Rare Going Multiplatform, Final!

[gekko]

From Senor Matt:

Uh-oh.

Just a little news. I am absolutely certain that Rare is going multiplatform now. The developer will make its own announcement in this regard. I'm not sure when.

Everyone still holding out, still doubting -- prepare to be wrong.

Matt

I know Rare is going multiplatform. This is something I *know* is happening. Not something I've heard. Not a rumor. A fact. I'm sorry, but I can't reveal how I know just yet.

As to why, though, I'm not sure. But I have some good ideas.

My speculation on the subject is this: It was a Nintendo decision. Or perhaps it was a mutual decision. Whichever, Nintendo definitely influenced it. Nintendo is first and foremost a business. It is a company that in the past has not been hesitant to sever business ties if they have not proven beneficial.

Rare is a slow-moving development studio. Its last N64 projects garnered disappointing sales, especially Conker's Bad Fur Day -- a game in the works for several years. Meanwhile, it has yet to release a GameCube title, and it was one of the very first studios to receive GCN development hardware.

In short, Nintendo has to be losing money on these guys, and the giant has to be frustrated.

So a new Nintendo strategy develops. No longer looking to the second-party model, Nintendo throws projects to its first-party USA house NST, buys Retro (in practice making the company first-party), and shifts focus again. Now it's dishing out its big-name licenses to interested third-party developers -- Namco, Sega, Capcom (and more to come). It's a win-win situation really. These third-parties get lucrative licenses to work with, nearly guaranteeing them massive sales, and Nintendo gets quality products from some of the best developers in the world.

With these extra Nintendo-branded games coming in from third-parties, Rare may not be as integral to the future success of GameCube as it once seemed. Rare, meanwhile, clearly wants more freedom. Rumors of the Stamper Bros. wanting to retire could be true. And Microsoft and Activision have been doing their best to entice the company over to Xbox and PS2 development respectively.

And so it happens.

Matt

[Idiot]

Balls,balls,balls,balls,balls,balls,balls,balls. This is, in no uncertain terms, a pile of ****. Senor Matt is speaking bollo***. ( On another note, I would like to apologise for my recent grumpiness, and sorry to all members of GameTavern.)

[Mushlafa]

In your face ric, CH, and shadow_link
I dont really care that much cause they'll still be making the same games for GC but they'l be making diff once for diff consoles

Originally posted by Idiot
Balls,balls,balls,balls,balls,balls,balls,balls. This is, in no uncertain terms, a pile of ****. Senor Matt is speaking bollo***. ( On another note, I would like to apologise for my recent grumpiness, and sorry to all members of GameTavern.)

Your so ignorant... you cant face the fact that Rare could develope for another console..

[Idiot]

For a start Mushlafa, there is no evidence of:

1: A breakdown between Nintendo and Rare.

2: The Stamper Bros, having any campaign to break away from Nintendo.

3: The Stamper Bros, can afford to buy out Nintendo's 45% stake in the company.

4: Rare has little chance of developing into a major softco. (Due to the dependance on Nintendo for a finnancialy safe infastructure.)

5: Rare games are an aqquired taste at times. Would Rare survive independent for long with it's essentialy British portfolio.

On another note, consider this: The Stamper Bros are worth £90. Nintendo provides Rare with financial, coding, creative, hardware and liscence support. Would you gamble this by going independent and a high probability of losing it all. Would you do that Mushlafa. I would probably think not.

[Mushlafa]

Rare going multi platform doesnt mean that they wont make games for Gamecube anymore....

Well Matt said that this was either a Mutual decision or one made by Nintendo... it would be making Nintendo more money and it would also make rare more money.. so what are they losing if they develope for other systems... they're games will probably still sell like hot cakes because of all the snes fans that probably liked donkey kong when they were younger..

Im bad at getting my point across... but all i really wanna say is how is nintendo or Rare losing anything by going multi pllatform?

[Null]

Rare rumored to go 3rd party...........


Nintendo takes new direction, Says to focus on games now.
(maybe no more console making)



rumors say Nintendo is the one that made the decision to let Rare go..


Maybe Nintendo wants out of making console, and wants to make games only. therefor not needing Rare.

[Mushlafa]

:eek: :eek: Null posted !

Well ... Im gonna have to hope that your wrong null
but who knows maybe hes right...

I feel like im post cramming oh well

[Joeiss]

Originally posted by Idiot
3: The Stamper Bros, can afford to buy out Nintendo's 45% stake in the company.

The Stamper Bros. do not have to buy out Nintendo's 45% stake in the company to be independant. You see, Nintendo has a large stake in it, but it is not a majority. Thus, leaving Rare with the choice to do what they want.

[Bond]

Originally posted by Idiot
On another note, consider this: The Stamper Bros are worth £90. Nintendo provides Rare with financial, coding, creative, hardware and liscence support. Would you gamble this by going independent and a high probability of losing it all. Would you do that Mushlafa. I would probably think not.

Could I please see evidence to support that statement?

[gekko]

Originally posted by Idiot
For a start Mushlafa, there is no evidence of:

1: A breakdown between Nintendo and Rare.

2: The Stamper Bros, having any campaign to break away from Nintendo.

3: The Stamper Bros, can afford to buy out Nintendo's 45% stake in the company.

