No more rumors.. the truth about Rare!

Rare: The Full Story
No more rumors.

September 11, 2002 - In past months, UK development studio Rare has been the subject of a seemingly endless stream of rumors, all of them suggesting the company would break from Nintendo\'s wings and possibly join with a new publisher. Now we have the full story, anonymously confirmed by numerous credible, high-level insiders. The reports are true. We stake our reputation on it.

Nintendo, formerly a 49% shareholder in Rare, had the chance to purchase the company outright nearly a year ago, but refused, according to high-ranking sources. With Rare software contributions amounting to only 9.5% of total revenues in Nintendo\'s fiscal 2001 year, and a miniscule 1.5% in fiscal 2002, the publisher weighed the benefits and drawbacks of making additional investments in Rare and decided against it.

Rare went on the market. Publishers bid on the company. Activision and Microsoft were both interested in acquiring Rare, but it was Microsoft who won out and delivered the asking prices for the developer and Nintendo\'s 49% stake in it. Nintendo sold all of its shares in Rare, according to insiders, and the studio\'s second-party status was terminated.

The obvious questions then: why all of the secrecy and why haven\'t Rare, Nintendo or Microsoft made any announcements? The truth is that the details have not been finalized. Insiders allege that Nintendo and Rare are still haggling over licenses, and specifically whether or not Rare will be able to purchase the properties it worked on under the Nintendo brand, including Perfect Dark and other trademarks Nintendo holds. Franchises and characters created and owned by Nintendo, of course, including Donkey Kong, will remain in Nintendo\'s control. An official announcement, though, is not far off. The latest word is that the news will be made public at Microsoft\'s X02 Europe event which begins September 24 in Seville, Spain.

Meanwhile, sources indicate that Nintendo plans to utilize some of the money it made in the selling of its Rare shares to entice other development studios to make GameCube software, fund new games, and more. The company\'s de-emphasized focus on a second-party model and its new partnerships with Namco, Sega, Capcom and others exemplifies its change in development philosophy, and leaves no room for an expensive investment in Rare.

Look for much more on this major news as it develops.

IGN\'s new report. Well, I guess that\'s it. Rare is bought by MS, and now Rare is haggling with Nintendo to get the rights to the games they made with Nintendo. (barring Donkey Kong & Star Fox, of course)

So SFA will come out, and then Rare is done with Nintendo. They may still bring out new GBA games.

Yep.... Nothing huge... Rare is really overrated.

I\'ll still wait for the official announcement, but damn.  Good move MS!

Rare\'s games have always been above average, in fact most of them with very little flaw.  

Now that MS has acquired them, I\'m hoping that  MS throws a little in the funds and gets more developers on Rare\'s side so that we can get more than 5 games every generation of consoles.

good move, IMO. Perfect Dark was one of the best shooters of last generation. I don\'t care for their platformers, but gimme another one of those and it will all be gravy!

I think MS will allow them more freedom in development, though, which could be a good thing or bad thing depending on how you look at it.


Eric Jacob

Meanwhile, sources indicate that Nintendo plans to utilize some of the money it made in the selling of its Rare shares to entice other development studios to make GameCube software, fund new games, and more. The company\'s de-emphasized focus on a second-party model and its new partnerships with Namco, Sega, Capcom and others exemplifies its change in development philosophy, and leaves no room for an expensive investment in Rare.

Who thinks this is a bad move?

While I am happy to see Nintendo stepping up the competition with 3rd party support, I also think exclusive content and exlcusive developers are key to success.  

Nintendo just sold one of it\'s most talented developers.  IMO, they should have thrown some more money towards Rare, beef up the staff and increase the output of games.  

Rare has what it takes and has always made million sellers.  While Capcom, Sega, and Namco are all very capable of making equally impressive games...they are making them for everyone else too.

I think it\'s more a gain for MS than a loss for Nintendo.

Face it Rare did nothing for the GC and there were no future titles beyond SFA (ok there was PD in 2005 or something).

