Rare Is A Bust

In 2002, Microsoft paid $375 million to buy developer Rare the makers of the insanely popular N64 hits GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, and Banjo-Kazooie to name a few. The acquisition was a major blow to Nintendo at the time, and many analysts believed the move to be a very smart move for Microsoft.
Now six years and $375 million later Rare has still failed to produce results. In the three years that Rare has been developing games for the Xbox 360 Rare has only managed to generated just over $66 million combined domestically over those three years, according to the NPD Group.

[thebudgetgamer]

not to knock but its most of the people if not all the people that made rare a giant in gaming are long gone. thats not to say their games have been bad. just like atari. same name but not the same company

:)

[Smileys]

I agree. After Tim and Chris Stamper left I knew Rare wasn't going to be the same.
They still make good games but nothing truly epic.

[The_Zeitgeist]

I miss golden eye.

[thebudgetgamer]

me too
those were good times
i miss rc pro-am the most. i love that game

:)

[ActionBastard]

Look at the bright side, they still have KI3 and BattleToads to ruin. Wait, is that a bright side?

[ape007]

is not even a shadow of its former self

just remember perfect dark 64(best game ever imo) and goldeneye 007 on n64 and just see pdz,what a disappointment

if the same old rare team stayed with ms,360 will be hands down the best system in this gen

just imagine the goldeneye team get their hands on 360

faints

[thats_just_prime]

I hardly call it "bust" 66 million is only in the us. Probably at leat 100million world wide and that only in 3 year. Buying a company is along term investmest what will it do in 10 or 20 years ?

People complain that Rare is a shadow of its former self but MS is going over rare and trying to make in provememnt to make them better and people are complianing about that too.

[FarEastOrient]

@Thats Just Prime

You have to look at it in a financial frame of mind, as a shareholder in Sony, Microsoft, Square Enix, etc... You have to look at the return on investment (ROI) of the property in this case Rare whom last years only dropped the NXE and Nuts and Bolts. Now a company that is bought and run properly should be able to pay back the cost of purchase back in two years or less, if it takes three years or more you are in trouble.

Even if estimated at $100 million dollars like you said over three years, you haven't negated the effect of development cost. With just Nuts and Bolts along with Perfect Dark you have brought the potential profit to $48.7 million out of the $66 million in revenue. You further negate the cost of marketing and the potential profit drops even further. Did Microsoft make money off of Rare products, Yes they did, yet at the rate of profit versus revenue it will take 6 years to pay off the cost of buying Rare and even longer if calculating the number of big title projects like Killer Instinct and a new Perfect Dark.

Yes I will vote to in no confidence of Wada

[eagle21]

Talk about a bust... :)

[Freak of Nature]

Rare are still in the game,so as of now they are not a bust.They have 4 games in the pipe line so the deficit will be cut more when these do come out.They have not shown the same magic,but times do change,staff change,and sometimes people with talent for games of yesterday do not have the same skills for todays systems...

For me I would want to see platformers from rare,without rare giving them to us,I dont see X360 owners getting any higher level platformers. We get fighetrs and shooters elsewhere,so platformers from rare would be my choice.However.....

It's also about profit,and in Rares case I would think that bringing the next perfect dark,a 1st person shooter and Killer instinct a fighter would give them that profit share they need to attain.

They probably should go with PD,KI,and a platformer/action adventure game like Conker,a nice mix, a trio of sure sellers........Kameo done from the ground up on the X360 also would be a decent to good seller....Perhaps bring in a new IP,or a HD next gen JFG...

[Cheeseknight28]

4 projects:
Perfect Dark 2
Killer Instinct 3
Jet Force Gemini 2
Conkers Good Fur Day (Or something)

Rare would be kings again. Sure it's nice to see them try and be different (Kameo, VP, and Banjo N&B) but I would much rather they stay alive and be different later on down the road then go bankrupt and never make PD2 or Conker 2.

[Obama]

The old talents formed Free Radical, the one that made Haze which is not so good.

