Rare to commit corporate suicide in sale to MS

[bryanb]

Rare is for the most part a family friendly development house.

Has anyone clued this company into the fact that the xbox user base does not purchase family friendly games?

There wasn't a single family friendly xbox title that sold more than 150K. And no, a dark and adult platformer like Munch's Odessey doesn't count.

This company is suddenly going to re-invent itself and churn out the adult oriented games (sports, fighters and shooters) that the xbox userbase is interested in?

Sales of PD0 on xbox will not be enough to support this development house. If in fact Rare goes to MS, then its pretty much end of story for RareWare. So long RareWare. Nice to know you but, you are committing the stupidest move ever made in the gaming industry since day 0.

The brothers who own this company are clearly tired or out of ideas and all that they see is MS dollar signs. I'm amazed that everyone in the corporation is going along with this deal.

 

[Ozymandis]

Well, Rare did do Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. Not to mention the dark fighter Killer Instinct.

Maybe it's just Nintendo's insidious influence that has forced them to stay kiddy

 

[Teasy]

Maybe it's just Nintendo's insidious influence that has forced them to stay kiddy

So Nintendo bring in the Resident Evil series as exclusive as well as Eternal Darkness and allot more adult orientated (read gory games) and yet they'd be forcing Rare to only make cartoony and none gory games?.. that doesn't make much sense now does it.

 

[bryanb]

Confusing two different markets

Maybe it's just Nintendo's insidious influence that has forced them to stay kiddy

So Nintendo bring in the Resident Evil series as exclusive as well as Eternal Darkness and allot more adult orientated (read gory games) and yet they'd be forcing Rare to only make cartoony and none gory games?.. that doesn't make much sense now does it.

You really are making no sense here. I am talking about the xbox userbase not the GC userbase.

Some adult games sell well on the GC. RE sold 350K and ED sold 150K. Who cares? The xbox userbase is a different market. A different thing. Why would you confuse the two?

The point is that xbox userbase isn't buying family friendly games. That doesn't mean that these games are "cartoony". I'm talking about any type of game that the average person has no problem allowing their children to play. These are usually platformers, adventure games and party games.

 

[Ozymandis]

Re: Confusing two different markets

Maybe it's just Nintendo's insidious influence that has forced them to stay kiddy

So Nintendo bring in the Resident Evil series as exclusive as well as Eternal Darkness and allot more adult orientated (read gory games) and yet they'd be forcing Rare to only make cartoony and none gory games?.. that doesn't make much sense now does it.

You really are making no sense here. I am talking about the xbox userbase not the GC userbase.

Some adult games sell well on the GC. RE sold 350K and ED sold 150K. Who cares? The xbox userbase is a different market. A different thing. Why would you confuse the two?

The point is that xbox userbase isn't buying family friendly games. That doesn't mean that these games are "cartoony". I'm talking about any type of game that the average person has no problem allowing their children to play. These are usually platformers, adventure games and party games.

Sorry, I was just having a little laugh about your post.

In a nutshell, I think Rare would do just fine on the Xbox. They might have to expand into making some more adult games, but they're considered a top-tier developer by many. I'm sure they can handle it. It's not like they're Nintendo and have NO experience making these sort of games

Anyways, it's always interesting to see fresh content from a developer who has (for whatever reason) been churning out uninspired but quality games for so long, and I'll be following their efforts on Xbox (if this does come true).

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Hmm... Ken Lobb, Rare... sounds like MS is dismantling Nintendo piece by piece. God help them when Miyamoto retires.

Did you ever stop to think that MS is acquiring Rare to expand their userbase? Rare games + $150 price point + solid marketing + parental controls = solid Xbox sales to the family demographic.

Nintendo fans are just bitter. I think most people would trade RE series for Perfect Dark Zero any day. I know I sure would..

 

[BoddoZerg]

Last time I heard, Shrek was actually doing pretty well for Xbox.

Anyways, we've all heard this before. "Bungie is committing suicide by selling out to MS." You know, Halo sold millions more copies than Bungie's previous game, Oni. (a semi-flop) Wait for them to actually release a game before prophesizing about Rare's MS-induced death.

 

[Teasy]

It's not like they're Nintendo and have NO experience making these sort of games

Nintendo make the most successful adult games around, unless you mean adult games in the eye's of immature boys, basically gory stuff like Res Evil, then no they don't have much experience, but then Silicon Knights is Nintendo first party and they most certainly have experience with more scary gory games.

Hmm... Ken Lobb, Rare... sounds like MS is dismantling Nintendo piece by piece. God help them when Miyamoto retires.

Heh, you just keep dreaming Johnny.

Nintendo fans are just bitter. I think most people would trade RE series for Perfect Dark Zero any day. I know I sure would..

Resident Evil?, what does Resident Evil have to do with Perfect Dark Zero? Also its pretty interesting that someone who says that Goldeneye made them laugh is suddenly looking forward to Perfect Dark, your a hypocrite, you thought nothing of Rare until this rumour came out.

