Quote
you've got to be joking about Ninty owning some of the old rare lisences, right? apart from DK, which i would like to see a worthy rev version of, i dont think they ended up with any others. correct me if im wrong (and i hope i am) where are your sources?
The US Patent Office website, mostly.
Rare was Nintendo's b*tch. Everything Rare worked on since Donkey Kong Country was either owned by "Nintendo" directly or it was owned by "Rare Limited", which was a confusingly-named paper company (or more accurately, a stack of money) owned 100% by Nintendo (not "Rareware" which was the company owned 51% by the Stampers). Even stuff like Killer Instinct was owned by Nintendo (although Rare owned the Sabrewulf character).
When Rare split from Nintendo, they purchased (or were given) select licences from Nintendo. Nintendo has been absolutely silent on the subject, but Microsoft owns Perfect Dark, and PD Zero is a supposed Xbox360 launch title, because Nintendo handed it to them. Presumably just because they liked Rare, and didn't want to crush them.
Nintendo kept all the Donkey Kong Country stuff (like Diddy Kong). Nintendo kept all the StarFox Adventures stuff (like Krystal). Diddy Kong Racing is probably screwed forever, because Nintendo owns Diddy, while Rare (therefore Microsoft) owns Conker. There are supposedly some loose games that Rare didn't want anymore, so they didn't ask for them, and Nintendo still has them (for now, at least). Like Blast Corps (which wasn't big) and JFG (which Rare supposedly said a long time ago that they intended to
never make a sequel for).