Yet again, downtime is the cause for a Roundtables lateness. This weeks is on what benefits Rare leaving can give to Nintendo, financialy that is.

What should Nintendo do with the money they got from the Rare deal?

Modox: I don't think buying out of big, well known companies is the answer for Nintendo, a good deal with Enix (Enix do the Dragon Quest RPG series, which is bigger than Final Fantasy in Japan) would be very good for the sales there, but apart from that, I think the support they have from big name companies like Capcom and Sega is sufficient. What Nintendo need to do is use their excellent ability to sniff out small, cheap development studios full of talent just waiting to be unleashed.

They need these small companies working away on games that will become the next Eternal Darkness or Metroid Prime, they could even continue this trend of giving out their big licenses. With good dev studios that are chosen by Nintendo producing games with Nintendo's franchises, that leaves the big N lots of free time and resources to come up with new and exciting games, that are fresh and aren't based (and more importantly, judged) on previous instalments.

I have no doubt that this 'boom' announcement will be something that costs a lot of money (doesn't everything these days?), so I'm eager to find out what it will be.

Jim: Hopefully they'll invest most of it into this Q fund. Rare were nothing special until Nintendo came along. Seriously, where do you think Rare would have been today if it weren't for Donkey Kong Country? My point is that there are literally hundreds of "Rare's" out there just waiting for there chance to shine. With this money, Nintendo has the chance to get maybe 3 or 4 new developers going. Give them the lisense to a few Nintendo characters and then see what happens. It's like instant Rare - just add water! OK so maybe it ain't that simple, but you see what i mean.

Hopefully Nintendo will put some of this money aside to some decent marketing campaigns also...

Conor: I think there are three options for Nintendo here.

1) Buy out a considerably-sized games company that already has a good reputation and will more or less guarantee sales. I think this isn't too likely for a company as conservative in places as Nintendo. Such a choice is no doubt what many people when they hear this Roundtables topic, but it mightn't be the best. Except, however in one place. If the recent rumours about Microsoft buying out Capcom are true then Nintendo have a duty to intervene and stop Microsoft from simply buying up more companies. Rare and Capcom exclusive on the same rival console is not a happy thought at all.

2) As Jim said, there could be more "Rares" out there just waiting to be found and nortured. I would like Nintendo to use the money in seeking out other less-known, but nonetheless quality, developers and developing games with them. I think this is how the money, or at least a great deal of it, will be spent, the financial rewards would be considerably long-term and well worth the money. Who knows, Nintendo could stumble on the next Rare any day now.

3) The third choice, the safe choice, is not to concentrate on one particular area, but spreadng the money over several areas like marketing, development etc. Nintendo have enough money, they don't need to spend so timidly, but having said that I wouldnt' mind seeing better marketing utilised.

Will: Well Rare and gone and Microsoft are welcome to it. Productivity rate = very slow. Plus Perfect Dark Zero wont be special as all the oriinal team who worked on Goldeneye and Perfect Dark have left. But back to the main issue.

What should be done with all that money.
Well I think Nintendo should invest it in to their online plans and get the ball rolling. They should try and intertest developers into going online with their games and give them as much help as possible.

Also wth the money i think they need to invest in more games designers. From mario Sunshine it appears that length has been substituted with difficulty. IF nintendo can get some great new designers with inovative ideas then we would see more games in a series than just one or two per console.

Another idea would be to invest in more advertising. All GC adverts i have seen are on channel 4. Not that the channel gets crap viewing because it doesnt, but it needs to invest in some prime time TV on ITV . And seen as Xmas is approaching all the games need to be advertisd. And onto this point of xmas, they should use some of the money to get all these games finished by their deadline and not have them delayed.

A clever move may be to buy into Free Radical Design to rub Rares nose in it and make TS2 a GC exclusive. Not only would we only have the best FPS on a console, more people would realise how good the GC is and sales will continue to boom

Omar: What I would really like to see is Nintendo buy a large prominent devloper for example SEGA. Although it is unlikley it would be a great investment. But thats my opinion on what they should do and it is very unlikley seeming SEGA is a very conservative (and expensive) company.

In reality... Its very likley we will see Nintendo use the money to buy smaller developers with more potential talent. They should also notch up their marketing and advertising campaings like they did for the European GameCube release. As there are many great titles coming for christmas this is Vital. And as will said i think its necessary Nintendo roll out some cash for their online campaigns if they are to fulfill Satoru Iwata's words on Nintendo being the leader of all entertainment in the Video Gaming market.

Javid: Rare were one of my favourite, if not the best developer i liked back on the N64, i can't see how the money earnt from their sale can make up for their loss. However if, as Jim said, another 'Rare' as in a small company with burning potential and fresh ideas is out there then snapping them up would be a great move.

The money earnt is quite possibly going towards Nintendos 'BIG' announcement this Xmas, what that could be is anyones guess. I am very interested to see what Ninty can come up with, maybe we'll discuss the BIG announcement in a future roundtable

Benjamin: What Nintendo should do: use little bits for lots of games, and up the quality of more games a little bit. It's better than having just one brilliant game. Every Nintendo game from now will be better than before, with more people being paid to work on it, therefore it'll look as if the game has been being made for a longer period. It would also be handy if some of it was added to the next GameCube console, so it is extra special when it comes.

What Nintendo will do: give Miyamoto a new house (and a new grave for when he dies, again), and heavily fund a new Japanese craze, which will be about horses with magical powers or something...

Tim: I think Nintendo should either invest the money in some European marketing or buy a developer like Namco, Capcom or Sega. Why? Because Nintendo spends only a very minimum amount of money on European marketing. How often have you seen the TV ad for Super Mario Sunshine? Or have you seen a Doshin the Giant ad? Well, there you go! However, buying a company like Namco, Capcom etc. would not be a bad invest also. The most logical path would be that Nintendo spends lots on marketing so that lots of people buy Cubes and games. Whith that profit Nintendo can then buy a company... hehe what about that?

SVT4Him: Well, they should first pay off high interest debts, then lower interest debts. Then they could start getting into any long term liabilities they may have, unless the interest rate on these would be less than any return on capital invested, in which case they should invest it. They could also look at allocating some to R&D to see if there are any future money making games/supplies they'd want to get into, or declair a capital stock dividend and make all the shareholders happy.

Mentioned in this Roundtable, Nintendos "BIG" announcement will be the focus of this Sundays Roundtable. See you there.