Microsoft Buys Rare 619
Phwoar writes "Microsoft have announced their buyout of the games developer Rare. After a $375 million payoff Rare will now produce games solely for the Xbox. After Rare's recent releases for the Nintendo systems bombed, Nintendo decided to sell their 49% stake in the company last week rather than buy the company themselves.
Google News has a nice collection of links to articles regarding the announcement." You might be reminded of Microsoft's purchase of Bungie a few years ago.
this actually is a good thing. (Score:3, Interesting)
This was unexpected.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Its getting harder and harder for Nintendo by the day...I hope they don't fall like Sega did.
Re:that doesn't mean they'll produce good games (Score:3, Interesting)
1) Rare makes another Goldeneye.
2) Rare's new game makes MS $5 million
3) 10,000 people buy X-Boxes just to play this game. Conversely, these people DON'T buy PS2s and Gamecubes because those systems don't have this cool new game.
4) MS increases user base.
5) ???
6) Profit!
YES! Microsoft got screwed! (Score:3, Interesting)
MS have bought a lemon. Nice!
Does anybody else smell desperation? (Score:4, Interesting)
Does anyone know how many employees work at Rare? I know it's not distributed evenly but they must be pretty happy about it on the average.
Especially so for those whose stock is already vested.
-scsg
Foolish Purchase (Score:5, Interesting)
With the delay of Panzer Dragoon Orta to 2003 the Xbox's Christmas lineup is also fairly lackluster and sales this Xmas could be very poor. Of course, if MS keeps pumping marketing dollars into it maybe they can convince America that the console is doing great.
I'm not trying to start a console flamewar (I go where the games are in most cases, and I will probably pick up an Xbox at the next price drop), but with Xbox's sales figures for Japan (the-magicbox.com) showing that in some weeks even the PSOne is outselling it, I wonder if the Japanese game studios will be abandoning what little development they already do on Xbox and concentrating on the two surviving consoles instead.
Bungie, Rare, ... Sega (Score:5, Interesting)
Just think, if they could claim exclusive rights to Sega's line of sports games, including NFL, NBA, NHL, baseball, tennis, and college football lines. They could be the premiere sports games for the Xbox Live online service, for example. And a Virtua Fighter would put Xbox squarely in the sights of many fighting game fans, since then DoA, VF, and Soul Calibur would all be available on one system. Add online opponents and tourneys, and they could potentially hand out more hats of money. Then with Sonic and those cute little Super Monkey Balls, they'd have a possible in with children and youngsters that aren't necessarily into the older games. Make all of these exclusives, and the Xbox looks a whole lot better of an investment.
You know they've thought about it, and now we know the stakes: $3.75e8 dollars for someone like Rare that doesn't have the rep or the library of Sega. Sega's gotta be worth what...twice that...in franchises and development talent alone.
While we're talking numbers, how many units of games does Rare have to sell to be worth it to MicroSoft? Or, perhaps more importantly, how many monthly online subscriptions? And how long is it going to take them to pay it off, given that they're going to incur more costs, in terms of development and promotion, just to get a game out the door?
The usual disclaimer: I'm not an Xbox or MS fan. Read my blog and you'll see where my interests lie. I'm just commenting on the situation as I see it...
rare's best game (Score:3, Interesting)
R/C Pro-AM!!!!
sorry, had to. i looove that game.
siri
Nintendo, Rare come out ahead; MS breaks even (Score:5, Interesting)
Nintendo sells their shares in Rare and top-off their coffers. They win.
Rare makes off with MS money, the finest money that money can buy. They win too.
MS gets a development house that used to turn out hits, but has floundered in recent years. Tim and Chris Stamper are leaving. That leaves Conker, Perfect Dark, and that's about it. No Donkey Kong or anything else owned by Nintendo.
About the only _real_ downside to Nintendo consumers (IMO) is that any sort of RC Pro-Am sequel will be an xbox exclusive. Boohoo. On a lot of the gamer website forums, this has been a huge non-issue for the past few days, since Rare hasn't been playing with the big boys in terms of game quality/quantity for quite a while.
< tofuhead >
Re:that doesn't mean they'll produce good games (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Rare makes another Goldeneye.
2) Rare's new game makes MS $5 million
3) 10,000 people buy X-Boxes just to play this game. Conversely, these people DON'T buy PS2s and Gamecubes because those systems don't have this cool new game.
4) MS increases user base.
5) ???
6) Profit!
Microsoft buys Rare for $375 mill. Microsoft sells $5 mill in games for 4 million in profit. They sell a bunch more consoles at some unkown loss per console.
