Activision Was Closer To Owning Rare Than You Might Think

Well, Activision had the James Bond license for awhile. The whole FPS scene would have been quite different with true sequels to Goldeneye (And to an extent, Perfect Dark.)

"Microsoft's increased bid of $375 secured Rare's services"
I hope this is a mistake, because if Rare was bought for less than the price of an Xbox One S, I don't know how the industry can sustain itself.

@PCK $375 per share.

A Banjo Skylander might've been interesting.

If Activison won that bid, we would've see some Rare games on Nintendo, Xbox and even PlayStation consoles today.

Being owned by Microsoft is still the lesser evil.

Being owned by Microsoft doesn't seem all that bad, anymore...

Nintendo's biggest mistake.

With Minecraft on Wii U now, surely they could bring out a compilation disk with all the old games on for Wii U.
Don't they have something like this already on Xbox anyway? Surely it would take them long just to switch it over?

Would you rather...

Have Activision make yearly games of our favorite games, but then hating them after time

Or...

Have Microsoft keep their IPs in a sacred place never to be seen again, but still liking the games and have a special place in our hearts

At the end of the first paragraph you forgot to include "and they haven't made a good game since."

That's a shame, it would have been cool if a company that still made games got the rights.

Looking at those screens from Nuts & Bolts.... what an abomination. ugh.

As long as neither MS nor Activision try to buy Playtonic everything's fine.

@Nintendude789 Hahaa, that about sums it up

@TenEighty How is it a mistake? They sell Rare away and then bought Monolith Soft. It's a win in my book.

@Nintendude789 To be perfectly honest, I'd rather have the yearly releases IF all of their games retained the same quality and spirit (AKA gameplay) of the originals, if not even topping it. Given the yearly release schedule, though, this would be nearly impossible to pull off. So I guess Micro is the lesser of the big bads.

I'm torn, on one hand we might have actually gotten a proper sequel to Banjo-Tooie, or at least one that wasn't a stupid driving game, but on the other I don't think Activision would have given a game like Viva Pinata the go-ahead, which is honestly my favorite RARE game.

@Nintendude789

Activision. Microsoft took over rare and neutered them

@Tempestryke I'm not sure Activision would've been the best fit... But you're 100% right that Microsoft did in fact, neuter them as you say. They almost faded into obscurity. It's a shame that their golden-era games are the only things that still keep them relevant really.

Shame Nintendo didn't want to invest more into the company. I bet that in hindsight, a few of their decisions haunt them pretty good.

But as they say... fortune favors the bold... And you can't say that Nintendo doesn't take risks.

Scared money don't make money ..... And that's exactly what happened with this Rareware deal. Nintendo was doing pretty well for themselves at the time, and pride/ego interfered with a potentially amazing trade deal that could have potentially blossomed into more Nintendo IP's and the continuation of some of our favorite, classic IP's. I personally think they thought "we don't need 'em" at the time.

Funny how they regard the need for 3rd parties differently now.

Look at Crash Bandicoot.

I'm glad they didn't.

We would have seen multi format Rareware games at least.

BUT it still would have been the same appalling, watered down remaining staff at Rareware producing subpar software.

At least the IPs would have been multi format, if they'd have been better quality is another discussion.

@retro_player_22 Because Nintendo didn't buyout Rare. What a loss and what could have been.

It's a tremendous shame how much my favourite developer ever has fallen over the years in the MS era. At least I would have still been able to support Rare under a potential Activision ownership on Nintendo and PlayStation consoles.

Still waiting for the announcement of Rare Replay on Wii U.....bet it would sell a million copies easy and Microsoft isnt gonna sell anymore on XB1 at this point

@Angelic_Lapras_King Yeah, that would have been interesting for sure. Lets see so EA had the Bond rights until about 2006-2007 with their last game being From Russia with Love, my favorite of the EA-era Bond games.

After that Activision grabbed the rights and I am still not over what they did to the series. Imagine if Rare was the one to make Quantum of Solace, and eventually, the new Goldeneye.

Here for my obligatory "Nuts & Bolts is a brilliant but misunderstood game" comment.

All right, guys, I'm out.

@Gerbwmu @Bunkerneath I believe the main reasons Rare Replay hasn't (and likely won't) come to Wii U is because some of the games were from the xbox Era and Nintendo likely doesn't want to promote rival brands since MS could likely use a U version to bring people to an xbox with new entries after rare replay

More realistically, I'd like to see Rare Replay on Windows 10. We are getting Sea of Thieves, so it may be possible.

@HeroOfTime32

True, very true.
Well perhaps it was for the best, Rare is rising from its ashes as Playtonic, and its first offering looks amazing so far. but what else could we expect from such a prestigious group of individuals? Hopefully they'll tell microsoft where to shove it.

Take note, upcoming game companies, if you have such a talented group with a long history of making better games then you, DON'T do what microsoft did to Rare. That's idiocy of the highest order, learn from them, appreciate their skill, utilize their talents to the fullest potential. They've been in this business longer then you don't pull down your pants and take a steaming dump on them.

@TenEighty It didn't matter, a lot of the original Rare dev team were leaving the company anyways and Nintendo did not know what to do with the rest of Rare's other IPs as they had to focus on theirs as well. Selling Rare to another publisher is the best choice. To make up for that, Nintendo use the money from the sellout to buy Monolith Soft so we got new IPs like Baten Kaitos and Xenoblade Chronicles. At least the buyout didn't affect the handheld aspect though as Rare developed games were still released for Nintendo handhelds until the 3DS.

@Gerbwmu Rare Replay will never be released for Wii U. Rare is a 1st party dev now for Microsoft, they are not going to just released a major exclusive for the competitor. Rare Replay is nothing like Minecraft. Minecraft was multiplat from the beginning. Reason Minecraft was able to be released for Wii U is because the game is mainstream now and Microsoft is banking on the Minecraft hype so to get some money from the Wii U crowd but Rare Replay is different and is a major console exclusive. If Microsoft were to release Rare Replay for Wii U then they had to released it for other platforms as well which would never happen.

@SMW I didnt mind the multiplayer of the new Goldeneye, played it a ton but yeah, nothing like the N64 title...

Nintendo dodge a bullet, other than the up coming Sea of Thieves, Golden Eye, and Perfect Dark for the 64 they haven't done anything noteworthy for 20 years.

@Nin10doh Yep, Rare may have been better off with Activation
then Microsoft. Course, knowing Activation...eh, either or in this case.

There were several companies interested in Rare. However, Nintendo was not one of them. How silly of them, considering Rare promoted SNES and saved N64.

@Angelic_Lapras_King Oh, yeah. I loved the online multiplayer on Goldeneye. I just wasn't impressed with the singleplayer.

@retro_player_22 - I don't think it will actually happen but I think if Nintendo wanted, MS would be open to the idea though, especially now that it is a year old and effectively done selling xboxes. But as you said Nintendo doesn't want to promote MS anymore then they have too, probably stings knowing Minecraft sales are going to a competitor.

rare is dead no one cares about sea of trash im gonna play playing my YOOKA LAYLEE BABY
I MISS THE 90S RARE

Nintendo ending its partnership with Rare was as big of a mistake as it ending its partnership with Squaresoft (No real sequel to Super Mario RPG).

So there was almost a Banjo Skylander, yuck!!

Activision would have been better hands for it. Activision is a gaming powerhouse!

Well given that Microsoft killed Rare they could have been better off with Activision

We already know what happens in the timeline where Microsoft gets Rare. The Activision alternate timeline has to be a little better then this.

@BetaWolf Most people left AFTER Microsoft's purchase, according to Rare.