Rare

The Twycross studio behind Conker's Bad Fur Day, GoldenEye 007 and Banjo-Kazooie.

via Wikipedia: Rare (company) · see source

Rare Limited is a British video game developer based in Twycross and now a studio of Xbox Game Studios. Its games cover platformers, first-person shooters, action-adventure, fighting and racing titles, and its best-known work includes the Battletoads, Donkey Kong and Banjo-Kazooie series along with GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Viva Piñata and Sea of Thieves. During the 1990s it was one of Nintendo's most important partners, and several of its games, including Donkey Kong Country and GoldenEye 007, are often named among the most influential games ever made. The studio also has a reputation for being secretive and private.

Quick Facts

Industry: Video games
Predecessor: Ultimate Play the Game
Founded: 1985
Founders: Tim Stamper, Chris Stamper
Headquarters: Twycross
Country: England
Parent: Xbox Game Studios (2002–present)

Facts from the source article.

Background

Tim and Chris Stamper, who were brothers, had already found success with Ultimate Play the Game in Ashby-de-la-Zouch before founding Rare in 1985. Seeing the ZX Spectrum as a dead end, they studied an imported Famicom, worked out how it was programmed and showed tech demos to Minoru Arakawa, which won them generous backing from Nintendo. Moving to a farmhouse in Twycross, Rare produced sixty games in five years, including R.C. Pro-Am and Battletoads. It then spent its profits on Silicon Graphics workstations, and its 3D work so impressed Nintendo that in 1994 Nintendo took a 25% stake, later raised to 49%. Donkey Kong Country followed, and games sold under the Rareware name, including Conker's Bad Fur Day in 2001, brought wide acclaim.