to me was kinda gross, well but I have to say David Wise and Eveline are lots better than this guy Grant…

    1. We probably would have had it for Virtual Console on the Wii if Rare wasn’t sold to Microsoft. Though I’m not fully sure whether Microsoft has copyright to the series.

    2. Its possible because Microsoft doesn’t compete in the handheld business. Diddy Kong racing DS came AFTER Rare moved to Microsoft.

      1. Diddy Kong Racing is owned by NINTENDO. Only because it’s part of the Donkey Kong Franchise. So Nintendo had all rights to that game

        1. thenintendoreviewer

          Right. Rare owns Banjo and Conker which is why they were absent from the DS version but Nintendo owns the Diddy Kong Racing game itself tanks to Diddy.

  3. While Retro is a great development studio and if they’re full they’re full, having a composer from Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and my favorite game Banjo Kazooie would have been amazing. But Retro does have great composers so this isn’t too bad that he got turned down. But it would’ve been nice if they hired him. One of the Rare talents from the good ol days.

  4. No! Grant Kirkhope is awesome when making video game music! I even wonder if Retro knew who this guy is…

    1. They didnt turn him down, they were just already full. Retro’s had some trouble since Prime 3, a few people left, and some ore did after DKCR, so i dont think they want to fire anyone else haha

  5. Dude, they should be looking at no one else but David Wise. Or that chick who made the music for DKC3. Seriously, what the hell.

  6. Guys you should change your commenting system, why not try Disqus? or at least use Intensedebate so you can get order. xD Good day people!

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