New info on Rare going 3rd party.
 

2 new stories.

1. From IGN Cube:

What's Going on at Rare?

You want to know. I want to know. Everyone wants to know. What in the hell is up at UK based second-party Rare? There have been literally dozens of rumors about the company in recent weeks and months, all of them questioning its allegiance to Nintendo, its future business model, and its ties to big-name third-party publishers. No solid confirmations, though. Well, hardly any.

Earlier today, however, I chatted with a source very, very close to the company, who was kind enough to fill me in on some very gritty dirt. Apparently Rare is indeed exploring a third-party structure and is determined to release many of its upcoming games across multiple consoles. An insider comments, "[Rare is] definitely, absolutely, 100% doing Xbox and PS2 development down here. They've had [Xbox and PS2] kits for three months or more."

Yikes. But it gets even worse. Some previously announced titles such as Donkey Kong Racing may not materialize as planned. Sources allege that after deciding to develop the racer for multiple platforms, Rare was asked by Nintendo to remove any and all likenesses to its licensed characters from the game. What will it be then, Monkey Racing? Not quite as compelling.

Development on the hotly anticipated Perfect Dark 0, finally, is allegedly moving along very slowly. "Team members keep quitting and it's a very small group now," revealed one leak close to the developer. Rumors abound suggest that the title won't be playable at E3 -- and in fact may not even be shown on video. Apparently Rare has been toying around with a cel-shaded look for the project, though this is not confirmed.

What the hell does all of this mean? Well, if true, it means that Nintendo's premiere second-party has decided to dabble around on other systems. In the end, GameCube owners are still likely to receive first dibs on Rare's biggest projects, but without exclusivity it's going to be a whole different ball game.

http://cube.ign.com/articles/358/358329p1.html

2. From ComputerandVideoGames.com

ACTIVISION'S RARE CONNECTION HEATS UP

Smoke, fire. UK sources are adding meat to Rare's multi-format intentions, while the developer stays quiet as a mouse

15:09 Rare remained unavailable for comment today as British gossip-mongers took pains to flesh out details on what appears to be a publishing deal between the developer and publisher Activision.

"It's definite," said one source. "It's a publishing deal, not a buy-out. Can you honestly see Nintendo intellectual properties appearing on other formats when they're making billions from exclusive IP's on Nintendo hardware?"

Activision pulled down the blinds today. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid it's no comment," said Roger Walkden, director of strategic marketing for Europe.

A friend of a guy I know who knows the guy who cleans the bathrooms of the guy who works at the pizza place's wife's neighbour's weekly bridge game said that Rare is staying with Nintendo. ;)

Until we hear some real info, from Rare or from Nintendo then these are just rumors. Sure they "may" have some truth to them, but rumors will always fly.

Interesting info. I would like Rare to go 3rd party. They havn't really done much for the Nintendo name lately and obviously want to explore their talants.

Well, we will know more in 3 weeks.

Well, then we can discuss this then.

Rare is a good company, but I think a large part of their success stems from working with Nintendo. Silicon Knights has reported, as Rare has in the past, that working with Nintendo really pushes them to create great and unique software.

I think Rare would be solid on their own, but with time would lose some of their "magic" that they have displayed in games like GoldenEye and Banjo Kazooie.

Going 3rd party will definitley net Rare some big rewards money wise initially, but over time that may not be as much as they make making exclusive games for Nintendo.

I do think this will happen. I think Rare is looking to have more freedom with their titles and want to reach more people. Ken Lobb was real tight with Rare, and he's now working for MS, who knows who he has been able to convince to come on over for tea...

On a side note, on Gamespot there was an interview with a big Nintendo Rep, she says Rare is staying as far as she knows...

So on one side you have rumors, the other you have Corporate BS. Your choice.

Could MS/Sony have a surprise Announcment at E3 that Rare is now one of their developers once they get done with their Nintendo projects? Could be. God I hope not though. If Rare defects fro Nintendo they better stay 3rd party.

out.

I believe there's definitely something happening. Rare will definitely go 3rd party.

Yep, the pieces are starting to fall together.

