Microsoft to buy Rare?

[Perfect Stu]

Source

Rare Buy-Out Imminent

Earlier this week, a report surfaced on Computer and Video Games suggesting that a Rare buy-out might be imminent. According to the magazine's British sources, Activision was looking at acquiring the UK developer but simply could not afford the high price. Instead, the insiders alleged that Rare will be taken over by Microsoft for a price of £350 million.

CVG speculates that the official announcement will be made at Microsoft's X02 event in Seville later this month, which is said to focus on software. It also hints at the next game in the Perfect Dark series heading exclusively to the Microsoft Xbox.

One respected source, who wishes to remain anonymous, has confirmed to Raretopia that Rare is indeed to be bought by Microsoft and estimated the value of the company to be around £250 million. Allegedly, the deal has already been signed and the only thing that could stop it is if Nintendo takes up its option to buy Rare at the offered price instead of Microsoft. However, this seems very unlikely as it could have bought Rare years ago for a lower price but declined. Moreover, we were informed that a full buy-out of Rare will take place, meaning that all of its shares are to be sold to Microsoft.

The Rare-developed Star Fox Adventures will be released by Nintendo later this month exclusively for the GameCube, and it looks to be the last Rare game to grace the console before the company moves on to the Xbox. It is uncertain whether Rare will still bring out its GBA games, but chances are it will keep making games for the handheld as it still has a dedicated GBA team.

[DarkMaster]

whoa......but let's not forget one thing, shiggy does do a lot of supervision to the games that rare makes, without shiggy will rare still have that nintendo touch?

[TheGame]

Originally posted by DarkMaster
whoa......but let's not forget one thing, shiggy does do a lot of supervision to the games that rare makes, without shiggy will rare still have that nintendo touch?

*looks at Conker's Bad Fur Day*

Rare will be great without Nintendo

[Angrist]

*looks at Conker's Bad Fur Day*

Rare will sell terrible without Nintendo.

[Perfect Stu]

for some reason, I doubt 'Shiggy' had much to do with Goldeneye or Perfect Dark...

*looks at what Angrist has to say*

*doesn't give a crap*

[Null]

thought i read someone that he has more help then one would think in Goldeneye.

Nintendo kinda trained them, as time went on they did more on thier own.

they'll use what nintendo tought them and they'll be successful.


My theory on this Rare subject is still the same. I dont think nintendo would be stupid enough to let them go when they have enough to buy them. i dont think rare was unhappy where they were. cuz if microsoft buys them they're in the same spot. exlusive to one console.

nintendo announced a while back that they want to start focusing on Games, instead of hardware races.

My theory. Nintendo is going to stop making Consoles and follow suit with sega and make just games. (imo this has REALLY helped sega. they seem to get a lot more attention and i like more of thier games then before) And because of this. this would be the reason nintendo would let Rare go. they wouldnt need rare if they were going 3rd party. just a theory tho


Ah well tho. Back on subject, rare will do fine elsewhere just as they were with nintendo. they just gotta find new characters in certain cases. hehe

A few months ago, this would have really pissed me off, but now I actually think it's a good thing for rare and for gamers. Rare won't have to deal with the usuall nintendo crap and Rare will get to develope for the most powerful system around.

Now for the bad part.

Months upon Months of fanboy bitching. Great, that's just what we need. The best part about this will be hearing the linux/mac users who hate MS. Half of them don't even play console games yet they will all have an opinion on how much MS sucks.

[DarkMaster]

nintendo could have bought rare a long time ago, thats their fault for being stupid. nintendo has done a lot of stupid things in its time (turn down sony to produce a console together, refuse square to develop games for them for almost 6 years).....but on the other hand, they have shiggy, and shiggy be kickin!!

[Null]

1) dont be so jumpy to assume this is true untill rare themselves says it.

2) nintendo did not do anything stupid with sony, and they were not making a console together. they were making an addon, and that addon would have failed. as all do.

3) they did not refuse square for 6 years. Square did NOT want to make games for N64, thats the reason they left, they wanted to make games on CD.
Nintendo turned them down for a couple years from the GC and AGB, but it gets them new games instead of remakes like square was planning.


But this still doesnt help Rare out if this is true, they wanted to be 3rd party, not exclusive. and if they wanted to be exclusive and sell more games they woudlnt goto nintendo or ms.

i personally think they're going to be 3rd party.

