From StrategyWiki, the free strategy guide and walkthrough wiki

Rare
Founded	1982 (as Ultimate: Play The Game)
Founder(s)	Tim and Chris Stamper
Located	Twycross, England
Website	http://rareware.com/
Wikipedia has more about this subject: Rare

Rare (Rare Ltd.; later Rareware) is a game development company most well-known for Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct and GoldenEye 007, a revolutionary console shooter. After their parent company lost the James Bond license they quickly followed up this success with Perfect Dark, a spiritual sequel set in their own sci-fi world.

Just after 1995, Nintendo invested in a fiscal partnership with Rare. In September 2002, the Stamper brothers sold their majority share of the company to Microsoft, and it was renamed as Rareware. Because of this association they lost the rights to produce Nintendo games such as Donkey Kong.

[edit] Origins

Rare Ltd. began in 1982 in England. It extended its business to the U.S. under the name Rare Coin It Inc. (also referred to as Rare Coin-It Inc.) so that it could license games to U.S. publishers.