I don't see what Nintendo fans would have to get bitter about, since before GameCube was released we knew that Rare has basically no games lined up for GameCube, so exactly what are we losing? Rare launched themselves into fame with an incredible FPS in Goldeneye, since then they've released some solid games, but to be honest I haven't been particularly interested in those games. I've only played two Rare games, Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. Perfect Dark was a really excellent game in its own right, but it wasn't as good as Goldeneye. So IMO Rare haven't done anything really brilliant since Goldeneye. I haven't expected anything great for GameCube from Rare since the start, Retro, Silicon Knights and Factor Five are all more important to my gaming needs on GameCube then Rare, I'm expecting more from them.

Having said that I'd still like to see Rare stay just incase they can finally come up with another great game that isn't simply a very solid polished game selling mostly on there name and Nintendo's characters.

 

[Ozymandis]

Nintendo make the most successful adult games around, unless you mean adult games in the eye's of immature boys, basically gory stuff like Res Evil, then no they don't have much experience, but then Silicon Knights is Nintendo first party and they most certainly have experience with more scary gory games.

Ah, you're right Teasy, I'm sorry. Animal Crossing and Pikmin were made with my generation in mind

How many games has SK shipped? Two in 7 years? Well, it's better than nothing I guess 8)

 

[wazoo]

Ah, you're right Teasy, I'm sorry. Animal Crossing and Pikmin were made with my generation in mind

No, they are not targeted to immature boys, Teasy said.

 

[Teasy]

Ah, you're right Teasy, I'm sorry. Animal Crossing and Pikmin were made with my generation in mind

As Wazoo said, no Nintendo games are not targetted to immature boys who think that blood and guts makes something mature. Mario ect are made for people who actually like playing games, like having fun, not people who want to play a "cool adult game" and then go to school the next day and brag that there so adult because they played Evil Murder 17 or whatever

Of course Nintendo do make some games that I don't think are for mature people, Pokemon being one of them, although I have to admit I haven't actually played Pokemon so maybe I'm wrong?

 

[wazoo]

Of course Nintendo do make some games that I don't think are for mature people, Pokemon being one of them, although I have to admit I haven't actually played Pokemon so maybe I'm wrong?

I never played Pokemon and I even think Smash Brothers is not for me. It seems that for some people Nintendo Cube buyers are supposed to like the same games and follow the same trend. That is not the case.

 

[Ozymandis]

Yup, I'm an "immature boy" who "wants to play a cool adult game". Of course, I'm also 23 years old

I guess if you think those sort of games appeals to my age group, that's your opinion. I can't agree though. I just don't think many of my peers are interested anymore in what Nintendo first-party has to offer. None of the people my age that I know have Gamecubes, for example.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

There's a big difference between thinking that Goldeneye was crap on the N64 and thinking that PD Zero will be good on the Xbox hardware. The main problem with Goldeneye was the crappy hardware it was running on.

 

[wazoo]

Yup, I'm an "immature boy" who "wants to play a cool adult game". Of course, I'm also 23 years old

I'm 30+. you are the kiddy.

I guess if you think those sort of games appeals to my age group, that's your opinion. I can't agree though. I just don't think many of my peers are interested anymore in what Nintendo first-party has to offer. None of the people my age that I know have Gamecubes, for example.

That is a great poll. very informative.

 

[cybamerc]

Johnny Awesome:

> The main problem with Goldeneye was the crappy hardware it was
> running on.

You're a moron. How does the hardware have anything to do with "... the slow as molasses gameplay, the poor control and the cheezy bond license."? It's funny how the potential of Rare being bougth by M$ can suddenly make you change the issues you have with the game. Of course, now that Rare may be an M$ first party soon you can't really say things that put its game making skills in a bad light anymore.

 

[Blade]

What I think is happening at Rare:

The Stamper brothers want to retire. They decide to sell the majority (50+%) of their company to Nintendo, since Nintendo already has a huge piece of Rare. Nintendo asks "what have you done for us lately?" and points th' Stampers to Microsoft.

Nintendo, seeing as how they think they don't need Rare anymore.. sell their 30-40% to MS, making mega-bucks.

Now Rare is MS-exclusive. This is probably th' situation.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

The issues were two-fold with Goldeneye - the N64, and the N64 controller. Despite how good Rare is, they weren't able to overcome these limitations IMO. For what it's worth, Starfox Adventures and Kameo were the reasons I bought a Gamecube. You can go back to my Cloudchaser.com E3 2001 impressions where I list Kameo as one of the top 5 games of the show, if you need proof.

 

[Ozymandis]

I'm 30+. you are the kiddy.

Uh, o-k.

 

[Rodéric]

For your information I'm 24 (arg almost 25) years old and I own a GameCube (and a Dreamcast).

I've :
Star Wars Rogue Leader
Pikmin
Luigi's mansion
Super Smash Bros Melee

I love those games, and even if I think that games cost a bit too much money (on every platform), I'll say they where worth their money.

And I've friends with GameCubes too.

That 'Nintendo makes games for children' idea is ridiculous, never saw something that stupid. (no offence)