Coming from a Nintendo Force interview with former RARE dev Chris Seavor...

"... I'm not even sure they [Nintendo] knew what they really had with Conker. Tim [Stamper] and Chris [Stamper] did and they said 'Yes, we want to make this'. And such was the trust between Rare and Nintendo that they were fine with that... Trust. A lovely concept, sadly lacking today with some publishers."

The industry certainly has become less focused on trusting devs and more interested in Metacritic scores. Sad to see that RARE and Nintendo parted ways, and now RARE is a shell of its former self.