[njr]

If I remember correctly the top men involved in rare left as soon as they were sold. MS got shafted in talent, so all they bought were IPs.

[lsujester]

~Obama~

But they also made TimeSplitters, which was oh so good.

Haze, to me, felt unfinished. It felt like a game still in beta that never got the extra few months of polish and tweaking at the end. It had some good ideas, but those were overshadowed by the "at best mediocrity". It just felt like a game that could have been great if properly developed and fleshed out.

But alas, Free Radical has been bought by Crytek, and many, including Steve Ellis, are gone.

[Marquis_de_Sade]

I actually enjoyed PDZ, it gave me a false hope of what else to expect from the 360. Online lag free 32 player with 2 player online Co-op and genuinely fun gameplay. The fact that a launch game still allows for the second largest number of players online (frontline being the most I think) is ridiculous.

[prowiew]

I compare rare with sega. Only difference is I love viva pinata

[AAACE5]

I used to crack a joke about Rare's name during the N64 days.

I always said, "It's Rare for them to get a game out in a timely manner!" Now, "It's Rare they can get a truely great game out!"

I hope this restructuring can fix their problems so they can create great games again. I believe that Rare is a victim of what happens to alot of developers, and that is that the teams they have lack an overall interest in creating great games...a.k.a. alot of their creativity and vision was lost somewhere along the way!

@omodis420... Untrue! Rare games were about the same quality on the gamecube. Their games started to take a turn for the worst right after the N64.

[Montrealien]

It must be noted that Rare has released 19 games since being purchased by MS. Granted the top tier titles have not faired well in sales, they where well recieved and where good quality games. They have been working a lot and have released more games in 6 years then Guerilla, Bungie, Naughty Dog and insomniac combined.

A resrtucturing should be at hand, but dead, they are not.

[Gambit07]

I rather have quality then quantity.

[Montrealien]

I agree, but they have quantity and quality. Sadly people are skipping on their major titles. Viva Pinata 2 and Banjo Nuts and bolts are two quality games. At great prices that got lost in the frey.

[BRACHATTACK]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Sir Ken_Kutaragi]

The main photo is his/hers/it's Avatar.

[dukadork3]

M$'s answer to LBP: flopjo crabooye

hey XB!TCHES: please keep giving them your hard earned $$$ cuz the way they waste it is soooo entertaining to us, haaaaaahahahahaha!

$375M: don't you wish they'd spent it on making the toaster more reliable?

BTW, we got killzone 2 for $60M, not bad he...

[omodis420]

Thats funny Rare was good until Microsoft got a hold of them. Microsoft = suppressors of creativity.

[La Chance]

Yeah because Kameo , Viva Pinata , Grabbed by the Ghoulies , Conker, Banjo Nuts and bolts werent creative...In my opinion they were a lot more creative than 99% of the games that have come out this gen.

PS : since PS3 and 360 are in the same league , tell me except for LBP what has Sony released this gen that is so much more creative ? Im thinking hard but cant see anything.

edit : oh...only PSN games....but when it comes to games on a actual disc theres nothing , just like I thought.

[Party Boy]

One word... Flower. 89 metacritic rating and higher than any of those Rare flops.

[CrazzyMan]

La Chance, Try Flower, for starters.

Then investigate more about PS3 games and you will find, what you are looking for. :)

[Cajun Chicken]

Echochrome. Even has a level editor.

[rhood022]

Or Flow.
Or any of the Pixel Junk games
Or Everyday Shooter
Or Folklore
Or Echochrome
Or The Last Guy
Or Nobi Nobi Boy
Or EyePet

[rucky]

Oh let's not forget those Eyetoy games guys :)

[Peekay]

pretty much 90% of Sony's PSN catalogue. Then there's folklore - a extremely creative and under rated game...

[Mindboggle]

The fact that LBP is Sony only real creative game isnt really the point. You can add ratchet and clank, pixeljunk games, flow, flower and other psn games to games similar to what rare create, but your missing the point.

