It has been long known that the music industry has been following the sell-out trend in recent years. So many brilliant bands throwing themselves in the direction of the mighty buck, releasing music that my parents would cringe at. I never seen this coming though...

The games industry has changed drastically in recent years. Although many will argue that they sold out when they allowed Nintendo to buy lots of shares and make then a second party developer, but Rare made a good move siding with Shigeru Miyamoto and co, it allowed them to produce their greatest moments, i.e. Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. However if they sold out then, they have truely sold their souls.

Rareware is now the exclusive property of Microsofts Games Lab, meaning they will now work exclusively for the Xbox console. Allegedly the deal went through for £120 million, with each of the 3 execs walking away with £40mil.

A company that started with truely humble roots has sold out to the corporations. And it's rumored not to be the only one. Allegedly the men behind the excellent Champ Manager (The 4th version of which has been kicked back to Fevruary 2003, by the way) have also followed to MS, and will exclusively code the next in the CM series (2003/4) for Xbox.

It seems that the bedroom coders are a dying breed. And It is a shame. The best unknown gems come from these people.

Read the Rare press statement about the takeover. (http://www.rareware.co.uk/) First Rare, then the WORLD!

True be it that rare codes exclusively for Microsoft now. But who is to say this is a bad thing (unless you don't own an X-box)? All parties involved with microsoft hav openly spoke great praise about how much freedom they are given in their creative process when working with Microsoft. I for one am very glad Rare has come under the wing of Microsoft. I believe they will still create some of the best games out there and now...it's for a system of my choice.

(Part of my reason for buying an X-box was knowing that Microsoft would gather game developers to them)

I can't argue that Microsoft will give them creative freedom, but it seems that this uberCorporation is taking over many of the gaming industries big names. If the trend continues, there will be no competition, and we people without Microsofts hardware will have to do without games.

I can see the inherent problem in this but such is the way with many many parts of life. I chose to buy into the microsoft system because I knew that they would be able to make it to number one. It's impossible for Sony or Nintendo to fight that much money and freedom being offered. It's just business. As for the other systems disappearing, that's highly improbable being that the only audience that x-box caters to is the more mature gamers. It will be interesting to see which of the two other systems is hurt more by these tactics in the end though... Sony being the real competitor for the target audience or Nintendo being the less advanced(No online plans or anything) but more youth geared system.

It'll be Nintendo. With Rare being taken over, they've lost their (apparently) most loyal second party developer for the past 7-8 years. Nintendo have started to rebuild burnt bridges, but it's a question of whether they can do enough or not.

As for the fact that a uber-large corportion is pushing competitors to keep their own system afloat? I could not be happier, I really couldn't. Maybe the games that will be produced will have to be much better quality and not some crap that's been thrown together to sell. It's about damn time this industry started forcing the weak out and rewarding the strong for their pursuit of higher standars in gaming.

My only hope is that Square will sign a deal. Even if it's not exclusive.

I think Sony may have tapped that resource a loooong time ago.

As for the quality of games going up, there is a lot of companies that will go bankrupt, because they produce mainly shit as it is now.

True enough that sony seems to have been the highpoint in squaresoft's developing career but I've got hope for them.

Shitty companies going belly up? One could only hope.

first predictions: Midway. They've resorted to releasing compilation games and MK rehashes to reclaim their former glory. On the GBA :D

Not that I'm dissing the GBA or anything. It's a very capable piece of hardware, I'll have you know.

Hmm..predictions, eh?

I think Activision will be one of the ones to stay around but not because of quality but because this generation seems to eat up extreem sports and driving games.

I do however think Sega's days are numbered...

Dunno. Sega's got the rights to the F-Zero series off of Nintendo. They're making an interchangable series between the NGC and the imminent arcade game. They may just be around for a while...