These days, Microsoft is buying up smaller gaming studios at a rapid pace, adding names like Obsidian, Bethesda, Mojang, Double Fine, and many more to the Xbox brand. As the original Xbox system turns 20 years old this year, Bloomberg published an article featuring interviews and information about the early days of the system. revealing that Microsoft attempted to buy four major game studios back in the early 2000s, all of which ended in failure. The first company they went after was Electronic Arts, who quickly dismissed them. They also attempted to acquire Midway Games and Square Enix, but according to Bob Mcbreen, who worked at Xbox in business development at the time, they didn't offer enough money.

The biggest acquisition they tried to make, though, was Nintendo. Kevin Bachus, the former director of third-party relations, mentions he went to Nintendo in order to talk about a buyout. Microsoft's position was that they could create more powerful hardware than Nintendo could which would make them more competitive with Sony's PlayStation 2, while Nintendo knew how to make games incredibly well. However, Nintendo did not agree, so much to the point that Bachus says he was laughed at by the entirety of the company, ending any further discussions.

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.

MCBREEN We actually had Nintendo in our building in January 2000 to work through the details of a joint venture where we gave them all the technical specs of the Xbox. The pitch was their hardware stunk, and compared to Sony PlayStation, it did. So the idea was, “Listen, you’re much better at the game portions of it with Mario and all that stuff. Why don’t you let us take care of the hardware?” But it didn’t work out.

Source

 

[Taleweaver]

Good on Nintendo.
First they break up the deal with Sony and end up with a new competitor, then they laugh at a similar deal from Microsoft and end up with a second competitor. As the cool kids these days would say, "stonks".

So... Are you implying that KFC should try to buy Nintendo?

 

[CMDreamer]

That happens when you have no effin' idea of how to make good games... and think "powerful" hardware IS the most important part of a console.

XBOX brand is something not very popular in Japan, imagine why...

Even Sony had its "spoon of soup" on that matter with the Vita, it is a better hardware-wise console than the 3DS family, but the games are pure copycat crap.

 

[raging_chaos]

It makes perfect sense, Nintendo's most successful systems have been the ones that use the strategy of using yesterday's technology today. It's kept them profitable. Gameboy anyone?

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

Seeing what they did to rare, im gald this happened

 

[FAST6191]

On MS not being able to make games.

While not quite the MS as upstarts that we sometimes see (they had the controllers, they had a little thing called directX, generally recognised games as selling point before Xbox was a thing (Doom was 1993 after all), were a game publisher doing big boy games -- age of empires was 1997) I am not seeing this one.

MS have been a force, arguably a driving force, in games for decades at this point and years before Xbox landed on the scene.

MS buying Nintendo was not like Facebook buying VR goggles decades before they are likely to hit mainstream. Say what you will about MS and their practices (I certainly do) but they were not basically random venture capitalists buying up random things when it made their undercarriage go tingly when looking at the profit-loss-growth-assets-risk analysis calculation without any real understanding of the underlying business.

This is basically an amusing "what if" and insight into the corporate culture.
Equally while "polite Japanese" might be a stereotype this was likely still close enough to the Japanese corporate raiders era wherein they were wandering around with a copy of the art of war in on hand (particularly advanced ones book of five rings and maybe hagakure, all three essential reading in my world) and slicing up whatever they wanted with the other. Japanese tech was still on a massive tear and their corporate practices were without any mercy at all.

 

[Deleted member 512337]

You can on the DSi as well, still does not mean the DSi was any good. Not to mention if you had played the DS library while it happened then time to replay or twiddle your thumbs if you found yourself with a 3ds. If you found yourself going in cold to the 3ds you might get some ever so slightly more polished versions of DS games (though polished usually comes at the cost of being able to mess around and make your own fun as you find yourself on tracks or they were wringing the last drops out of a franchise) but I would maintain someone that played the DS library is not missing out on much of anything by skipping the 3ds.

We can agree to disagree.

Oh?

Can it play DSi games

 

[pedro702]

Maybe they should or Sony should buy Nintendo because Nintendo don't know how to handle a powerful system against Microsoft and Sony. Or maybe Nintendo don't care because they are mean to be for family video game system. Either way, Nintendo should give up.

lol nintendo outsold xbox this generation and the switch still has a few years left in it...
Also xbox wanting to become a service rather than a game console is not the way nintendo likes to play, i would rather if someday nintendo needs to quit that they join sony rather than microsoft by far...

altough with the money they make from mobile games, plus regular console software and hardware, i dont see they flopping anytime soon really.

 

[Bladexdsl]

as much as nintendo are c***s these days I'm glad this never came to pass they would have ended up over 9000 times worse!

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Eh? The GameCube was more powerful than the PS2 though? And the N64 more powerful than the PSX.

 

[Ritsuki]

Well, Nintendo previously had a partnership with Sony for a console (nicknamed Nintendo PlayStation), but it got cancelled and the project was continued by Sony who kept the name PlayStation and became a real competitor in the video games war

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_NES_CD-ROM

 

[Osakasan]

Ehh Idk Nintendo isn't living up to the hype they spend more time remastering games versus making newer games.