The fact is Rares games just arnt selling that well, lbp has sold over 2 million, and banjo has barely sold 500,000. Viva Pinata 1 was a big seller but 2 was a flop. Its just due to the fact the average 360 crowd doesnt appreciate them. Plus this doesnt take in to account their last games havent actually been that good.

They need to go back to nintendo again. They would sell much more games.

[Max Power]

took an old flyer game, and made it into a TPS/Flight combat online multiplayer. how many games allow you to Fly a plane, land, get out and run around shooting killing people.

[ActionBastard]

Don't forget PDZ! Kameo was not that good, not even slightly. Beat it and was disappointed. Viva Pinata I've heard good things about, but being an adult male, I have no interest in Pinatas or gardens. Since we have to stretch back to Xbox1, Grabbed by the Ghoulies was garbage. It had potential, but the gameplay mechanics just flat out weren't fun. Conker's Bad Fur Day is hands down better than the Xbox Conker. Why? It fit for its time of release. The Xbox version felt dated. Pretty graphics and all.

As far as your PS3 insecurity: Flower, PJ Eden, Nobi Nobi Boy (tomorrow), R2 and it's take on co-op, Warhawk, Everyday Shooter, MotorStorm Pacific Rift is pretty creative with it's varying vehicles, locations, photo mode and Folklore screamed creativity. I'd go on but you get the idea. By all means though, keep praising mediocrity,.

[Ratchet_Co]

Well since you wanted to bring it up, I will reply with this.

Sony has a lot of creative games that are out and are coming out. Flower, Fat Princess, Little Big Planet, Warhawk, Home (just to mention a few). See, Sony would have had more creative games they had last gen as well, but Microsoft bought them.

Microsoft = supressors of creativity FTW

:)

[Cajun Chicken]

Jeez, I forgot how classic most of the PSN titles are. I was just put to shame by people listing under me mentioning Echochrome.

[Dark General]

Creative? Alot of the PSN games like Flower, Echochrome, Pixeljunk Eden, Flow and some others are pretty creative. Folklore and Afrika as well which are both pretty under rated because they are a bit unusual. And let me not forget Valkyrie Chronicles. Both console have some creative games though. Viva Pinata is under rated.

[callahan09]

Don't forget about Eye of Judgment. I know it's a niche title, but holy crap that game is awesome. If you like collectible card games, it's absolutely brilliant. The net code is wonderful (always a good connection online), the way they programmed it (implementing the camera and the card interaction into the software) is very impressive to me, the presentation is perfect, the cards are beautiful and interesting, with a huge variety, the graphics and animations are really nice, and watching your card games come to life on your TV in front of your very eyes is beautiful, and it's not just a gimmick, because the camera-based gameplay allows you to play anyone in the world! So if you don't know many people (or any people) who are into the game, you can always play an opponent online! That's unique, and it's creative, and it's quite frankly AWESOME. I'm a magic the gathering fan from back in the day, but had to stop playing because eventually everyone I knew moved on and wasn't playing it anymore, and I couldn't find any opponents. With the Eye of Judgment, there's always an opponent just a quick internet connection away. I love that game.

[gaylo001]

LOLOL

[rhood022]

Damn La Chance, obviously you can't read either.

Folklore and Eye of Judgment are both disk based games. As is Valkyria Chronicles.

And as far as the rest being PSN games, I'd rather pay upwards of $15 for fun, creative titles than pay $60 for crap that TRIES to be creative.

But it's always quantity over quality with you guys, isn't it?

[The Lazy One]

how are folklore and eye of judgement that creative?

One is an action adventure RPG and one is a trading card game that displays on screen. And every day shooter? It's a great game no doubt, but it's a shmup

I'd give you almost everything from pixeljunk, because those are great games, Eyepet I'd probably give you unless they mess it up, as I've only seen the promo trailer.

if you're including arcade/non-disc based games, I'd probably say braid, wik fable of souls, or most of the decent xbl community games.

Both consoles aren't really short of creativity when it comes to arcade sized games.

