To all fans of the old Rare ltd: An interview with Chris Seavor

[Panama]

theRepublic said:

IIIIITHE1IIIII said:

DKHustlin said:
What was the deal with them and nintendo did rare willingly go to ms

It all started with the Stamper brothers (Rare founders) selling their 51% shares of Rare to Microsoft. Nintendo, who owned the other 49% then tried to buy Microsoft's share but never did. Instead, they ended up selling their shares to Microsoft.

The Stamper brothers tried to get Nintendo to buy their remaining shares, but Nintendo was not interested.  Then the Stamper brother shopped around, and got offers from Activision and Microsoft.  Activision had the highest bid, but the deal fell through for unknown reasons.  Microsoft jumped at the opportunity.  Legally, Nintendo had a chance to match the offer, but Microsoft's offer was high enough and Nintendo's interest low enough that the deal went through.

Basically, the Stamper brothers did not want to be owners anymore and got out.

Why didn't Nintendo want to buy them? They had some of the best titles on the SNES and N64. Suddenly that legend about Miyamoto calling Donkey Kong Country mediocre during the production of Yoshi's Island makes more sense.