[Old Skool]

posted by C&VG

Rare remained unavailable for comment today as British gossip-mongers took pains to flesh out details on what appears to be a publishing deal between the developer and publisher Activision.
"It's definite," said one source. "It's a publishing deal, not a buy-out. Can you honestly see Nintendo intellectual properties appearing on other formats when they're making billions from exclusive IP's on Nintendo hardware?"

Activision pulled down the blinds today. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid it's no comment," said Roger Walkden, director of strategic marketing for Europe.

Talk emerged last night that a Perfect Dark game is to be announced for PlayStation 2 at E3, the Californian games expo kicking off on May 22. The title, quasi-sequel to James Bond shooter GoldenEye, saw strong sales on N64. Rare has been known to be working on a next generation version of the game for some time, but has never officially announced the project.

Announced games Star Fox Adventures, Kameo: Elements of Power and Donkey Kong Racing are all scheduled to appear exclusively on GameCube.

Rare itself spawned speculation towards the end of last year by sending out Christmas cards showing a tree with various consoles wrapped as presents at the base. The company subsequently denied that the card was anything than a bit of fun.

Nintendo owns 49 percent of Rare, giving the developer a controlling interest in the company.

Strong talk emerged recently that the developer was actually up for sale, with both Activision and Microsoft fingered as interested parties.

Rare is one of the world's most revered developers, having been responsible for classics such as shooter GoldenEye and inspired platformer Banjo-Kazooie. A solid relationship exists between Nintendo and Rare, with all of the developer's titles in the last generation appearing on N64 and Game Boy Color.