[Marquis_de_Sade]

While I disagree that Microsoft are "suppressors of creativity", you seriously can't think the 360 has more creative games than the PS3 can you? flOwer, flOw, echochrome and many more are far superior to most of those RARE games you mentioned.

[The Lazy One]

and many rare games are more creative than resistance, killzone, god of war, and heavenly sword.

Both systems have creative games. Especially when you include the titles from either system's arcade style content.

[Gambit07]

@callahan09: Man, you're making me want to bust out the EoJ.

[swiftshot93]

Donkey Kong 64 FTW

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

I LOVED That game!

[Bnet343]

Donkey Kong Country was a better series IMO.

[Dark General]

Donkey Kong, the most under rated series of games Nintendo ever created. It's a shame to see Rare not produce something like DK: Country in a long while.

[bigjclassic]

there are more DK games than Star Fox games.

[Dark General]

Yeah but most of those DK games are like Bongo Blast or something. They have more or less abandoned DK after the N64 games. It's a shame because i actually enjoyed DK as much as i enjoyed Sonic as a kid.

[Bathyj]

M$ does to developers what my internal organs do to food.

But hey its not the end of the world, its M$'s Entertainment and Devices division, an anomality in the business world. It doesn't have to make money to continue its existence.

[Death]

Microsoft would not have let Bungie go. Instead of retaining a name and an empty building they did as much as posible to maintain a working relationship.

-Death

[GiantEnemyCrab]

I really enjoyed Kameo, a very underrated title.

[Why dis]

The_Zeitgeist always trolling for some sort of news taking gabs at MSFT/360

[DavidMacDougall]

POG always trolling for some sort of news taking gabs at SONY/PS3

[dustgavin]

Can you hear Microsoft slowly going down the drain? Taking all it's 360 flops with it. Not to mention the toilet clogging Hd-dvd add on.

[oriol003]

doushebag

[omodis420]

Yeah screw that guy. He is such a fanboy.

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

"Taking gabs"

...because "taking jabs" isn't cool enough

[GiantEnemyFlop]

mark my word, RARE will be finished in 3 years

[Ryuk]

Kinda like free radical and factor 5? Oh..wait..

-_-

[jack who]

FAct: Microsoft paid $375 million to buy Rare's ip's not rare.

[trancefreak]

Cool, do you want a cookie for that?

[jack who]

i would thank you....now go jump off a roof ay

[Why dis]

People need cookies for correcting misinformation? lol

[TheColbertinator]

Wrong

http://xbox.ign.com/article...

"In an announcement at Microsoft's X02 Europe event today, the company confirmed rumors that it had purchased Rare Ltd, the company behind several of the N64's biggest hits, for $375 million and that development on Kameo: Elements of Power and the next edition of Perfect Dark for the Xbox are already under way. The deal for Rare was a full acquisition including all intellectual property and means Rare is more or less an internal development house for Microsoft Game Studios."

[jack who]

can Rare's developer's quit? yes or no?

maybe that would help you see why i said they didnt buy rare but their ip

[TheColbertinator]

Nope.Rare is first party developer completely owned by Microsoft just like Lionhead and Robot(Ensemble).However in a few years the Rare-MS contract will expire and MS can decide to keep Rare for more time or get rid of it.That is the situation that bungie and bizarre had.

[jack who]

um yes....

Rareware began as a third-party videogame developer. Eventually, they become devoted to Nintendo. Their main games are for SNES and N64.

"But sometime in 2002, Nintendo sold the rights to Rareware to Microsoft. About 80 people quit from Rareware at the news"

and went to various other companies. Many went to Free Radical Design and created the hit Timesplitters series.

[TheColbertinator]

Okay I see what you mean

[gaylo001]

SOo?

[xbotpleasefixme]

rare was another great buy good job MS!!

[Elven6]

...uh no! Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power both sold over 1 million units at the original price point, then they went platinum and is assumed to have sold more. I think the number mentioned in that "article" is a bit off.

