Why? The Gamecube is currently in second place worldwide without any Rare games having been released at all. A lot of the late-generation N64 Rare games sold poorly. Losing Rare isn't a good thing, but it's hardly a nail in Nintendo's console coffin.

I said it in another thread, I'll say it again.

Rare out. Sega in.

How much is Rare really worth? Was Halo worth a Billion dollars to MS? I would say so, every discussino I have with owners of the xbox talk about that game. Rare has the talant to produce awesome games and perhaps MS wants to get a slow to market company again like Bungie to focus on producing 1 killer title that will attract a lot of people. Maybe it's for this generation, maybe the next. Who knows.

I don't think this purchase can really be looked at money wise by just looking at the basic numbers.

Bungie is making more than Halo for the Xbox-- Project Phoenix, which hasn't been shown yet.

I didn't mean that they are going to make 1 game and pack up and leave. I meant focus on 1 game at a time. No doubt multipul development will always be in place, but I think Bungie as well as Rare tends to put alot of man power behind 1 title at a time.

I don't think it's been stated anywhere if the reported price tag does or does not include Nintendo's stake in the company. In fact, the article seems to imply that as part of the half billion dollar deal, Nintendo is selling their stake to Microsoft. So, I'd say it's a little early to speculate whether the total cost would be a billion dollars. I'd be surprised if anyone would pay that much for Rare.

The GC is 2nd place. But that's giving it too much credit. The PS2 is far and away the leader and the XBOX is creeping up to take the 2nd position. It's not the GC is getting bad press, but it isn't getting even close to the attention the BOX is.

Lot of the late generation Rare N64 games sold alright, true. But when you're behind a game like Goldeneye, which single-handedly changed videogames forever as well as the struggling N64, then people care. It doesn't matter that Rare's games didn't sell as well as they could've...they simply make quality games like few other developers out there.

What numbers show the Xbox sneaking up? From what I've seen Xbox is flatline in Japan, and Gamecube is picking up sales on Mario.

If this is true about MS buying Rare, it's either a watershed or a Waterloo for Big Bill's console. The Stamper brothers are bailing out if this goes down, according to all variations of the story. Without them, is Rare still Rare?

The Rare stable is built on quality gaming, not characters, so their stable isn't valuable if a lot of the talent is gone. Plus, a big wad of cash goes to Nintendo in this process, which allows them to buy up another developer, maybe a big one, and still make respectable profits for this year. I can't imagine Nintendo would facilitate this deal, unless they had something planned.

Nintendo has a lot of cash onhand, and they could put the $250 million they're getting for Rare with a little bit of extra, and buy a big minority, or even a majority stake in a company like Capcom.

Nintendo is going to have to spend a big chunk of their cash assets to fight off Microsoft. MS is a powerful company, but Nintendo has decades of experience in the game business, and can probably take decisive action at a lower cost. However, if Nintendo hoards the money, they could fall into third place, as Microsoft muscles into the lead using sheer force of cash.

However, if Rare sans Stampers still has the magic, and Microsoft buttresses the company with more personnel and funding, enabling Rare to produce more games without a decline in quality, it would really help the Xbox.

However, I think Microsoft is not spending its money in the most effective way. For less than the cost of Rare and Xbox Live, Microsoft probably could have bought Sega. I think, in general, a Japanese developer would have been a better investment for MS at this point, because they need big help in Japan. I assume they think buying Rare will help them in Europe, which it probably will.

The more I think about this, the more I think it has to be just a silly rumor. Rare isn't worth half a billion dollars even on a good day and I don't see how leaving Nintendo would be a good idea for them since that's where most of their fans are. I'm in agreement with half of what Scandal just said and I can think of about 10 developers that are worth 10x as much as Rare is currently and that could be had for far less money. That said, I don't follow the stock market and I really don't know what any of these companies are worth. For all I know, Rare could be worth 2 billion dollars and Microsoft would be getting a super deal.

Actually, most of their fans have grown old and died waiting for them to release their next game.

Grampa Groucho

I'm about to die of old age waiting for Duke Nukem Forever... good thing I gave up on waiting for Prey or I'd be 6 feet under by now.

I remember when I first got excited about this game. I don't even have the same PC anymore. Forever is the correct name for that game.

Yeah - I've gone through about 3 PCs since I first heard about it.

I really enjoyed both Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, but that was it. Their mascot games all felt like a rehash of Mario 64 with fuzzier graphics and and an obnoxious "story" tacked on. They (Banjo, DK, Conker, JFG) weren't bad, but they weren't amazing by any means either and with Free Radical out there I wonder what kind of talent is left at Rare.

I don't see how leaving a console with a user base that enjoys and purchases their games for one with a smaller user base that is not proven would benefit the company as a whole. Then again, if they went 3rd party I assume they'd have to find some way of getting software out more frequently to stay afloat and that doesn't seem too likely.