This sounds an awful lot like sour grapes from Nintendo fans to me. Now that Rare has left, no one cares. When Rare was a Nintendo second party, Nintendo fans always bragged about it. Lets get real.
Rare is one of the best if not the best development house out there. While they may take a long time in between games, their track record of excellence speaks for itself. While some of the games may have not sold well, you can't say they weren't quality titles.
Will losing rare hurt Nintendo? Probably, but not that much. I think this deal will have more of a beneficial effect on Microsoft than a detrimental effect on Nintendo. Microsoft needs console pushers, and Rare is one of the few developers that consistently makes them.
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