Viva Pinata sold over a million as well albeit at reduced price. Didn't Banjo also sell 200k in the US? I don't think I will go as far as saying the "debt" was completely paid off, but at least 75% has been.

[rhood022]

Except the financial figures are from the NPD group (North America). So they are, by law, required to be accurate.

But that isn't to say the article isnt wrong--especially since the total sales do not include worldwide figures.

[Elven6]

The author dosen't even link to them (if applicable)or provide what year they are from to allow others to do their own research. And yes it is quite possible those figures are correct if it is the US alone.

[omodis420]

There's a source link on the right side of the article dude.

[mastiffchild]

Whatever you say Elven you have to consider that the "debt", or the money MS spent on Rare doesn't exist in a vacuum. Yes, worldwide sales MIGHT come near to the figure paid but that takes nothing else into account. Those games weren't already there to release were they? No, people need to be paid, R&D costs loads, marketing costs loads-you get the picture. So whatever MS paid for Rare the income from sales isn't just profit for them as the business(Rare) still uses 90% of that income to survive as a game dev hance the slimlining instructions from high up at MS as the dev isn't paying off the investment. If they were they wouldn't need the restructuring so badly.
The thing is loads of the Goldeneye team went west before even then to make the now Crytek owned FRD(and Doak and Co are now at Pumpkin Beach I think)so they never really had the team together under MS control that did so well for Ninty.

[Anon1974]

rhood022 said "Except the financial figures are from the NPD group (North America). So they are, by law, required to be accurate."

That's 100% incorrect. NPD is just a data tracking service. They have a their samples and then they use guesstimation to fill in the blanks. They've often been criticized that they don't include data from a lot of the bigger retailers. There is nothing that states they have to be accurate, people would just stop paying them for their data.

The companies themselves like Sony and Microsoft are publicly traded and thus have a responsibility to their shareholders to be thorough and complete with their revenue reporting. If they aren't and they're caught their shareholders can sue and there may even be criminal liability. That being said there is no requirement that says they have to make their data available to the public, but they are subject to independent audit and the auditors need to have access to that information.

I hate when people act like the NPD data are the "official" numbers. They're no more offical then VGChartz, and use similar methods to boot.

Edit: Oh, and NPD group doesn't have anything to do with reporting financial data for companies. They track sales.

[The Lazy One]

Of the money spent on a game, only around 50% goes towards actual development. Most of the rest goes to publishing and distributing.

That is to cover the bottom line. Once games sell over the bottom line, microsoft might give bonuses, but all the profit over the bottom line should go straight into microsoft's pockets.

@darkride, NPD does use similar means to VGchartz, but their approximations are based on a lot more retailers, and they are usually much more accurate. I do agree that the reports from the company are best as they have a legal obligation to be accurate.

[TheColbertinator]

Not surprised.

The worst thing Microsoft ever did was buy Rare.Any gamer here that is over 10 years old will tell you of a time when Nintendo and Rare produced masterpieces constantly.Some of my favorite games of all time where created by this duo including Jet Force Gemini,Goldeneye,Perfect Dark,banjo kazooie,Starfox 64,Killer Instinct,and Donkey Kong 64.Each one was unique and polished,dealing damage to Sega and Sony in quality.

Nintendo and Rare had that spark for game development back then.

banjo kazooie:nuts and bolts was a betrayal to me in every sense of the word.

Example: I'm stranded in a desert of mediocre and un-inspired games(Current consoles).I'm thirsty and I finally see water to rehydrate myself(banjo kazooie 3).I grab the bottle of water and see its clear and odorless signifying its water(Rare developed).I take a drink of the "water" and find out its vodka which burns my throat(vehicle gameplay).