Looks to me like Microsoft is still out $370 mill at least. Sure doesn't look like a profit to me.
Re:Mistake. (Score:1, Interesting)
Wrong. There's a whole world outside of America that doesn't use Americanized grammar or spelling.
As far as I can tell, in British usage nouns or phrases that refer to groups, organizations, companies, teams, etc. are taken as plural. For example, try watching an English soccer (or should I say "football"?) match once of these days and you'll notice that the announcers always refer to teams in the plural: e.g. "Arsenal have defeated Chelsea 2-0."
It is definitely more consistent than the American practice of referring to nouns or phrases that sound plural as plural and those that sound singular as singular. For example, an American baseball announcer would say: "The Houston Astros have defeated the Cubs 5-2." But the same announcer would also say: "Houston has defeated Chicago 5-2." So what are the Astros? Singular or plural?
By the same token, what is Microsoft? A single company or an organization of many people?
Re:If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. (Score:3, Interesting)
No. Nintendo is not a lesser evil.
http://www.gamersgraveyard.com/repository/odditie
Please Buy an X-Box! (Score:2, Interesting)
With MS losing between $100 - $200 per machine, they are counting on people buying lots of games to make their money back.
Take the opportunity to get a nice $199 DNS, e-mail or web server.
Microsoft has money to burn -- give them the opportunity.
Re:If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. (Score:4, Interesting)
Sometimes, the superior systems don't "win".
Re:If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:There is a reason Nintendo sold off its stake (Score:2, Interesting)
As a side note, you are right, Rare has not been a big money make lately. Just to get Star Fox Adventures off the ground, Nintendo had to:
A. Wait a year or so for the development of some game called "Dinosaur Island" to grind to a halt in Rare development hell.
B. Spend money on the dead project to revive it with research and added development.
C. Bring in some new developers, who tacked on the Star Fox franchise as a good idea. Nintendo later spent time and resources on trying to hide this fact (why, I don't know), which failed and flooded game fan-boy eweb sites everywhere.
D. Pay for the closing development, which took forever and a fair penny.
How did I become privy to such useless info? Because me is pals with the local Nintendo sales agent. :)
Re:Sega made (past tense) awesome games (Score:3, Interesting)
There's not much that's more fun (at least when it comes to video games) than getting three friends together and playing Monkey Fight 2 for a couple of hours.
Re:OT: Its effect not affect. (Score:3, Interesting)
I keep an N64 around just for that one to be played in multi-player mode once in a while.
Split ownership (Score:2, Interesting)
donkey-kong is trademarked by nintendo
But even though Nintendo owns the trademark on the name and likeness of Donkey Kong, Rare owns the copyright to the 3D model of Donkey Kong used in Mario Kart 64, Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee, and possibly other recent games. (Check the credits.) Now Nintendo will have to license something from Microsoft in order to make Super Smash Bros. 3.
Actually, GameCube is selling HUGE now. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:this actually is a good thing. (Score:1, Interesting)
Hardware does not make money and the next generation (xbox 2 vs playstation 3) will be a bloodbath. Making hardware is risky, if you lose the markets faith you will die fast, just look at Sega Dreamcast and Saturn. Nintendo could drop the hardware, the heavy up front R&D cost, the pure risk of the hardware market, and focus on what they have always done better than anyone else....make games.
Also, Nintendo just has no interest in making anything but games. They don't want the set top box market like Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo does not want to build a online gaming network. They want to make games and that is what they will focus on after the Gamecubes time is up. Features standard in the next generation (hard drives, nics, etc) just aren't things in the core of Nintendo's business....look how long they hung onto the cartridge.
The only question I have is who will get the Nintendo games the next generation. Unless Nintendo for some reason wants to stick it to the gaijin, it will probably be Microsoft just cause Sony could never outbid them. I think this is why ultimately I see Microsoft winning the battle with the XBOX 2.
BTW - I just read the founders are not leaving from the Rare web site itself. They probably got a few contracted years with the company before hitting the beach.
Re:Does anybody else smell desperation? (Score:2, Interesting)
It will take roughly 2 years at least before you see any XBox title from Rare. How long has Star Fox Adventures taken to write? (longer than that...)
In that time the Gamecube has already had Star Fox Adventures and Nintendo have strengthened third party relations with the money they got from selling their stake in Rare.
Developers do not stay at a company forever. The Xbox is not as nice to write for as the Gamecube.
Some may leave with their bosses exit and the fact that they have to relearn how to do everything again (having no doubt perfected the art of Gamecube development).
Microsoft end up with Rare not as good as it was.
Goldeneye has been re-released (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Bungie, Rare, ... Sega (Score:3, Interesting)