Microsoft Acquire Rare

Mr E

Baaaad for Gamecube, Good for XBox.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=dev&aid=663

Star Fox Adventures should be OK, but ya can probably forget about Banjo Kazooie and Donkey Kong making it to the cube.

- Dave.

KdjaCL

NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Tho Nintendo own the DK licence doubt they own banjo.


Kdja

Venom

I read on one of the gamespy email jobbies a while back that Rare had stoped working on certain nintendo titles and were just consintration on a new banjo game. Had a feeling something like this was in the works.

Pugsley

There goes the neighboor hood

I hope perfect dark 2 wont be X-box only, the origional was brilliant, wouldnt be right on the X-box IMO....
Curse microsoft and their hoards of money!

tHE vAGGABOND

Seems the deal is for Starfox to remain on the Cube and thats it. All other games look like being XBox only, esp. perfect dark.

Perfect Dark is another of these games console makers want, as people will buy a console to play that game alone. The week CM XBox went on sale for example sales of xboxes jumped, and then fell to their normal level the next week. People buying a box to play that game. I bought a PSX to play Wipeout back when that came out. Weve all done it

As part of the deal MS would buy the percentage of Rare that Ninty owns too. Which would include everything.

Shinji is your man for the gory details and the in's and out's as its his story I read on gamesindustry.biz (and you all read on the register)

Dont be at yourself

Quite a blow for Nintendo, and quite a gain for Microsoft. Nintendo obviously resigned itself to loosing Rare though, so the blow will have been softened somewhat by the Starfox deal with Namco.

Microsoft have one of the few developers who are capable of selling large numbers of a console. Hopefully they'll allow them the same kind of freedom given to Bungie - Rare would seem to work best when given the time and resources to get things right.

As far as I know, and I am open to correction, the only big franchises directly own are Perfect Dark, Conkers, Banjo Kazooie and Jet Force Gemini. Nintendo own the character Donkey Kong and the Starfox universe, but won't be able to use Rare's artwork etc for these series.

segadreamcast

"As far as I know, and I am open to correction, the only big franchises directly own are Perfect Dark, Conkers, Banjo Kazooie and Jet Force Gemini. Nintendo own the character Donkey Kong and the Starfox universe, but won't be able to use Rare's artwork etc for these series."

Bang on, to the best of my knowledge.

To be honest - I think this will give rare more creative freedom, Microsoft are in no rush to use them, and apparently they'll still be developing for the GBA too.

This isn't really the crushing blow it would've been if they had lost rare in the n64 days - but it is still a blow for Nintendo nonetheless.

tHE vAGGABOND

Perfect Dark, Conkers, Banjo Kazooie and Jet Force Gemini

Importantly all of which have good size fan bases of their own..

But I will live a long and happy life if I dont have to ever see that annoying Banjo Kazooie game ever again

Lol and there was me about to buy a gamecube! The only thing that might have swayed me was rares presence. Ah well I'll stick with my PS2. Bring on GTA Vice city!

Dont be at yourself

But wait, there's more!

Ninty might not be selling their 49% - leading to a company owned 51% by Microsoft and 49% by Nintendo. Imagine the board meetings.

Furthermore, Nintendo are rumoured to own the rights to the franchises Rare created. Crazy.

Mr E

All bullsh1t?

For the last week, rumors have been circulating about Microsoft’s strong interest in buying Rare. In a recent media report, a Nintendo spokesman denied claims that the company is willing to sell their stake in Rare, and that Microsoft is set to acquire Rare. The spokesman stated that the company would consider what to do with its Rare shareholding if actually contacted by Microsoft or Rare, but there hasn't been any such contact. At the end of last March, Nintendo owned 38 percent of Rare's voting rights.

http://www.avault.com/news/displaynews.asp?story=9132002-82010

Mr E

Some fresh news on this......

Japan's Nintendo sold its 49 percent ownership in U.K. game developer Rare to an undisclosed buyer. As reported earlier this month, Nintendo had planned to sell its Rare stake to Microsoft. A Nintendo representative wasn't immediately available to confirm if the sale was made to Microsoft or to provide financial terms. Microsoft officials also couldn't immediately confirm the sale.

In a press release Friday, Nintendo said it sold the stake because Rare's "value to the future of Nintendo would be limited." In fiscal 2002, Rare accounted for just 1.5 percent of Nintendo's total sales, falling from only 9.5 percent in the prior fiscal year. Nintendo will retain exclusive rights to all original properties and franchises featured in games developed by Rare, including Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong and Star Fox.

Nintendo said it's in talks with several possible partners and believes the Rare sale positions it to "become even more aggressive in expanding (its) development capacity, both internally and externally."

A Microsoft spokeswoman said Microsoft's involvement in the Rare deal was a rumor. She declined to confirm whether or not the company did buy the 49 percent stake, saying it's company policy not to comment on rumors.

http://www.avault.com/news/displaynews.asp?story=9202002-144825

- Dave.