A Rare Event

Source: Official Microsoft Press Release

No doubt you've all read that, or something similar to it. Rare is leaving the Nintendo family and joining up with Microsoft with a nice price tag attached. The reactions to this have spread through every outlet that cares, but it's yet to be touched on in an article by anyone at N-Sider. The reactions have been spreading for some time as most people have been certain about this for the past month or so. Some longer than that. But I wanted to make sure that I waited until the official announcement was made before I wrote anything. So here's my two cents. Actually, if I were Microsoft, it would be my two and a half hundred million pounds.

:: insert silence being broken by cricket ::

Ok, so I started off with a really lame joke, but please, forgive me... because I see this all as a really lame joke. While my punishable title and lame jokes may not make you laugh, the reaction to the latest announcements circulating the status of Rare and Microsoft certainly make me laugh. Yes, you read that correctly. It's not the announcement I'm laughing at, but how gamers are taking it. The announcement itself does bother me and for a couple of reasons. But I won't get into that as it's another editorial entirely. Before I go into this any further, it should be understood that there is a difference between "business" and "art". I'll discuss both of these.


Is it wrong for Rare to take Microsoft's "evil" money and run? Hell no. If they believe it's in their best interest to do it, they'll do it. Of course, if Nintendo's PR company started supporting Microsoft instead of Nintendo, I doubt you'd give two shits. There seems to be some kind of moral lining to all of this, and there really shouldn't be. Business is business. A lot of people (even people on our boards) are referring to companies with soul, ideal, etc. In reality, it goes more along the lines of companies with money, greed, power, etc. Every company wants those things, it's their ultimate goal. They'll also do anything they can do attain these goals.

Back when the rumours that a Rare buy-out was imminent were flying, I was having a discussion with our Editor in Chief, Jason Nuyens about old Nintendo and Rare interviews. You can sift through interviews, press releases and the like from Rare/Nintendo. Guess what you'll read? Flowers. Lots and lots of colourful flowers. It's all PR bullshit to help increase profit, simple as that. It's even evident with Nintendo and the recent release of Star Fox Adventures. Do you honestly think Nintendo would want the possibility of a relationship problem between them and Rare to become public? No, of course not, that could potentially hurt sales. When a company says that they feel "cheated by" or "disappointed in" the decision of another company they previously dealt with, it usually translates to something like: "We feel cheated that we're not making as much money and disappointed in ourselves for not doing something about it sooner."


Ever notice how any form of artistic expression has a stronger following than anything else that is sold? It's because of the bond that is created between artist and appreciator. Bands have followings of rabid fans that try to get everything they can out of the music. Authors have followings of rabid fans that delve deep into the plots of their novels, discussing the possibilities at every opportunity.

Game development is of course a form of artistic expression just like writing a book, painting, playing music, etc. Well, do developers have followings of rabid fans? You better believe your albino penguin's ass they do. The amount of fan sites dedicated to specific companies and games is astounding (hell, you're reading one right now). The amount of detail and accuracy on some of those fan sites is even more astounding. Gamers care about the art that companies put out just as much as anyone who listens to a band or follows an author religiously. There's only one problem. With any form of expression, you need business to support it. A band consists of a few people. Novels are normally written by a single individual with the assistance of others. Luckily for these people, the only real business they have to worry about is getting their works published (even an album can be produced relatively inexpensively). For a game developer, you have a vast amount of people working on a project with large sums of money being handled for the mere completion of that project. This all amounts to another level of business below the publishing level. Development studios in turn become artists that exist by themselves as large companies. That's when we jump into the business of things.


This is a minor gripe of mine. Why do people insist on using the dollar sign ($) to replace the "s" in Microsoft and Sony. Many times I've found myself reading a forum post, or even an article written by a site and as soon as "Micro$oft" or "$ony" came up, I became instantly cold to whatever point they were trying to make. It cheapens the entire purpose of what you're trying to say. So many times I've seen arguments using this and I'm almost positive that this is what they're thinking: "I'm mad that Microsoft is using their money to further themselves against Nintendo, whom I like, so I'll take a cheap shot and put a dollar sign in their name. That should make it seem like Nintendo's the poor underdog without any money. Hey look! Nintendo's pumping a massive amount of money into their new TV campaign. Hooray for the Big N!"

I'll admit, I used to do it. Maybe not to that extreme, but in the past I did indeed replace the letter "s" with a dollar sign out of spite. But that was before I became enlightened to the fact that companies are trying to make money. It's a harsh reality, I know, but to soften the blow... $tar Fox Adventure$, published by Nint€ndo and developed by Rar€ was just recently released in North America!