Following Rare's divorce from Nintendo, legions of angry fans were left with bulging spleens to vent. Having blindly argued that the Microsoft buy-out, as exclusively revealed by us, was nothing more than fiction.
Get a coffee, sit back and enjoy...
One fan writes, "I know you probably get a lot of e-mails about this, but what horrible, dangerous disease was it that you people caught, that made you abandon your biggest fans? Was it because you are just greedy, never happy until your pockets are full? You have been working on Nintendo consoles for years, I've been with you ever since the early days of the NES. Back then, you were a great games developer, and you kept getting better... but now you've dropped to a low that you've never been before. Thank you for ruining my gaming life!"
Another says, "There is no good excuse for turning your back on your Nintendo fan base completely in this way in an era where multi-platform game releases are the rule rather than the exception. We are responsible for your considerable success. Your shunning of the people that put you where you are today is shameful, and, like all other creative people who forsake their roots, your endeavours will be destined to fail until you make amends with your fans and put things right once more. Release your games for the GameCube as well as the X-Box, or your customers WILL make their displeasure known by taking their hard-earned cash elsewhere, leaving you bereft of profits and in danger of being dissolved entirely by your new corporate masters. Nintendo and Nintendo gamers have been very, very good to you. The proper thing to do is to return the favor. If you don't, you'll find out firsthand that negative karma is indeed a bitch."
Expecting multi-platform releases from Rare is optimistic to say the least...
A Rare representative decided to respond to those ever so angry Nintendo fanboys, having refused to publish the really offensive and threatening mails:
"I can't give you a full and frank corporate explanation of the decision beyond what's already available on the site, but here's my take on the whole thing: it was a business decision. This is a business. The people who laid the foundations of Rare 20 years ago and still run it to this day have every right to choose their own roads through the industry, and the need to survive and evolve as a company doesn't necessarily cancel out the urge to go on making damn good games. Also, Rare is not totally oblivious to the fact that the ups and downs of the gaming world mean a lot more to some people than others, and it goes without saying that nobody here set out to do anything as self-destructive as intentionally causing bad feeling within the established fanbase. Trust me when I say that none of the decisions made over the last few months were made lightly.
At the end of the day, however, it's not as if Rare has stopped making games entirely. We're still out there, still working as hard as ever. All that's changed is the platform, as it has many times before in the past (something the Timeline was meant to emphasise), and I don't see how you can argue the case for any kind of 'betrayal' when there's still a solid relationship with Nintendo in place - how do you think we intended to manage future GBA development without it?
For myself, I'd like to thank all of you who took the time to send in death threats and personal abuse, as it made the email-reading ritual every morning something to really look forward to. Thanks a lot!"
Stay tuned for more from Rare as we get it.
Get a coffee, sit back and enjoy...
One fan writes, "I know you probably get a lot of e-mails about this, but what horrible, dangerous disease was it that you people caught, that made you abandon your biggest fans? Was it because you are just greedy, never happy until your pockets are full? You have been working on Nintendo consoles for years, I've been with you ever since the early days of the NES. Back then, you were a great games developer, and you kept getting better... but now you've dropped to a low that you've never been before. Thank you for ruining my gaming life!"
Another says, "There is no good excuse for turning your back on your Nintendo fan base completely in this way in an era where multi-platform game releases are the rule rather than the exception. We are responsible for your considerable success. Your shunning of the people that put you where you are today is shameful, and, like all other creative people who forsake their roots, your endeavours will be destined to fail until you make amends with your fans and put things right once more. Release your games for the GameCube as well as the X-Box, or your customers WILL make their displeasure known by taking their hard-earned cash elsewhere, leaving you bereft of profits and in danger of being dissolved entirely by your new corporate masters. Nintendo and Nintendo gamers have been very, very good to you. The proper thing to do is to return the favor. If you don't, you'll find out firsthand that negative karma is indeed a bitch."
Expecting multi-platform releases from Rare is optimistic to say the least...
A Rare representative decided to respond to those ever so angry Nintendo fanboys, having refused to publish the really offensive and threatening mails:
"I can't give you a full and frank corporate explanation of the decision beyond what's already available on the site, but here's my take on the whole thing: it was a business decision. This is a business. The people who laid the foundations of Rare 20 years ago and still run it to this day have every right to choose their own roads through the industry, and the need to survive and evolve as a company doesn't necessarily cancel out the urge to go on making damn good games. Also, Rare is not totally oblivious to the fact that the ups and downs of the gaming world mean a lot more to some people than others, and it goes without saying that nobody here set out to do anything as self-destructive as intentionally causing bad feeling within the established fanbase. Trust me when I say that none of the decisions made over the last few months were made lightly.
At the end of the day, however, it's not as if Rare has stopped making games entirely. We're still out there, still working as hard as ever. All that's changed is the platform, as it has many times before in the past (something the Timeline was meant to emphasise), and I don't see how you can argue the case for any kind of 'betrayal' when there's still a solid relationship with Nintendo in place - how do you think we intended to manage future GBA development without it?
For myself, I'd like to thank all of you who took the time to send in death threats and personal abuse, as it made the email-reading ritual every morning something to really look forward to. Thanks a lot!"
Stay tuned for more from Rare as we get it.
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