Microsoft Interest In Acquiring Rare?

Nintendo and Rare have traditionally had a tight relationship -- Nintendo owns 49% of the UK-based game studio -- but the Japanese publisher reportedly declined a recent offer to purchase Rare because of the developer's diminishing importance to Nintendo's bottom line. In fact, a source told Reuters that the publisher has decided not to have Rare create exclusive titles for Nintendo anymore. Reuters reports that sales of Rare games accounted for 9.5% of Nintendo's fiscal 2001 total software unit sales, but that figure dropped to only 1.5% this year.