IGN.com editor Matt Casamassina has posted an article on his blog, saying that both Microsoft and Rare employees have confirmed to him that certain Rare-owned franchises will not be appearing on the Virtual Console.

"Well, here's something interesting from the Game Developers Conference 2006. Met with some Rare / Microsoft people who confirmed once and for all that Revolution's Virtual Console will not see any Rare-owned licenses"

The Rare developed franchises in question are Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie and Conkers Bad Fur Day. There has been discussion about these titles for quite a while, with no official announcement made, we'd still have to consider these as pretty conclusive comments.

Rare also developed the ground-breaking GoldenEye title for the Nintendo 64, another title that is unknown if it will actually appear on the Virtual Console. However, other Nintendo owned franchies like Donkey Kong 64 and Diddy Kong Racing will be appearing on the Virtual Console.

This could be a bitter blow to Nintendo as almost all of Rare's work on the Nintendo 64 was considered to be excellent and some of the best titles on the system. We'd hope that everyone can do the right thing here, and do whats best for the gamers. Maybe make them available on both Virtual Console and Xbox Arcade? Sadly, that's very very unlikely.

[source blogs.ign.com, via computerandvideogames.com]