look at these interesting tidbits from IGN
http://ps2.ign.com/articles/357/357301p1.html
A Rare Situation
There is a phenomenal amount of hubbub surrounding the recent story of Rare, the most prominent and important second-party developer in Nintendo's stable. The details are far from clear, and the rumors are growing ridiculously out of proportion by the minute, but from what we can gather, there are a few details that are reliable.
First,
Rare is at the end of a five-year contract with Nintendo (Gekko) and both parties are at the negotiating table, discussing what they want, and how to resign another contract. Nintendo owns a minority stake in the private company, with the Stamper Brothers owning the majority.
Sources say that neither party is interested in resigning the contract (Myself), and with the phenomenal amount of change going on at Nintendo of America, there's reason to believe that the two may be parting ways. Either that, or they resign a different kind of contract, one that positions Rare as a third-party developer, or perhaps even as a publishers of its own games on various systems.
The fact is Rare could potentially make a lot more money if it did strike out on its own, reaping higher profits with multiple skus, and working with multiple publishers (Xantar/Mike). We all know the company has the ability to create unbelievably fun games, so why should they share the wealth on all systems? But the possible parting of the twain also spells trouble for Nintendo, whose harem of second-party companies is slowly dwindling (Left Field, Retro), and Rare has, pardon the pun, rarely let Nintendo down. Just look at what it did for N64 -- Blast Corps, Goldeneye 007, Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Kazooie 2, Perfect Dark, and Conker's bad Fur Day.
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