[quiet mike]

Nintendo was never surprized to see MIcrosoft buying out Rare. For Nintendo, Rare was not making enough to keep. Remember that Rare holds 200 emplyees and to pay for their salaries for a year, the technology needed to make the games, the location, buisinnes investment, game production, publishing, comercials, etc. for just one game a year just isn't profitable at the end of the day.

So Nintendo preffered not to keep anything Rare. THey could have kept the 49% shares they hold on Rare and profit from Xbox Rare games sales, but they know that Rare won't be that profitable on Xbox for quite a few reasons, and the money from the shares will get them to get other companies on GameCube that would make more games than Rare, and even if not the same quality, it would grow the library of the console, which is the main seller in this age, not quality, quantity.