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Nintendo Sells Stake in Rare Ltd.
As part of a strategic redirection of its game development
investments, Nintendo announces it has sold its 49 percent ownership
position in U.K.-based developer Rare, Ltd.
"Nintendo had the ability to continue its exclusive
relationship with Rare, but in looking at the company's recent track
record, it became clear that its value to the future of Nintendo
would be limited," says Peter MacDougall, executive vice
president, sales and marketing, Nintendo of America. "In other
words, we passed on this opportunity for very good business
reasons."
In fiscal year 2001, Rare accounted for only 9.5 percent of total
Nintendo software sales worldwide. In fiscal year 2002, that number
declined to 1.5 percent.
Nintendo will retain exclusive rights for all original properties
and franchises featured in games developed by Rare, including Donkey
Kong(R), Diddy Kong(R) and Star Fox(R).
According to MacDougall, game development is, by nature, dynamic.
Relationships continually change to meet the needs of both
manufacturers and publishers. "The disposition of this
investment leaves us in a position to become even more aggressive in
expanding our development capacity, both internally and externally.
Aside from several partnerships already announced over the past
year, we are currently in similar talks with several other
prospective partners around the world."
In the past year, Nintendo has added emphasis on games which offer
true innovation to video game players, and especially those with
appeal to older players. Key current and upcoming NINTENDO
GAMECUBE(TM) titles include Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem(TM),
Animal Crossing(TM), Metroid(R) Prime, The Legend of Zelda(R) and
Capcom's upcoming Resident Evil series exclusively for NINTENDO
GAMECUBE.
"Although we declined the opportunity to continue our exclusive
agreement with Rare, this announcement does not diminish our respect
for their work or the past contributions they have made to
Nintendo," adds MacDougall.
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