4: Rare has little chance of developing into a major softco. (Due to the dependance on Nintendo for a finnancialy safe infastructure.)

5: Rare games are an aqquired taste at times. Would Rare survive independent for long with it's essentialy British portfolio.

On another note, consider this: The Stamper Bros are worth £90. Nintendo provides Rare with financial, coding, creative, hardware and liscence support. Would you gamble this by going independent and a high probability of losing it all. Would you do that Mushlafa. I would probably think not.

1. Matt explained it clearly. Rare isn't making them much money, if any. And if you look at how much Retro has done even with management problems, you gotta think they are moving away from Rare.

2. No one said there was. You made this one up.

3. If Nintendo chooses to sell it, yes. So could Bill Gates, doesn't mean it will happen.

4. That's true. But from the sounds of it, Nintendo wants Rare gone, so why would it matter if Rare actually does well afterwards?

Nintendo is a company looking to make money, they're not like MS who won't profit from Xbox, and likely will never make up for lost $$$. Rare takes forever to develop a game, and every day that passes costs more money to pay the employees. Now with games like GoldenEye, it's all worth it. But not all their games have done well, so it doesn't help Nintendo financially. Then they had dev kits before anyone, and they still don't have games out. Hell, Star Fox Adventures was already planned and in development for N64, they should've had this done a long time ago, and been ahead on Kameo and DKR.

If I were Nintendo, I'd be much more willing to put money into Retro, NST, and SK. NST is just damn good at making games, Retro has one of the best facilities in the world, and SK has tons of talent, and I want Too Human! I'm not even very interested in SFA, only the classic flying portion really. Don't care much for the sounds of Kameo, and DKR doesn't seem to be making any progress. Does this sound like a company who you want to put a lot of money into?

Look at Retro. They are just doing Metroid right now, because before the mangement problems they didn't get anything done. But they also have ideas, games planned that were canceled because of Metroid. Car Combat looked pretty sweet, and it was actually being developed if I remember right, to be an online game. Their football game had nice cheerleaders

[gekko]

For for idiot, who thinks he's right and Matt's wrong:

Haha. Take it easy, guys. Ed the Janitor reported this stuff months ago -- I'm just throwing in my two cents.

A couple of criticisms thrown my way that I'd like to address:

#1. Someone claimed I was totally wrong on Left Field. How? We reported that Left Field wasn't an exclusive second-party anymore, that the company had been stripped fo 1080 by Nintendo, that it was making Backyard Football for other consoles. At E3 2002 we learned that Left Field was not in the works with any Nintendo-published games, that 1080 was being handled by NST and that Left Field was the developer of Backyard Football. How in the heck does that make us wrong? Please -- tell me. I'd like to know.

#2. I've been wrong more times than I've been right. Buh? How so? I can go all the way to IGN64 and cite news stories that we broke, from Dolphin, to the shape of the controller, to the specs of the machine and the DVD drive type, right up to Soul Calibur 2 being shown at Space World, or that Metroid was an FPA, or that one could see through the eyes of Samus in a special visor view.

So far I can think of only two IGNcube news reports that have yet to be proven true. The first was that Perfect Dark 0 would not ship until at least 2003 and might not come out until 2004 -- a report that looks to be true. And second, that SC2 would be running on Triforce arcade hardware. Nevermind that we broke the news OF the Triforce arcade hardware in the same story. We also broke the news that Namco would develop Star Fox on the Triforce hardware, but again everyone seems to forget when we break the news.

But I digress. You can choose to believe our information or not. That's cool -- that's up to you, and if you'd rather wait for the official announcement (which will come from Rare, not Nintendo, by the way), that's your decision.

But anybody who thinks they can use this as a chance to question IGNcube's credibility has another thing coming entirely.

Matt

Haha, sounds pretty confident. Still thinks it's balls?

[BlueFire]

Hmm...Oh well.




*waits for Ric*

[DeathsHand]

IGN isn't the only place confident Rare is going third party... PSM is too... but I already posted a topic about that

Anyways... I'd be surprised if they don't go multiplatform... not only were there tons of rumors (like there were before Square finally announced they'd develop for NGC, while Sony fans screamed that it wouldn't happen in a million years), but now all of a sudden apparently there is something that a few very reliable sources have been hearing that makes them like 100% sure they will go multiplatform...

But still it's not official until it's announced by Rare... But it just sounds so convincing... unless you're Ric.... or Idiot.....

[Angrist]

Ric hasn't been online this month, I wonder what's up with him. I asked DC but he hasn't seen him either. CH?

Oh well I guess I have to except this. That explenation of why Nintendo decided it sounds very convincing.

I actually start to not like them. They still haven't finished a game for GC! Just give us SFA and leave! And make a Perfect Dark sequel (exclusive of course, unless they decide not to use Joanna Dark). That's all I want from you. Let Nintendo or some other company make a original DK game, unlike the terrible DK64!

[Blix]

Would you gamble this by going independent and a high probability of losing it all. Would you do that Mushlafa. I would probably think not.

Shouldn't these have question marks? Sorry, I just felt that necessary. Anyway, I also think that Rare leaving Nintendo is definitive. As long as rare exist and I can buy their game, on nintendo's or anyone's console, I'll be happy. I just hope they can survive alone. Rare just haven't given me the impresion of being a company that can stand on its own. :\