Activision deal far from final
Rumours of Rare's acquisition have been greatly exaggerated
Late last week, Future Publishing backed website Games Radar reported that Activision - the world's second biggest publisher - had purchased Rare, developer of such titles as GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, and arguably the company responsible for single-handedly sustaining the Nintendo 64. Around Christmas time, Games Radar reported, Rare sent out a greetings card hinting a multi-platform future for the developer. Innocuous, you might well think, but this detail led C&VG to revive rumours of a Star Fox game on PlayStation 2, although as Nintendo owns the IP this seems an unlikely eventuality. Nintendo also owns a stake in Rare. Although nobody was available to make official comment on the rumours - probably realising that even acknowledging their existence would just fuel the flames of speculation - sources close to Activision flatly denied that any such deal was happening. Given how unlikely this has all seemed from the outset, we're inclined to believe this denial - although of course, final confirmation can only come from the notoriously press-shy Rare. So on past form, we might be waiting quite some time before we know the truth.