I hated or disliked everything that Rare has done with Microsoft.It was supposed to be like this

Microsoft funding + Rare creativity = Great games

However that backfired just like when I thought Sega formed Sonic team to create great Sonic games.How wrong I was both times.
Rare took a knife and plunged it into my weak heart when they released banjo kazooie:nuts and bolts

[spandexxking]

unlucky for you.
plus vodka has an odour so...analogy=fail

[syphenlimit]

Rare found themselves fishes out of water, and were utterly thrown by ambitious visions clashing with changing hardware, while the landscape changed around and essentially, without, them as they continued to try to get NGC era titles ready first for Xbox, then in to Xbox 360 releases.
Microsoft expected Rare to create an audience, (drawing on its legacy of working with Nintendo), where really there wasn't much of one in the family demographic that MS was keen to expand appeal within; and when Rare did create anything that could have broadened that audience, they were cheated by Microsoft, who offered their games minimal promotion support. I think Microsoft sees Rare now, as a convenient quick-fix call out team.

[omodis420]

Rare didn't come to the table with anything new that was worthwhile. They had La Vida Loca (or whatever it was called) Who the hell is going to buy that besides little kids that don't even own a 360. The little tykes are all about the Wii these days.

[NIN64]

Serves M$ right. F*ckers.

[Microsoft Xbox 360]

They've released nothing but flops. Go back to Nintendo, Rare.

360 and Rare don't mix.

[Rims]

It's Rare they make a success!

[VirusE]

I have loved rare since the days of old but they have dropped the ball in my opinion.

[Silent]

Good news or bad news RARE got paid by MS

[eagle21]

NPD 140k sold since launch through dec. 31....lol

[Droid Control]

The real talent left years ago...

[Droid Control]

... But M$ brought lionhead instead...

Stupid frakers!

[Obama]

That was pretty stupid if true. Valve makes good games, even if that Gabe is an uppity asshole.

[LKane]

Reminds me of the good old company Access Software that made the awesome Tex Murphy series. Microsoft bought it out, and left the series in a huge cliffhanger.

But as far as I know, the creators of the Tex Murphy series want to somehow come up with a way to end the series, either game, novel, or what not. Let's hope it comes true.

[oriol003]

RARE FAILS LOLZ

[2FootYard]

Rare has died and passed on to a different dimension where everything is beautiful and there are marijuana forests.

[omodis420]

Yeah cause Fable 2 wasn't a hit or anything. And Fable 1 and any other game that Lionhead touches.

[dustgavin]

Fable 2 certainly was not a blockbuster. Although, it did do fairly well.

[TheLaughingMan]

Fable was crap pure crap.

[dash--]

Banjo nuts and bolts looked like crap from day one. Conker is another crappy game. In my opinion the games like this will do better on the Wii. Xbox bread and butter involves shooters. Just another case of MS throwing their money around, instead of using it to make more games.

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

Which Conker?

Conker's Bad Fur Day is one of the best games I've ever played. You better be talking about the Xbox Conker...

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

Most of the good Rare guys are gone...

If only we could get quality out of them like Donkey Kong Country 2 again...

That game is a dynasty!

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

Microsoft should have bought Capcom when they had the chance...

[she00win99]

squarenix your next...

[tudors]

wanting Rare to go back to Nintendo? this makes no sense to me, so all those who think the WII is so last gen have no problem with Rare going backwards, Rare will come up trumps, like some have already said it is a long term investment.

[Droid Control]

... he was the one who chose lionhead over valve. Mainly because valve were, and are, well know for delaying games...

Fable 2 is basically fable 1 in HD with a few extra gimmicks. Its a kids game. Its not mature at all. Not like Oblivion or Fallout 3, or masss effect, etc...

lionhead needs to make a mature adults game next...

Please, no more fable!

Rare are the worse though, ALL their Xbox games suck!
Every single one!
And you can't even trust the magazine reviews anymore...

Games like Halo wars, halo 3, gears 2, anything by Rare, Resident Evil 5 - ALL will get great reviews no matter the actual quality. They get these reviews based on the brand, not the game quality...

Halo Wars = 6/10
Halo 3 = 7/10
gears 2 = 6/10
Rare = 5/10
Resident Evil 5 = 4/10

[edgeofblade]

Perfect Dark Zero was a little bit off. I liked it plenty, but it was really missing that special something.

