Rare (sale/buy out) rumblings Part Deux (1 Viewer)

[Iain Lambert]

Rare do belong to someone. Clive Sinclair!!!

Frankly, I don't really care that much what happens to Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie or whatever, I just want the new Sabrewulf GBA game they are working on.

 

[BrianB]

Rare do belong to someone. Clive Sinclair!!!

Indeed, Iain, a point that is often forgotten by non-Brits.

 

[Romier S]

Rare do belong to someone. Clive Sinclair!!!

Well yes, they belong *TO* someone. My point above is that they don't belong *WITH* someone.

 

[Sean Moon]

When I think of Rare I associate it with Nintendo. Rare made some amazing games back in the day but for the last few years have been slacking off in my opinion. Delay after delay. I still get excited about their games, but they seem to lack the polish that GoldenEye and Banjo had.

If Microsoft truly has bought Rare, then that means that there is more good developers going for the Xbox. Sure, I will miss their games on my nintendo systems, but as long as they continue to make games I dont care.

 

[Romier S]

Sure, I will miss their games on my nintendo systems, but as long as they continue to make games I dont care.

... I agree completely.

 

[Dave F]

Nobody enamorred with the X-box is going to give my viewpoint a second thought until then though.

So basically you are writing off the opinion of anyone who can be considered an "Xbox fan".

-Dave

 

[Mark Evans]

Actually David, if I read that right, John's point is that people who are in love with the X-Box aren't going to listen to what he's saying, rather than what you imply. What he's saying has nothing to do with dismissing your opinion, rather dismissal of his.
I don't presume to speak for anybody, but that was how I read it.
As for my take, I don't care. Rare's a decent company, but life goes on. I'm more interested to see what comes out from Silicon Knights and Retro now than I am with anything from Rare.

 

[Romier S]

Looks like its becoming less and less of a rumor and more of a reality:
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[Jeffrey Forner]

Romier;

Could you give us the gist of the story? I'm not an IGN Insider so I can't read it.

I assume that the rumors are turning out to be true. If so, some more details would be nice.

 

[Romier S]

Basically its what has been said so far. Apparently Activision and Microsoft were both vying for Rare but in the end Microsoft won the bid. The purchase price includes *ALL* shares in Rare. That is including Nintendo's 49%.
Heres a quote of why Nintendo supposedly sold:

Now we have the full story, anonymously confirmed by numerous credible, high-level insiders. The reports are true. We stake our reputation on it.

Again we'll have to wait and see but its looking more and more likely.(though IGN is quite the gossip mill these days. So I'll refrain on the rep portion of that)

 

[BrianB]

The expected announcement is again said to be made at the X02 event in September.

Is X02 before or after the launch of Star Fox Adventures?

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

Wow. Morgan's going to be pissed off when he reads this.

 

[Romier S]

Is X02 before or after the launch of Star Fox Adventures?

Same day of release I believe.
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[BrianB]

Curioser & curioser.

What I heard back at the start of the real rumours (march?) was there'd be no announcement until Star Fox shipped.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Microsoft is a pollutant to the gaming industry. Their business practices are unhealthy for it, and I do beleive regret will be had by all who buy in - either as a result of their falling out of consoles, or their domination. However, enough people disagree with me that it would be silly to argue about this.

I can't figure out for the life of me as to what Microsoft is doing in the game industry that Sony hasn't been doing for 8 years, and Nintendo has been doing for 17 years!

 

[Romier S]

What I heard back at the start of the real rumours (march?) was there'd be no announcement until Star Fox shipped.

Well it ships the 23rd. X02 isn't until the 24th. Talk about wanting to get it out of the way quickly..
Geez today is the developer shuffle day. This was posted on IGN as well (Though not as big as the Rare story I figured I'd post it since it was in the same ballpark):
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[Brian Hepler]

Microsoft is a pollutant to the gaming industry. Their business practices are unhealthy for it, and I do beleive regret will be had by all who buy in

[sarcasm]Yeah, ever since Mechwarrior 4 came out, life has just been downhill for video games of late. Damn Microsoft for making such lousy games like Age of Empires and Crimson Skies![/sarcasm]

 

[Sean Moon]

Personally, I think Sony is the company mucking with the game market too much. Right now I see Microsoft as trying to muscle in on Sony's turf, yet they realise what was needed to make a major console. They realise what is needed to attract customers and evolve consoles as we know it. I still see Microsoft as the underdog.
Nintendo I will stand by until my dying day. I love their philosophy that they are a game maker and will make game machines, not all in one machines. They know their strengths and use them. That is why most good ideas Nintendo has other companies rip them off big time!(the d-pad, shoulder butttons, four controller ports built in, analog control standard, rumble feature, save feature, and now RF controllers for consoles)
Sony came into the industry and exploited all their competeters weaknesses. I see them more as the steamroller of the industry. They own it right now and are destroying all in their path. They are going to do things their way wheter we like it or not. They have the name recognition and largest base, but some of the worst practices. Things like no built in 4 controller ports(sorry, that should be standard now), no built in online component, no built in hard drive. You have to buy all this seperately, and if history has proven anything in consoles, it is that if it isnt packed in the box, it will not be supported very widely. I know Nintendo didnt do the online thing or hard drive in the box, but they arent pushing to force it on us.
The PS2 is a great system, dont get me wrong. But there are two many mistakes Sony made on it for it to truly revolutionize things I think. And did you hear about their rumored PS3 plans? It is a superconductor imbedded on other components, that uses the processing of other chips like it in the network that arent working to add more power. That doesnt sound like a good feasible way to make a console.

 

[BrandonM]

That is why most good ideas Nintendo has other companies rip them off big time!(the d-pad, shoulder butttons, four controller ports built in, analog control standard, rumble feature, save feature, and now RF controllers for consoles)

The default Saturn controller had left and right shoulder buttons and came out two years before the N64. Also, I don't believe Nintendo made the first RF controller either.
Sega did release an analog controller for the Saturn, but I believe the N64 was already out by that time.
Edit: Duh, you were referring to the SNES controllers. Nevermind.

 

[Aaron Copeland]

Who cares who rips off who? They all do it. For example, Nintendo's "Gameboy" is a blatant ripoff of Sony's "Walkman" naming convention. Yes, Nintendo has always been very innovative, but I like when other companies come along and improve upon the ideas (like building in the rumble feature, expanding the analog thumb stick to dual analog sticks, adding more shoulder buttons, etc, etc...). So who cares?