Saw this at VE3D:
“The news is looking likely to be a jigsaw piece that slots in nicely to make a final, Rare-shaped picture. Talk is heating up today regarding an apparently huge announcement at Microsoft’s X02 event in Seville later this month, which will be specifically software related. Rumour has been constant recently regarding the next Perfect Dark game heading exclusively to Xbox. See what we mean?”
Rare rumors aren’t rare at all. That one’s been around so long that there might be something to it.
Yeah, last I heard Perfect Dark 2 was a PS2 exclusive. If MS wanted to buy Rare, they’d have to talk Nintendo out of their chunk first.
These Rare rumors have been out of hand since they sent out that Christmas card last year. Just about every game site has told us that they have some kind of inside information, which of course contradicts what the others are saying. At this point I don’t care what they do, just as long as they announce it so the forum speculation can come to an end.
Would they? I’m pretty sure the Stamper brothers own the majority of the company, not Nintendo. If they sold to Microsoft, would it really matter what Nintendo wanted?
Right - Nintendo doesn’t own a controlling share of Rare, it’s about 25% of the company they’ve got. I’m sure they’d sell it if Rare were bought by Sony or Microsoft. But anyone else could still buy controlling interest in Rare, if Rare wanted to sell them that much.
The rumors are nothing new, as was said. But it wouldn’t surprise me ONE BIT if MS wants to buy Rare.
When I read something like this:
http://www.redherring.com/insider/2002/0716/sega071602.html
I think “man, if MS was willing to fork over almost TWO BILLION to acquire Sega (who would in turn use the cash to acquire Squre), think what ELSE they’re working on.” I mean, they’re willing to spend major MAJOR money acquiring top developers for exclusive content. Obviously part of a long-term plan: most of the really hot exclusive content wouldn’t kick in for two more years. But still…it’s well known that they offered to buy Square last year and it fell through because Square was asking like five times more than they were worth.
I’d expect to see Microsoft acquire several few developers/publishers over the next couple years. Some small, some Bungie-sized, and some as “big” as Rare.
We’ll see. There must be a good reason Microsoft keeps getting turned down. A lot of these companies get close and then back away. Something is keeping them from becoming part of the Microsoft army. We may never know what that is, but so far the only companies willing to sell have been PC game makers. Traditional console development firms don’t seem convinced that it’s a good idea to sell to Microsoft.
Their long-term goals and commitment to games in general may be the key. If they’re getting more overt with the idea that Xbox will become a set-top box, many game makers aren’t going to go along with that. It just makes you a cog in their machine but not a star. IMO, Rare would be crazy to sell now. They’re considered star development talent. If they go in house with Microsoft, their identity will be lost much like Bungie. Sure, money can make those wounds less deep, but when you’ve been a star team for two systems from a company committed to games and games alone, it’d be really hard to go back to having someone else call all the shots.
–Dave
I don’t believe a rumor unless it is posted on gaming groove.
So, in our last episode, Billy was locked in the server room with two programmers, a case of malt liquor, some Vaseline, and a T1 line. They’ve made good progress but there is still more to do. Why the delay? Well, we haven’t mentioned this before, but the new GamingGroove will be different. How? Unfortunately, we can’t give you all the details at this time, but we hope it will literally change the way people come to expect their gaming news. Yeah, giving the old industry the kick in the ass it has needed for years takes a bit of time, and we’re sorry for the delays. We’ll understand if you’re a bit skeptical right now, but we’re confident that once we are back, you’ll see that the new GamingGroove kicks more ass than a quadriplegic midget with PMS. Til then, it’s back to work.
Man, I stopped even checking the site months ago. I only ever went there in the first place for the unintentional humor. Being offline for months at a time is usually enough to kill most sites. Guess Billy’s backers never heard about the bubble bursting.