March 19^th, 2002 (12:00am) - From XboxAddict, who, er, got this from Gaming-Age:

Just in from the rumor mill, Gaming-Age has found out "from a reliable source" that Microsoft just this morning might be picking up Starfox Adventures developer Rare. This information was gathered from a "Microsoft insider email" which says this:

I have heard that Rare are being bought out by Microsoft. I can’t say where i have heard this but apparently Activision were also interested but Microsoft have a done deal.

This was due to a bad relationship with Nintendo and they are also finding it hard to develop for the Gamecube.

So kiddies, is it bullsh&* or not, you make the call!

Hmm, well, Semus Blackley (one of the "founding fathers" of the Xbox), had stated in the April issue of OXM that he was going to meet with a "very respected development team, a team that has been instrumental to the success of another platform, and ultimatly a team that has decided to move to Xbox," and went onto say "This is a project that they have been dreaming of for a few years now, but finally felt they could pull off with the power and innovation that they see in Xbox..." "...you are going to freak when you see pictures and screenshots - a lot of people should plan on losing sleep and camping out at their local game shops waiting for this baby."

Hmm, could it have been Rare that he went to meet with a spectacular new game coming to Xbox? We can only speculate for now...