But hey, this could very well be true, stranger things have happened before.

[Tombor]

I don't see Rare sticking with Nintendo for much longer. This seems to be a lot dissention in the ranks on Rare's side. Does anybody remember that cryptic Christmas card with a snowman holding packages conspicously resembling a PS2 and Xbox? I think Rare will continue to be a great company though it may have some pains early on: they've been doing Nintendo license stuff for a decade now outside of Conker and Perfect Dark and Jet Force Gemini and a few others.

If Microsoft buys them, for a while it sounded like Activision was going to do a publishing deal with them, it could be a BIG coup for MS and Xbox. Perfect Dark going Xbox and whatever else Rare has up their sleeve will definately strengthen MS's 1st and 2nd party stuff THAT much more.... though, with a nonexistent Japanese marke, I personally see a buyout of a recognizable Japanese company, Enix or Game Arts or something like that, would make a bit more sense.

As I said before Rare has ALWAYS been a great software (Battletoads, Captain Skyhawk, Wizards and Warriors, and Solar Jetman anyone?) company: "Shiggy" breathing down their backs or not. They've been around for 20 years and it wasn't until recently Nintendo bought a stake in them. It'll be nice to see Rare either free of just one hardware platform, they've done nothing but Nintendo since 1985, or, save that, at least more powerful different hardware for once....

[gekko]

Null, why are you telling people not to be jumpy. Aren't you the one who thinks Nintendo will stop making consoles after what? No evidence leading to that. Ever since Sega stopped making consoles people are being jumpy assuming Nintendo will. Just remember, Nintendo is not the one is trouble. Microsoft is in dead last, Nintendo isn't.

Secondly, I don't expect Rare to stay. If MS buys them, it'll be a waste of money. I got a feeling Nintendo doesn't want Rare, and Rare wants to take their name elsewhere. Problem is, all they have is their name. Rare's games, hands-down, suck ass. They have been good, yes, but lately, they sucked ass. Conker, PD, Banjo-Tooie, Mickey's Speedway, etc. Rare has nothing without Nintendo.

[Null]

I dont think nintendo is in trouble in the slightest.

they make the most money on thier stuff. They are far far farrrr from needing money or being in trouble.

I think they WANT to become game only.

Its just a theory, im not tryin to force it as being a fact or saying it will happen.

so i dont need any evidence. and im just jumping at it. im just saying thats the feeling i get from everything. didnt say it was bad either.

[DarkMaster]

Originally posted by Null
1) dont be so jumpy to assume this is true untill rare themselves says it.

2) nintendo did not do anything stupid with sony, and they were not making a console together. they were making an addon, and that addon would have failed. as all do.

3) they did not refuse square for 6 years. Square did NOT want to make games for N64, thats the reason they left, they wanted to make games on CD.
Nintendo turned them down for a couple years from the GC and AGB, but it gets them new games instead of remakes like square was planning.

Square did not want to make games for N64 because it wasnt CD based. why wasnt it CD based? beacuse nintendo did not want to use sony's CD installed base addon for the N64. why did nintendo not want to use sony's CD addon? because apparently nintendo was afraid that the CDs load times would dis-satisfy their customers. Square needed a CD based console to make their games because cartidges couldn't handle the extreme amount of information and graphical powress (FMVS, pre-rendered backdrops) that they use in almost all of their games. a few years later square offers to make some games for nintendo, wut does nintendo say? piss off, thats wut they say. Nintendo's president was too stubborn to allow square to develop games for their console, "I don't care about Square, they chose Sony over Nintendo years ago so they can stay with Sony!!" the arrogant words of the Nintendo president. Either way, this really has nothing to do with Rare leaving nintendo. I'd rather Rare just stay with nintendo, it'll be less crap i'll have to read from arrogant Xbox fanboys.

[Null]

wasnt sonys CD addon for SNES? sony never had anything for 64.

less you mean something else. wasnt quite sure what you meant.

[Bond]

Originally posted by Null
wasnt sonys CD addon for SNES? sony never had anything for 64.

less you mean something else. wasnt quite sure what you meant.

Yes, it was. Cancelled a day before it was going to be shown. Actually Sony pulled out at the last minute.