Longtime Nintendo only developer Rare bought up by Microsoft?

The folks over at gameindustry.biz have an article up reporting on rumors that long-time Nintendo second party video game maker Rare has been bought out by Microsoft. Rare has been credited with keeping Nintendo afloat for years with titles like Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie and Jet Force Gemini to their credit. If true, this means that Rare will become a major player in developing titles for the Xbox and could provide a much needed boost to the machine’s acceptance among gamers. The deal is said to have gone down for between 250 million and ã350 million and could mean that Perfect Dark 2 will be an Xbox exclusive title. Starfox Adventures, already in development for the GameCube, will probably be unaffected by the sale as will continued development of Rare titles for the Gameboy. This is still a rumor at this point, but the sources seem to be credible enough to give it some weight.