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No Rare on Revolution's Virtual Console
According to sources from the GDC last week.
by Robert Hiskey

March 28, 2006 - Over the weekend, Matt Cassamassina of IGN Revolution (and IGN Cube) posted in his blog that he had talked to some "Rare / Microsoft people" who confirmed to him that Rare's classic titles will not appear on the Revolution's Virtual Console. That means no Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, and (gasp) GoldenEye 007 will NOT be downloadable for play on Revolution. The GoldenEye situation is a little different than the rest, as it needs approval from both Rare and Electronic Arts, who currently owns the rights to the James Bond franchise, in order to appear on the Virtual Console. While EA would likely give its approval, Rare will not.

Not all is lost, however. Rare-developed games to which Nintendo owns the rights will still appear on the Virtual Console. That means you can expect to see games like the Donkey Kong Country trilogy, Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong Racing, and others. There are also a few franchises whose statuses are unknown (it is unclear whether Nintendo or Rare owns the rights), such as Blast Corps..

While it's certainly sad that we won't get all of our favorite Rare titles on the Virtual Console, it's not surprising, as Rare is now owned by Microsoft. It's not hard to imagine that Microsoft will offer Rare's games via Xbox Live Arcade in the future. Also worth noting is the rumor that Rare is in development with a new Banjo-Kazooie title for the Xbox 360.

Source: Matt-IGN's Blog

NeoGoomba wrote:I'm with Spanky, the DKC games were the best Rare had to offer, so I'm happy we get them.

However, if I'm in a crazy, no-holds barred button mashing mood, I would have liked Killer Instinct Gold.

Anarchist Bunny wrote:Hardly, the Banjo Kazooie/Tooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Starfox 64(which won't be effected by this) were all great games.

Dominus Atheos wrote:

Anarchist Bunny wrote:Hardly, the Banjo Kazooie/Tooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Starfox 64(which won't be effected by this) were all great games.

First off, it's Affected. Second, why even mention it if it won't be affected? All you're doing is confusing Spanky. Shame on you for confusing Spanky! He's Special and you need to be nice to him!

TheBlackCat wrote:I honestly can't really blame Microsoft, nor am I the least bit surprised. I think this is just officially confirming what was already known. Seriously, if I were Microsoft I wouldn't let my competitors use my first-party titles, either. Why would I go out of my way to help a company that is directly competing with me? This will likely be a big selling point for the Revolution, especially amongst older gamers, so why would Microsft help their competitor succeed at taking money and market share away from them?

It may suck for people buying the Revolution (as I probably will at some point), but it is a perfectly logical, and fully anticipated, move by Microsoft. I would have been shocked if Rare games DID appear on the Revolution, just as I would be shocked if Nintendo suddenly decided to let Microsoft freely distribute Super Mario Bros. on the XBOX 360. I am no XBOX fan, I never have and never will buy an XBOX, but I can't really blame them for making a pretty straightforward business decision that I would have made if I were in their shoes.

TheBlackCat wrote:I honestly can't really blame Microsoft, nor am I the least bit surprised. I think this is just officially confirming what was already known. Seriously, if I were Microsoft I wouldn't let my competitors use my first-party titles, either. Why would I go out of my way to help a company that is directly competing with me? This will likely be a big selling point for the Revolution, especially amongst older gamers, so why would Microsft help their competitor succeed at taking money and market share away from them?

It may suck for people buying the Revolution (as I probably will at some point), but it is a perfectly logical, and fully anticipated, move by Microsoft. I would have been shocked if Rare games DID appear on the Revolution, just as I would be shocked if Nintendo suddenly decided to let Microsoft freely distribute Super Mario Bros. on the XBOX 360. I am no XBOX fan, I never have and never will buy an XBOX, but I can't really blame them for making a pretty straightforward business decision that I would have made if I were in their shoes.

General Zod wrote:An example of a first party MS title would be something like Morrowind or Halo. Not Donkey Kong 64 or Perfect Dark.

Vendetta wrote:
(Oh yeah, and Morrowind isn't an MS firstparty title either, it was published in house at Bethesda.)

Archaic` wrote:If Nintendo owns the property, then yes. Otherwise, expect them on XBox Live sometime in the next year.

General Zod wrote:What kind of crack are you smoking? All of the titles formerly developed by Rare are in no way shape or form a Microsoft first party title. As Microsoft had no hand in developing any of the games on the list above. An example of a first party MS title would be something like Morrowind or Halo. Not Donkey Kong 64 or Perfect Dark.

Pezzoni wrote:Why the hell did Nintendo sell their stake in Rare in the first place
That was by far the worst news I had ever had regarding a Nintendo console.

Vendetta wrote:Plus, of course, Microsoft could always throw an N64 emulator out for the Xbox 360. (someone's already made a NES emulator for it, which works through the XP Media Centre extender)

Dooey Jo wrote:Maybe they'll make a MS-DOS emulator though, so you can download old PC games and play