Gallant Pig

Has anyone else been hearing this rumor? What do you guys make?

huh?

i am pretty sure nintendo owns like 25 percent of rare

mmconhea

rare has denounced this numerous time on their own web site.

Josh H

Yep Nintendo does own a chunk or Rare, so it's not real likely. But then again, Sony owns a chunk of Square and they are going multi-platform.

It would be a big loss if Nintendo lost all exclusivity from Rare. But even if we do see Rare games on other systems, it's likely the big games will remain exclusive to Nintendo with some smaller ones being published through another company, ala what Square is planning on doing.

Either way, Rare is so slow about getting games out I don't think they'll have a huge part in the success of the GCN regardless of whether they stay totally exclusive, partially exclusive, or not exclusive at all. I mean their biggest game, Perfect Dark Zero, isn't due out until 2004, by that time the GCN's fate will have long been determined.

Groucho

Rare will stop being exclusive to Nintendo the same day Sony stops being exclusive to Sony.

Oh, wait...

Flay

Here is IGN Cube's take on the situation:

A quick re-cap of what I know: Heard rumors from UK sources that Rare and Nintendo were 'feuding' as far back as last year. Heard reports from other UK sources that the Stamper brothers could be leaving Rare, either to retire, or bought out by Nintendo. Several months later Rare released that odd little holiday card which featured multiple systems on it, including PS2 and Xbox.

About two weeks ago I got a call from a friend who told me that something big was going down at Rare -- that the company had a five-year contract with Nintendo that was about to expire, and that neither Rare nor Nintendo was interested in renewing it.

Whether or not any of this is true or completely bogus, I don't know -- I haven't been able to validate any of it through separate sources, and therefore haven't run a news piece on it.

But I do think something is happening. Whether that means Nintendo and Rare are still negotiating, or that Rare is evolving into its own third-party structure, I've no clue.

So that's where it stands.

joshd2012

Rumors are worthless.

Kellehair

I could be wrong but I think Nintendo owns a much larger chunk of Rare than Sony owns of Square.

Get Me Coffee

If the rumor turns to be true....it would be funny when PS2 owners bitching about game delays

IC_Freeze

i dont care, just as long as perfect dark or a better similar game gets out that'll be cool

Flay

Here is the latest at Computer and Video Games:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...y.php?id=27795

Also at Games Radar:

http://www.gamesradar.com/news/game_news_3055.html

Outlaw

too true! Rare is almost worse than Nintendo when it comes to delays.

ScandalUMD

Nintendo does not own a chunk of Rare. Sony owns a chunk of Square. Nintendo flat-out owns Rare.

Rare cannot choose to publish for other platforms. Rare cannot leave Nintendo. Individual designers from Rare could leave and form their own studio, which is what Free Radical is. Maybe this is where the rumor springs from.

Josh H

"In fact, a PS2 version of Star Fox Adventures has been rumoured for some time."

That's from the Computer and Video Games link Flay posted above.

What a load of crap. That's the first I've heard of this rumor. Even if Rare would leave Nintendo, SFA isn't going anywhere. Nintendo owns the copyrights for everything Star Fox.

Gallant Pig

But Nintendo couldn't stop them from putting it out as Dinosaur Planet or whatever. Without the (IMO lame) Star Fox characters.

Josh H

I suppose, but that would delay the game even further as they'd have to come up with new character models, assuming that they haven't done any work on the dinosaur planet charaters since they were developing it for the N64. Plus they'd have to scrap the Arwing stages.

Personally the Star Fox tie in is the only thing that got me interested in the game. I loved the first two game and look forward to the flying stages. Being a fan of the series also makes the prospect of playing an adventure game with the Star Fox characters.

Take the Star Fox characters, and the Arwing stages out, and it'd just be another dime a dozen 3-D adventure game IMO. The Nintendo characters just add to my enjoyment I guess.

Gallant Pig

[off topic]I never connected with the Star Fox character and the fuzzy hair thing kinda freaks me out.[/off topic]

ScandalUMD

Rare cannot produce for anyone but Nintendo. Nintendo owns Rare. That's what a second party is.

SpacemanSpiff

star fox rules

-end of discussion-

Lethal Nemesis

Even if Rare did make games for the competition, they'd still continue making games for Nintendo. I highly doubt Rare would ditch Nintendo at all.

Hanson

Nintendo does not flat out own Rare. They own a stake in Rare, just as Sony owns a stake in Squaresoft.

The latest news/rumor is that the majority owner of Rare left, and NIntendo declined to buy out the shares. Activision is now the principal owner of Rare. Microsoft tried to buy Rare, but they wanted Xbox exclusivity. Looks like Rare will be going multi-platform. Nintendo would own all rights to the Nintendo published Rare games, however.

AgtFox

And this is where the rumors began. Earlier this year at a trade show (forget which one), Nintendo showed its upcoming lineup. On it was Perfect Dark Zero which was under the Nintendo label and not the Rare label. A red flag went up over whether Rare was truly working on the PD sequel or Nintendo's own internal teams were working on it.

Rumors then spread that Nintendo had a problem with Rare and took the PD franchise from them. These are all rumors of course and who knows if there is anything valid about them or not.

The non-GC crew at IGN floated this rumor in their last Roundtable and it seems to have caught on like wildfire. Lots of people are saying, "Well, if IGN said it, it must be true." I feel sorry for these people.

And it may be true that Rare wants out, but really only the people in Rare can leave and create another company. Rare itself cannot get out of Nintendo. Another reason this rumor is gaining fire is because of the recent defection of Left Field (Kobe Bryant, Ken Griffey, etc.) to a 3rd-party developer. Nintendo was said to have problems with LF and they stripped 1080 Snowboarding 2 from them. Then LF decided to become a 3rd-party developer. The same thing may be happening with Rare...Nintendo may not have liked the way they were going with PD Zero (if Rare still holds the development of that game) and I am sure they are not too enamored with SFA taking so long either.

jeffdsmith

You guys, anyone that spouts anything off about Rare working for someone else is doing it purly on rumor, I wouldn't hold much to it.

In regards of Nintendo publishing Perfect Dark, Nintendo has publushed SEVERAL of Rare's games in the past. It's not a big deal.


Obviously no one knows anything concrete accept that both Rare and Nintendo have denid it.

The interesting thing here is that we all know Rare is sick minded enough to screw with everyone's minds by putting out that card and letting these rumors spread. Hell, I'm sure its funny, an it keeps people with their eyes on Rare when they have yet to finish a game in a long time. (Free advertising if you will.)

If you buy an PS2 or Xbox believing Rare will be making games for it, you are making a mistake by believing rumors and it may not happen. It could, but I doubt it.

Deftones

might want to go check your facts before you go posting stuff on an internet forum. Nintendo does not own Rare. Rare is it's own entity. Rare has been exclusive to Nintendo because of their relationship, but in no way does Nintendo own 100% of Rare.

AgtFox

Ummm...Nintendo publishes ALL of Rare's games (outside of when Rare first started up). However the Perfect Dark Zero coming under Nintendo's name has nothing to do with the publishing rights more than likely. Rare had games under it's banner at that trade show (SFA and Banjo/Kazooie sequel obviously...but StarFox is trademarked by Nintendo). This is all a rumor, but it would lead any normal person to believe that Nintendo is the one developing PD Zero and not Rare.