Phil writes, `It was exactly fifteen years ago today when the studio of Rare, known for its close partnership with Nintendo, officially was bought by Microsoft, thus making Rare a 100% Microsoft-owned studio to help a budding new Xbox brand build, grow, and gain momentum right out of the starting gate.
Throughout Rare`s continued and close relationship with Nintendo, the Stamper brothers, the founders and then-primary owners of Rare, sold more and more of their stake in the company to Nintendo. By 2002, the Stampers wanted to sell Rare and turned to Nintendo first to fully hand over their stakes and ownership of their company. Nintendo did not agree to purchase the Stampers` stake, so the bidding war for ownership eventually came down to Activision and Microsoft with the latter becoming the purchaser of Rare for $375 million.
Now, an argument regarding whether or not Microsoft got its money`s worth from Rare happens to this day, but that`s really not the focus of this special...
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