If you'll recall, a few days ago we promised big news about Microsoft and Rare. A friend of ours at everyone's favorite overly secretive software design house (that'd be Rare) told us that Rare was leaving the warm, loving embrace of Nintendo for the steely grip of Microsoft. It was the most recent in a line of stories we'd broken, culminating last week in the news that Nintendo was seeking a buyer for its portion of Rare. We held off on running this one though, waiting to get confirmation from someone else inside Rare.
Today our friends at Raretopia broke news of Rare's imminent conversion. We still haven't officially confirmed what we've heard -- the only people who know for sure still aren't talking -- but we will say this: Raretopia's account is identical to what we've heard from within Rare (except for the news of Perfect Dark being an XBOX exclusive; more on that later).
It's looking to be a near certainty that Rare will not only abandon Nintendo exclusivity, but leave Nintendo altogether and become a Microsoft-exclusive developer. We wouldn't stake our lives on it, but barring an extensive, carefully orchestrated misinformation campaign -- and a bit of bad luck -- we now believe SFA will be Rare's last game as a Nintendo-exclusive second party.
To clear up some questions:
-The reason we were so dead-set on obtaining confirmation is because Dan thought it unacceptably likely that we were being jerked around, so to speak. Knowing Raretopia's reputation for careful and accurate reporting makes this possibility less likely to us.
-Rare's corporate culture seems to have been permeated with indecision or a change in direction. Additional reports include a virtual freeze on hiring at the company, leading some to believe that Rare is delaying its expansion until its development target is known, and it can better account for positions and areas of expertise it needs to fill. For a company on the grow, a multi-month hiring freeze is ... not the right strategy, even in today's wintry economic climate.
-We said that our source did not say that Perfect Dark Zero was being reformed as an XBOX exclusive; it is true, he did not say that. Nor did he say that it would NOT be XBOX exclusive. It just, uh, didn't come up in our conversation.
There you have it. It's looking like Rare on the Gamecube may be a short-lived phenomenon. As we've all grown accustomed to, don't count your eggs before Rare, Nintendo and/or Microsoft make an official statement. But if you bought a Gamecube solely for Rare games ... you may have to amuse yourself with Star Fox Adventures for a long, long time. Me? I'm buying an XBOX tonight.
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