foxtail said:
If the Stamper Brothers weren't cashing out and retiring then Nintendo might have considered buying Rare. But as it was, they were getting out of the videogame business. Nintendo also didn't want to get into a bidding war with the other possible suitors that were willing to buy the Stampers shares for an inflated price. Plus they probably considered that Rare's highest selling non-Donkey Kong game, which was Goldeneye, was an IP that didn't belong to them and was developed by a team that already left Rare (Free Radical Design). |
I definitely understand their logic, I just don't agree with it. Biting the bullet and buying the shares they needed for ownership would have helped quell their biggest problem that plagues them even today: droughts. Seems like a really short-term move IMO. Rare was still a good team even without the talent they lost, and IP's like Banjo and the like are now a part of Nintendo's history that they will never have back.