Rare continues to develop great games and simply drops Nintendo as their publisher since thier contract is soon to run out. Activision takes over that role.

Rare can still sell games on the Gamecube. But also to the PS2 User base, 20 million strong, and snatch some dinero from MS to bring the games to the XBox. Games such as Perfect Dark 0 and especially a new Conker game will sell better on those consoles. I'm sure they don't want a repeat of Conker on the 64.

They can turn a much larger profit and hopefully hire some more help to churn out their quality games quicker. Sounds good to me!

If Rare throws its hat into the PS2 ring on an exclusive level, that will definitely spur me to get the system, especially after the price drop. :up:

Conker sold poorly because of the time it came out mostly....

Also, Rare does not simley have a "contract" Nintendo owns part of them. That's what I'm interested in, what they are going to do about that.

Flay your edit there makes IGNcube's thing make more sense.

IGNcubes "Rumor" thing generally sucks (read: is false). They probably saw the news you posted below and made their own "story" about it. Sad really....

Time will tell...


PS Seems a lot of people are excited about this (not just here, on the net), I mean, why would you xbox and ps2 lovers care? It's rare, they make games for Nintendo, you know, the systems that you that give you the games you always claim to "not care about" or "arn't my type of games." Hmm... Thanks for sharing. The truth comes forth...

;) You know its true.

The home theater forum rumor mill is reporting that Donky Kong Racing will strip out all the Nintendo characters and use generic cartoon characters instead to go multi-platform.

IGN insider has an article about Rare on the Xbox? Anyone read it?

Sad day for Nintendo:( But hey someone needs to think outside the box. Rare knows that there is a huge market of PS players that like mature games....and they will deliver . Nintendo just loves those youngings. First sign of Big N takin' on water. The only thing saving N is kick A$$ awesome first party games. got to love it

:rolleyes:

Well, my post is just further speculation using a combination of both rumors.

Anyway, IGN deserves more credibility than that. Obviously they aren't backing this rumor as fact, but they wouldn't report it if they didn't think it had any merit. If they say they are talking to someone in the UK that has close ties to Rare, I believe them.

It's quite possible and perhaps even probably that the rumors are false. But I start to get suspicious when different sites, particularly in the UK, start to gather bits and peices of different info that all point to the same outcome.

Anyway, like you said, we shall see. Hopefully at E3, we will get a definitive answer. That seems like the only time Rare speaks out.

I hope to God that idea for a cel-shaded look for PD0 gets scrapped in a hurry.

Rare probably will go third party, and personally I don't care. They make great games, but they take forever. Going third party won't hurt Nintendo at all, because by the time they get PD (their one big system seller game done) the console race will be over this generation. Star Fox Adventures does look good, and that will be GCN exclusive as it uses Nintendo characters. But I still don't think that is a big-time system seller. I'm just hoping for a new Blast Corps and Banjo Kazooie, as those were there two best games IMO.

I wonder if Sony might be willing to buy out nintendo to get exclusive content from Rare.

Even if the games take some time the PS2 base is huge right now and the $$$ are very tempting for a developer.

If they get Rare and drop to $199 I bet they hit all time sales numbers.

When you can't even put out games for one console in a reasonable amount of time, is it really a good idea to go cross-platform?

It wouldn't surprise me if Rare went 3rd party. That Sony market share is pretty tempting. I just hope they don't screw those of us who are loyal Nintendo/Rare customers from the N64 days by putting Perfect Dark Zero and Conker 2 on other consoles and not Gamecube.

What surprises me is the rumor that they might turn Donkey Kong Racing into a generic character game for all three consoles. Seems to me that a licensed game as a Gamecube exclusive featuring Nintendo characters would sell better than unfamiliar characters ported three ways. The game might have a better chance if they used Rare favorites like Banjo and Conker (who both debuted in Diddy Kong Racing before they got their own games), but even then I think sticking with the current game would be more prudent.

igncube is reporting that Nintendo bought out 1005 percent of Retro studios.
http://cube.ign.com/articles/358/358408p1.html

Perhaps this means nintendo is preparing to lose rare exclusivness and wants to guarantee it doesn't happen in the future?