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Rare: sold, slapped, and kicked in the ass on the way out the door

  • Published at 20:19:00 PT
  • Reported by Matt Berti
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The hottest topic of rumor columnists and gaming sites alike for the past eight months has arguably been the apparent disbanment of Rare from longtime ally Nintendo. Now Microsoft has reportedly scored on an opportunity Nintendo missed.
  Nintendo has reportedly decided to pass on an offer to extend their 49% stake in Rare to full ownership, citing declining sales of Rare software as the reason. In response, ownership of Rare has been sold to Microsoft in a deal that will be officially announced at Microsoft?s X02 Europe event on September 24.

  Nintendo has issued the following statement regarding the sale:

  "We can tell you that Nintendo has made the decision not to request Rare to make any further exclusive games for the Nintendo GameCube. Although we're proud of our joint efforts with Rare over the years and have enjoyed our relationship with them, in fiscal year 2001, Rare accounted for only 9.5% of total Nintendo software revenue worldwide. In fiscal year 2002, that number declined to 1.5%. Therefore, in evaluating our investments in developers, as well as the financial benefits to Nintendo over the years, we've decided it's in Nintendo's best interests to focus on diversifying our portfolio of developers and projects.

  Star Fox Adventures, which was jointly developed by Rare and Nintendo, will launch as scheduled on September 23rd and will remain exclusive to the Nintendo GameCube. Nintendo's other great franchise characters such as Donkey Kong also will remain exclusive to Nintendo.

  We have no additional details to share on this issue at this time."


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Forums / News / Rare: sold, slapped, and kicked in the ass on the way out the door

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Good riddance?

Rare pretty much revived Donkey Kong's status.

Then you have Goldeneye and Perfect Dark.

Blast Corps is unique. What about Jet Force Gemini?

Although you might not respect Diddy Kong Racing or the Banjo games as much, they are good games.

Conker's Bad Fur Day... hey's it's the "mature" game Nintendo wanted for the N64, right?

1.5% of revenues is a good thing considering Rare didn't make any games in 2001 and 2002. Right? At least nothing that can be considered a killer app.
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Well, the 1.5% is mostly Conker, I assume, since it's the only Rare release for all of 2001. I'm also not too sure that this is such a loss. I mean, yes, it's a loss on Nintendo's part and I think that Nintendo's belief that they don't need Rare any more is stupid and foolish. But I, personally, haven't been imprressed with a Rare title for years and I'm not going to miss them too much.

I'm beginning to question some of Nintendo's business decisions and business ethics. Was the company better of with Yamauchi??
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And another thing... for Nintendo to just treat Rare like some aging whore, for all of the loyalty and support Rare has given over the years, is just pitiful. I'm surprised how quickly Nintendo's head is getting. I mean, has Nintendo completely fucking forgotten that Rare singlehandedly plummeted the SNES into victory with Donkey Kong Country? Has Nintendo completely forgotten that Rare was the savior of the N64?

The level of ignorance on Nintendo's part is astounding. This is just complete and total asinine on their part...
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I suppose the sales numbers don't lie. But I doubt Yamauchi, the stubborn curmudgeon he (used to be), would ever have ever let Rare fall into the hands of the WHITE DEVIL.
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