...Huh?

 

[Deleted member 514389]

And just yesterday I thought about what were to happen if Disney bought Nintendo...

Well, Nintendo previously had a partnership with Sony for a console (nicknamed Nintendo PlayStation), but it got cancelled and the project was continued by Sony who kept the name PlayStation and became a real competitor in the video games war

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_NES_CD-ROM

Yup. If you don't have competition, make your own.
(That was a d##k move by Nintendo back then, they pulled out last minute at the reveal show even iirc)

Nintendo playstation vs Microsoft gamecube.

Either would be a better timeline than the one we got -- I don't view Nintendo as anything all that special and doubt we would have lost out had MS had a crack at them. Mobile phones might even be worth contemplating as well.

MS and Ninty could have worked if done correctly...

Not to sound salty or bitter... but.
What do you view as special ?

 

[FAST6191]

Not to sound salty or bitter... but.
What do you view as special ?

I don't think any one company ranks as that for me.

Games here and there push what play is capable of, get you to think in new ways or just represent a solid effort in gameplay, storytelling or visual style.

That is the sort of thing that makes me take note of things.

So many devs, pubs, console makers and individuals at those have glimpsed greatness over the years to go and lose the plot that I don't view any one of those as special in and of themselves.

If I am collecting games then they usually represent the above, or something that moves the needle in any of those (but that is more my fondness for history than desire for gameplay).

We can agree to disagree.

Can it play DSi games

What DSi games?
Also I am ever open to having my mind changed about the 3ds. If I had played the DS library and not otherwise done the 3ds one then what would I be missing out on?

 

[eriol33]

they should have made another bid when Wii U became a disaster for nintendo. imagine an alternate timeline where nintendo games are officially on PC.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I'm kind of surprised they laughed at them, that seems a bit rude and the Japanese are always so polite about everything. But it is pretty funny that Microsoft thought a Japanese company like Nintendo would agree to that. They are so set in their own ways and don't listen to anyone for feedback/tips. Being a subsidiary of another company would never work for them.

Edit: And I feel, had Microsoft succeeded in buying Nintendo then Nintendo would have lost a lot of their Japanese uniqueness. Microsoft would probably have had them making Kinect trash.

 

[FAST6191]

that seems a bit rude and the Japanese are always so polite about everything

General Japanese society. Sure.

Japanese business wonks in the 80s and 90s... made even the most hardened vulture capitalist* in the US look like schoolgirls. MS, even in their full on 90s "embrace, extend, extinguish" mode, would not have stood a chance if said wonks were doing it most to say they did and humour them.


*for those unfamiliar then a trend in the 80s for was for investors to value the assets of companies, see if said assets were less than what it would take to do a takeover, if so buy the company and immediately part it out it if that would turn a profit and scrap the rest, and with said fatter money pool repeat the process. This regardless of how many careers, local economies, cultural works, in country production capacity, well established companies and and the like were torched in the process.

 

[Goku1992A]

...Huh?

They rather sell you Mario 3D world again (2013 game) versus making like a Mario Odyssey 2 or a Mario 3D World 2

 

[ov3rkill]

Maybe they didn't offer enough bitcoins.

 

[|<roni&g]

At this point I'd rather Microsoft buy tendo, least then I could play Mario kart 8 without signing up to a second "service" where I receive nothing that wasn't already free.
The big Nintendo titles would be better on Xbox and playstation. Since they
1.forced us to buy a WiiU by turning mkwii off
2. Began charging for online claiming it's a "service" and better than the free one we had before when in reality thats untrue and it's just a paywall with a few dated games we can live without
3 storing people's data wrecklesly

Hope they sell to Microsoft.

Yes fool, yes you, I know it's not likely to happen but I'd like to see it.

 

[yoyoyo69]

Back in 2000 though, Xbox was nothing really, different story now.

Midway, does anyone else remember Psi Ops? It was great for the time, I'm sure either the devs or the tech were copied for Infamous on the PS3.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

At this point I'd rather Microsoft buy tendo, least then I could play Mario kart 8 without signing up to a second "service" where I receive nothing that wasn't already free.
The big Nintendo titles would be better on Xbox and playstation. Since they
1.forced us to buy a WiiU by turning mkwii off
2. Began charging for online claiming it's a "service" and better than the free one we had before when in reality thats untrue and it's just a paywall with a few dated games we can live without
3 storing people's data wrecklesly

Hope they sell to Microsoft.

Yes fool, yes you, I know it's not likely to happen but I'd like to see it.

Nintendo are worth a fair bit again now, they should have made a move after the Wii U. It's hard to say if Nintendo can ever make their way back as a main home console again, although they've made good headway with the switch, what with it being a dual purpose system.

I'm sure the Switch is what the Wii U was meant to be, home / main console, with additional tablets which can all link up, with the option of continuing play off site. Perhaps they'll reintroduce this concept with another home console, with similar functionality to the Wii U or PS and PSP / Vita.