> Through a flurry of leaked documents involved in the court case between the FTC and Microsoft, it has been revealed that the software giant has been looking to acquire Nintendo since the year 2020.
“BACHUS Steve made us go meet with Nintendo to see if they would consider being acquired. They just laughed their asses off. Like, imagine an hour of somebody just laughing at you. That was kind of how that meeting went.”
Nintendo has a family charm, IMO, that Microsoft will never be able to duplicate. Xbox is not charming, and I own both an Xbox and Nintendo. In my limited opinion, they seem to be very opposite companies. The only reason I can think of that Microsoft would acquire Nintendo would be to kill it off.
Why would they kill off a complementary product? Nintendo could be the kids/mobile brand and Xbox would be the adult living room brand. Microsoft could profit from both. It's Playstation that would become redundant in an acquisition.
It’s been my impression that Nintendo wouldn’t go for this unless coerced or without any better options to stay soluble. We are talking about two diametrically opposed visions of what video games should be, just like Apple and Microsoft had two diametrically opposed visions of what PCs should be. Microsoft acquiring Nintendo would be a lot like Microsoft acquiring Apple - a hell-frozen-over moment that, should it have happened, meant things had gone totally sideways for Nintendo.
The leaked document link doesn’t resolve for me. It sounds like this is a separate incident from the very early 2000’s one? (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-01-06/xbox-the-...)
“BACHUS Steve made us go meet with Nintendo to see if they would consider being acquired. They just laughed their asses off. Like, imagine an hour of somebody just laughing at you. That was kind of how that meeting went.”