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antime - Sep 10, 2002

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  antime Sep 10, 2002
The rumours have been flying for some time, and now several sources say the deal has been closed: Rare is getting bought by Microsoft in a deal worth over £250 million. Nintendo are also expected to sell their share.

Here's The Register's... take on it, and here... is another story, this time from Rewired Mind.

 Link Hylia Sep 10, 2002
The Regester is the National Enquirer of the Internet.

doubt all they say. like the backdoor virus they say MS put in with an update.

 antime Sep 10, 2002
They're just quoting gameindustry.biz..., but I don't know how reliable they are. Anyway, the rumours have been going around for some time now.

 segasonic Sep 10, 2002
It's official!...

 Hollywood Hasney Sep 10, 2002

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by segasonic@Sep. 09 2002, 4:03 pm



It's official!...


Holy shit it is! Thats Bill Gates handwriting!

 mal Sep 10, 2002

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Link Hylia@Sep. 10 2002, 8:24 pm



The Register is the National Enquirer of the Internet.


Is that a bad thing? : :

 3rdman Sep 10, 2002
Theres more than that...

http://www.raretopia.com/news/2002/09/06.html...

http://www.computerandvideogames.com... (goto the news section from Friday of last week.)

http://www.rarenet.com/cgi-bin....=1&t=20...

Each of these sites are citing independant confirmation on the deal. I would have listed Gameindustry.biz as they are a very reliable site, but I see that someone already has. Don't know what to think of it...We'll just have to wait until the end of the month. PD0 on Xbox? Yes please!

 3rdman Sep 10, 2002
Heres more...

http://www.rareops.com/news/news.php?&index=132...

http://www.cube-europe.com/newsphp/news.php?id=265...

 ExCyber Sep 10, 2002
They can't even seem to agree on who's selling, but it does sound pretty certain that something big is going on. A lot of the reporting sounds fishy to me though, such as:


  
	
	

		
		

			As Rare own the majority share, Nintendo would be obliged to sell their property.


Maybe it works differently in the UK, but last time I checked a controlling interest in a corporation doesn't give one the privilege to compel other holders to sell (as their stock is their property, not the corporation's). Can you imagine the potential for abuse that this would have?

Anyway, at this point I think the only reason Nintendo would sell their share in Rare is if they intended to use the money to hire away some of the dev talent (certainly *someone* working there would rather work for Nintendo than MS) and otherwise invest in other companies. However, it's not clear at all that Nintendo wants to let go of Rare, so it will be interesting either way to see what develops.

 antime Sep 10, 2002
Rare has allegedly been losing many of its senior staff, and not only the Timesplitters people. At worst, the potential buyer would end up with the name and little else, like when US Gold bought Ultimate.

Anyway, from a business point of view Rare doesn't have many reasons to stay single-format, especially if they have lost their favoured developer status with Nintendo.

 Gallstaff Sep 10, 2002
Does this mean there won't be any more classic rare platformers such as conker, donkeykong, and who can forget their gameboy games?

 Link Hylia Sep 11, 2002
since Nintendo still owns quite a large share, RARE can and will still produce games for Nintendo Consoles. MS would be able to sell the idea to RARE, and if they bought it, they could and probably would produce Xbox games. Nintendo won't sell their shares (their stake of the company) unless they could get a major price for them. RARE has made many a game, that Nintendo made lots of money on, the DK franchise for one thing. think Nintendo will let that get away from them?

 segasonic Sep 11, 2002
I heard that the Nintendo/Rare relationship has been somewhat dampened since the release of Conker, apparently some people at Nintendo were offended by the humour and bad language in the game. Personally I think it's brilliant, and was a bold move on the part of Rare. The turd monster and the song he sings are especially hilarious.

If the above is true then it's little wonder that Nintendo have a rep as a kiddie company.

 Myname Sep 11, 2002
I dunno, for some reason turd humour doesn't strike me as something the Japanese would be big on. Conker is quite a western sort of a game humour wise, I think.

Still cool though

 ExCyber Sep 11, 2002

  
	
	

		
		

			RARE has made many a game, that Nintendo made lots of money on, the DK franchise for one thing.


DK is Nintendo's. Not to say that Rare was doing a bad job with it, but Donkey Kong is as much a part of Nintendo as Pac-Man is a part of Namco, if not more so.

 Myname Sep 11, 2002
Hmm.. Donkey Kong was the star even before Mario, remember.

 antime Sep 11, 2002

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Myname@Sep. 11 2002, 3:24 pm



I dunno, for some reason turd humour doesn't strike me as something the Japanese would be big on.


You mean you've never played Toilet Kids...?

 segasonic Sep 11, 2002

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by antime+Sep. 11 2002, 4:12 pm-->
QUOTE(antime @ Sep. 11 2002, 4:12 pm)