Activision Nearly Outbid Microsoft for GoldenEye, Banjo-Kazooie Developer Rare

Before Microsoft eventually acquired GoldenEye and Banjo-Kazooie developer Rare in 2002, the company had a number of suitors, including Call of Duty publisher Activision.

Now, Xbox co-creator Ed Fries has revealed that, at one point, it looked like Activision was going to seal the deal. It wasn't until former Xbox executive Robbie Bach stepped in to increase Microsoft's bid offer that things turned around.

"We put in a bid and then Activision outbid us, and it looked like we were going to lose the deal," Fries told IGN. "And then at the very last minute, Robbie increased our bid and we won the deal. And that was it."

"Who knows what could have happened with Rare," Fries added about what the developer's future might have looked like had Activision been successful.

This isn't the first time Fries has spoken about the "bidding war" over Rare between Microsoft and Activision. In 2010, Fries told Develop that he thought Rare was more interested in selling to Activision so the developer could release its games on any platform it wanted.

Even though Microsoft put in a bigger bid for Rare, Activision still had "control" of the bidding process, Fries said at the time.

"So, very near the end, Activision backed out of the deal, for reasons I still don't know, and Rare came to us," he said.

A 2012 Eurogamer story about Rare's legacy also names Electronic Arts, Disney, and Nintendo as companies that were interested in buying Rare. Nintendo owned a portion of Rare for a period of time when the developer made some of its most famous games, including Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, and Perfect Dark.

Rare's next game is Sea of Thieves, a multiplayer game for Xbox One and PC coming out in 2017.