I never knew the real reason why Nintendo sold of Rare. Was it becuase they felt Rare was finally done, or the amount of money Microsoft offered. Or did Nintendo expect Microsoft to sell them back eventually? Anyone know?

By the time Rare was sold, a solid portion of their developers had left for other studios. Some left as early as mid-Perfect Dark development. That's one reason: there could be others.

They didn't really sell Rare. Nintendo had a 49% ownership of the company back in the N64 days. Then when Xbox came along, Microsoft bought the other 51% for an absurd amount of money. Something like 200 million. After that Nintendo sold off its stake in the company too because 51 is the magic number that makes all other numbers worthless.

yeah but nintendo had the chance to buy these 51 % first, but they refused.

the real reason is that nintendo doesn't want to invest so much money into a name, cause that's all that Microsoft bought. Someone from Nintendo said that the problem with buying studios is that you have no guarantee that the talented developers stay there, and if they leave, you may have left some franchises, but those can be ruined quite fast, just look at crash or spyro.

Nintendo is never going to be able to win a bidding war with Microsoft. Bill Gates alone could outbid some countries. Nintendos fortunes were not tied to Rare so what point would it have been to ruin the company over one developer?

Looks like nintendo did well selling when they did. The knew how much the studio was worth, and when microsoft offered more than that, they took it.

bulletstopper said: Nintendo is never going to be able to win a bidding war with Microsoft. Bill Gates alone could outbid some countries. Nintendos fortunes were not tied to Rare so what point would it have been to ruin the company over one developer?

There was no bidding war. The Stamper brothers offered Nintendo their 51% in stake Rare. Nintendo turned them down. Nintendo didn't buy Rare because they lost a good deal of talent and they took too much time developing games. Perfect Dark 1 was at 4 E3s. Perfect Dark Zero was supposed to be a Gamecube launch title. Then it was an X-box title and finally a 360 title. PDZ was clearly and X-box title in HD with 360 effects. The game pushed less polys than RE4 on Gamecube. Rare was the first developer outside of Nintendo to get Cube development kits and it took them forever to finish Star Fox Adventures and Kameo (which was finished on 360). Nintendo saw the writing on the wall with Rare and MS was desperate for some console credibility and they bought what has been a lemon thus far.

1. Rare never released anything on time.

2. Rare was a money PIT, since they'd sponge money out of Nintendo to get their games finished.

3. Their quality was in decline for a while.

I personally enjoyed SFA, but I think I was the ONLY one. Meanwhile, Rare was supposed to have released Kameo and DK Racing on the GC but never got around to it.

Combine that with the god-awful "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" and the poorly-done Conker port, the lackluster Kameo and the about par PD0 (yes, I've played them), why would Rare have been worth keeping?

I was against their purchase when it happened, but after seeing what they've produced since then, I don't feel Nintendo owners have missed out on anything (maybe Viva Pinata, but even that was hit or miss).

Its just sad we dont see more quality titles like Donkey Kong Country and Goldeneye. If i was a Xbox fanboy or conspiracy lover I would even say that Rare is a Nintendo spy set to make Microsoft lose money.

I liked Starfox Adventures too, Smash_Brother, and I'm really surprised why nobody else except us seems to like it.