I think I\'ll live but it really irks me that all of the sudden Xbox fanboys think Kameo is cool, PD is great, and Rare is great.  Before Kameo was kiddy, PD couldn\'t come close to Halo, and they couldn\'t care less about Rare.

Not only that but now everyone is talking about MS buying everyone.

I hate you MS.  I really do.  This only adds to my growing lack of respect for them (not them buying Rare but just buying everyone!).

Rare lost its rights to Perfect Dark, Nintendo has them.

There are gonna be a lot of battling back and forth for certain games and such.

[Living-In-Clip]

Nintendo should of bought Rare. They depended on them durin\' the previous generations and they still could of proved to be a valueable asset.

On the flip side; great move for MS, provided MS will be able to tolerate the one thing Rare is known for  and that is delays. Speaking of which, I\'m curious how much this will even effect MS. Is it to late for them to make a great comeback this generation? Let\'s assume that Rare has not started developing their first Xbox title and they start once this deal is over. Now take the amount of time Rare usually takes for a game (3-4 years) and it should be about time for the Xbox 2....*shrugs*

I don\'t know, I\'m just curious as to how this change is goin\' to effect Rare and how much will actually help MS. I\'ve got a feelin\' it won\'t help MS that much. Rare fanboys have typically been Nintendo fanboys and they will start screaming betrayal by Rare and how MS is using "strong arm" tactics to buy companies.

The truth is that the details have not been finalized. Insiders allege that Nintendo and Rare are still haggling over licenses, and specifically whether or not Rare will be able to purchase the properties it worked on under the Nintendo brand, including Perfect Dark and other trademarks Nintendo holds. Franchises and characters created and owned by Nintendo, of course, including Donkey Kong, will remain in Nintendo\'s control.

I wonder how this little bit will work out. Will Nintendo get to keep Perfect Dark, Banjo - Kazooie series? If so, Rare will be forced to come up with completely new series. If Nintendo holds the trademarks on them, like this article says (if I read it right) then they may very well get to keep those franchises, thus hurtin\' Rare.

I just got my Gamecube dammit!

Didn\'t Nintendo have alot of influence as to what Rare was developing?  Having almost 50% of stock and I would say so.  

It\'s only been recently that Nintendo has started to broaden their appeal.  Being on Xbox, and owned by MS...they have the added benefits of a fat pocket book, and more than likely that could lead to bigger staff.

After a move like this...I wouldn\'t be so quick to assume that MS\'s time is up now, or anytime in the near future.  They have shown their willingness to compete and seem to grow every time I read something new about MS.

How did Rare lose it\'s right to PD?  Rare owned it in the first place.

Rare has the Perfect Dark copyrights and all that in the US Trademark office or whatever, someone from GA provided a link detailing it.


Eric Jacob

Rather than create another thread, I\'ll just ask here.  

What is all this talk about MS buying out Venvindi? (sp?)
Who are they, what did they make.  Over at TXB, everyone is making a big deal about a possible buy out.  That and Sega.

Sega is out of the question, but Vivendi is a media conglomerate, they own Universal, Blizzard, and Sierra. (I don\'t really know for sure, I believe so). They are in the hole alot of money and are looing to cut some fat. So a possible buyout of some of their seperate entities or the whole chunk is possible.


Eric Jacob

Bad move for Nintendo, good for MS.

Like it was said above, good exclusives are the key to success.  IF MS and Rare do get a hold of franchises like Perfect Dark, this will be huge for MS.  If they don\'t I doubt it\'ll have that big of an effect.  

Then there is the fact that PD will compete with Halo.  MS zealots praise Halo like it\'s their savior, so I doubt a game like PD0 on Xbox would sell as well as PD0 on the GameCube.

I have a feeling that MS won\'t put up with the delays of Rare.  They\'ll probably force rare to release their games without all the features Rare wanted.  For some reason I don\'t see MS beefing up the Rare development team....

[Living-In-Clip]

*agree\'s with everything the man above me said.*

Bravo!