Fun.

[xg-ei8ht]

Never realized how much attention you guys payed to certain people @ certain company's.

I've never really been into it that much.

I don't even follow sport that vigorously.

[borgome]

The only chance they have of making a comeback is to remake GoldenEye and it would have to be a sick game.

[04soldier]

If you're passionate about video games, you'll frown upon one of your favorite game developer's demise.

[kwyjibo]

Their games have not sold that well, but that doesn't deny the fact that they're trying new and critically well received ideas.

This article is mostly filler bullshit anyway, nothing has actually happened, there's no real analysis to the two paragraph fluff piece. All it is there for, is to draw N4G hits with the headline.

But it also ignores the back end work Rare have done for NXE. That's going to be generating value for them and its not going to factor into NPD revenue estimates.

Do I think they overpaid for Rare? Yes. But that doesn't mean that Rare are somehow creatively invalid. This acquisition happened years ago, the effects of such have already been mitigated. Overpaying for Rare back then, is a heck of a lot less harmful than having overpaid for a company just prior to the 2008 economic collapse.

[Anon1974]

NPD is simply a market research company. This article makes it sound like they're keeping track of Rare's revenue...they are not. They're simply making assumption based on their sales estimates.

And I agree, not much meat to this article.

[TriforceLightning]

Rare is gone and all should rejoice.They were a cancer on the 360 and never had any worthwhile software.Rest in pieces.

[queerbearandchicken]

brilliant

[Morgue]

The games and companies (AKA bandages) that MS have aqquired/bought over the last few years are just quick fixes to stop the bleeeding. MS had a " rare " opportunity when they purchased Rare to release some quality games and they failed. On the other hand if Rare had released those same games on the Wii, PDZ would have been way better but instead MS blew it. But thats what happens when a company rushes their system out to beat another.

[tonywood]

To the "noob" that dared to try and argue with me a week back, I thought Rare was doing good for MS? (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE)

People get on here and just talk, with NO real facts or examples, that supports your arguments. The story concerning Rare is just one of the many mis-steps that MS has made, since entering the games arena. This is not the Auto industry, where these guys are gonna try to nickel and dime customers to death...charging for ridiculous options. You would think that these guys (MS) would have learned from the mistakes of the original Xbox. You know, implementing a huge HD (A good idea) but for no real reason. Only having to cut the system out because of the money wasted. Also, trying to buy up "one hit wounder" developers/company's, just to 1UP Playstation and Nintendo.

Memo to MS: Sony and Nintendo is NOT Steve Jobs (However you spell his last name)!!! Did you guys really think you could come in and just sell false hopes and ideas, use other people's ideas/properties, and buy up the market? Sure, you have pushed a few 360's but after a while, the "SHEEP" will revolt against their oppressor. Purposely selling fault systems (Aledgetly), insane charging for online service, (WHEN YOU ARE ALREADY MAKING BANK ON WINDOWS SOFTWARE AND HALO & GEARS, which are MS properties), and of course.....buying Sony/Nintendo "leftovers" (RARE) is going to turn you guys into the fake GM. (Obviously MS won't go broke) I have an idea for you: How about fixing the 360 modding issues (which are destroying the profits of the developers, I'm sure you could care less about) and RROD defects. THEN, you can focus on buying the ideas/games, that you do not have the ability to create yourselves. I have been tellin people that buying Rare was STUPID idea and how the 1st Xbox would get scraped because of it. NO blu ray, RPG interest, and the dying Halo/Gears 1,2 punch is gonna scrap the 360. You need to Bring out Alanwake, HUXLEY, and re-start the development of Starcraft ghost...which would have served your systems far better the Rare. (WHO ARE LAUGHING, ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK!!)

[Gambit07]

N64 Rare is long gone...

[TriforceLightning]

Microsoft royally...you know the rest.

[Ivix]

To be fair, the Sonic games haven't been great lately, either...