**The Official 'Microsoft Owns Rare' Thread**

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I should have called this thread the "Rare Left Nintendo thread," now that I think about it...

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Following up our story today on Left Field Productions leaving Nintendo's group of developers, a spokesman for the Japanese company said yesterday that Nintendo is willing to sell off the 49 percent stake they own of British developer Rare Ltd. The announcement was reported by the Bloomberg news service early this morning, which quoted Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa as saying "we may consider selling the shares we have." Nintendo thoroughly denied the Bloomberg report today, calling it a little hasty. According to a statement received by Dow Jones Business News from another Nintendo spokesman, the company would only consider the Rare issue if Rare or Microsoft (its current suitor) contacted them about it. Which they haven't yet, apparently.

As the Los Angeles Times reported earlier today, Microsoft is very interested in purchasing the developer of Perfect Dark, the Donkey Kong Country series and (more recently) Star Fox Adventures. The company would likely turn Rare into an Xbox-only developer to help them produce more exclusive titles (heaven knows they need some). The only catch is the 49 percent of Rare that Nintendo still owns--a stake which, judging from this new statement, isn't all that precious to Nintendo after all.

Online sources have already stated that the Microsoft-Rare deal is done and set to be officially announced at Microsoft's X02 conference later this month. The only question is what'll happen to Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie and Rare's other original game titles--it's a little unclear right now who owns the rights to those names.

Things are happening very fast, as you can see, so be sure to visit GamePro.com regularly to catch the latest news.

GamePro.com News

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Sorry to break it to you but nintendo has always been child oreintated. That is one of the factors that the company prides itself on. Lately they have made an effort to introduce more mature games into their line up, but the big sellers for the system tend to be mario. Sorry but the colors, characters, sounds, and plot all seem geared toward being appealling to kids. In my opinion, it's a kiddy title.

The Xbox would NEVER get a 'kiddie' reputation....

Nintendo's official statement:

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Although Nintendo doesn't comment on rumors or speculation by the media, we can tell you that Nintendo has made the decision not to request Rare to make any further exclusive games for the Nintendo GameCube. Although we're proud of our joint efforts with Rare over the years and have enjoyed our relationship with them, in fiscal year 2001, Rare accounted for only 9.5% of total Nintendo software revenue worldwide. In fiscal year 2002, that number declined to 1.5%. Therefore, in evaluating our investments in developers, as well as the financial benefits to Nintendo over the years, we've decided it's in Nintendo's best interests to focus on diversifying our portfolio of developers and projects.

Star Fox Adventures, which was jointly developed by Rare and Nintendo, will launch as scheduled on September 23rd and will remain exclusive to the Nintendo GameCube. Nintendo's other great franchise characters such as Donkey Kong also will remain exclusive to Nintendo.

We have no additional details to share on this issue at this time. Be sure to check out our official website (www.nintendo.com) for the latest information as it becomes available.

http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=item&id=3396

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Game. Set. Match. Xbox... :)

Dang...even PlanetGameCube and Cube-Europe are all over this...

When I think of Rare, I think of three things: RC Pro Am, Killer Instinct, and Donkey Kong Country. The last two were triumphs of graphics, not of gameplay. I don't mean to diminish things like Perfect Dark, but...I just don't find a lot of their stuff compelling lately.

CBS Market Watch: 'Nintendo may consider selling'

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TOKYO (CBS.MW) -- Nintendo said Thursday that it might consider selling its stake in U.K. game developer Rare to any potential suitor, including Microsoft, which is said to be eyeing the company.

"Rare is one of our subsidiaries, but its contribution to our overall sales is only about 1.5 percent now and the ratio is declining," said Yasuhiro Minagawa, a spokesperson from Nintendo (NTDOY: news, chart, profile) which owns a 49 percent stake in Rare.

"We might consider selling Rare stakes if approached by Microsoft... or others. But even if we decide to sell the company, it won't cause any changes to our business at all," he said.

But Minagawa said he wasn't aware of any talks between Nintendo and Microsoft about the matter.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Microsoft is in talks to purchase Rare. An acquisition would be a plus for Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, which entered the $20 billion global video game market with its Xbox game console last year.

Microsoft officials were not immediately available for comment.

The U.K.-based Rare, started by brothers Tim and Chris Stamper, has created popular titles such as "Donkey Kong Country," and "Perfect Dark," which are made exclusively for Nintendo game systems.

Nintendo's shares (JP:7974: news, chart, profile) jumped 370 yen, or 2.6 percent, to close at 14,380 yen in Tokyo.

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B1DF838A4%2D01B4%2D482A%2DBD16%2D705AAF1FA9B9%7D&siteid=mktw

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So pretty much, Microsoft bought Rare for the use of Perfect Dark, the only good game that Rare has full rights to. The question is, will rare still create games as good as the past....was nintendo the reason rare was so good? If you look at it, only 3 good rare games didn't contain Nintendo characters, Jet Force Gemini, Goldeneye, and Perfect Dark. Rare can't make anymore bond games cuz EA holds the rights(i'm assuming this from one of the posts, so correct me if I'm wrong), so its left with PD, JFG, and whichever games it can create....it would be funny if it turns out that the only reason Rare was so good was because of Nintendo, and Microsoft just wasted a bunch of money...

According to the CBS report, Rare owns the rights to Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong, and Goldeneye (see previous posts).