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Discussion Market consolidation: where does Nintendo stand?

The sad thing is if Babylon's Fall bombs as badly as a lot of us think it will, Nintendo might be PG's only salvation thanks to the success the Bayonetta series and Astra Chain has had. In the past 5 years other then Nier Automata they only place they've had success is with Nintendo. Sure NA was Sqaure Enix, but so is Babylon's Fall šŸ˜¬
 
Xaltmas said:
Do you have a source for that? Never heard that before.
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  • Monolith Soft has sent Nintendo 10+ business proposals for approval over the years, but the only one that has been approved recently was Xenoblade, says Takahashi.
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xenomira.wordpress.com

The Tribulations of Xenosaga created Xenoblade. ā€œHarada Breaks It Downā€ Vol.7, We Asked Takahashi Tetsuya About Monolith Soft [Summary]

Takahashi recently sat down with Harada Katsuhiro from Namco to talk mostly about the Japanese hiring process and workplace culture. I feel most of this interview to be lacking in insight into the ā€¦
xenomira.wordpress.com xenomira.wordpress.com

Few years old now, who knows.
 
KCannon said:
As a third-party, freedom is expected, since Nintendo isn't PG's boss. First-party, the relationship will inevitably change.
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KCannon said:
Monolith Soft already went on record that Nintendo isn't accepting anything else but Xenoblade from them despite other pitches, so we know creative independency for studios is not Nintendo's forte, at least in regards to their non-EPD subsidiaries.
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MonolithSoft answers to EPD anyway, but that's besides the point. Even with Xenoblade, MonolithSoft enjoys a large degree of creative freedom.
Instro said:
xenomira.wordpress.com

The Tribulations of Xenosaga created Xenoblade. ā€œHarada Breaks It Downā€ Vol.7, We Asked Takahashi Tetsuya About Monolith Soft [Summary]

Takahashi recently sat down with Harada Katsuhiro from Namco to talk mostly about the Japanese hiring process and workplace culture. I feel most of this interview to be lacking in insight into the ā€¦
xenomira.wordpress.com xenomira.wordpress.com

Few years old now, who knows.
Click to expand...

It's possible Nintendo saw more potential in Xenoblade than anything MonolithSoft was pitching. Maybe the concepts MonolithSoft proposed weren't very interesting.

Even Takahashi agrees that growing Xenoblade should be the studio's main priority at the moment.
 
Maybe this is just the cynic in me speaking from being burned too many times in the past but I wouldn't be surprised if Bayo 3 is the last Nintendo-published game if a sale goes through, even if it is Tencent buying them.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
Maybe this is just the cynic in me speaking from being burned too many times in the past but I wouldn't be surprised if Bayo 3 is the last Nintendo-published game if a sale goes through, even if it is Tencent buying them.
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It's definitely possible, it might even be the reason Nintendo took sole ownership of Astral Chain.

We'll have to wait and see, even with Matt's comment.
 
KCannon said:
Monolith Soft already went on record that Nintendo isn't accepting anything else but Xenoblade from them despite other pitches, so we know creative independency for studios is not Nintendo's forte, at least in regards to their non-EPD subsidiaries.
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I do wonder if after Xenoblade 3, they might get some creative freedom?

I suppose they help on other titles like BOTW and each Xeno has its own story and dynamics. Maybe Nintendo envisions Xenoblade as their own type of Final Fantasy.
KCannon said:
As a third-party, freedom is expected, since Nintendo isn't PG's boss. First-party, the relationship will inevitably change.
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Most certainly, but I wonder if it could be a good thing for them? Itā€™s not like Babylonā€™s Fall is gonna be a hot item and PG often seems stuck doing fast licensed games. I wonder if there is room for them to thrive, even if Nintendo exclusive. I loved Wonderful 101, Bayo2, and Astral Chain so clearly there is a good collaboration there.

I hate to be hoping for more consolidation, but Platinum Games is a unique case and they seem to have struggled in recent years.

This is also my first post on this forum, soā€¦hello everyone!
 
One thing to keep in mind with Takahashi's comment is that he now says the core concept and visual for Xenoblade 3 had already been thought up before Xenoblade 2 launched so it definitely doesn't seem like he was planning to ditch the series any time soon.
 
Oregano said:
It's definitely possible, it might even be the reason Nintendo took sole ownership of Astral Chain.

We'll have to wait and see, even with Matt's comment.
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If I had to bet, I'd say it's more likely that Nintendo acquiries PG then PG gets acquiried by a Tencent (or any other company) and Nintendo never partners with PG again to publish a title again.
 
Oregano said:
One thing to keep in mind with Takahashi's comment is that he now says the core concept and visual for Xenoblade 3 had already been thought up before Xenoblade 2 launched so it definitely doesn't seem like he was planning to ditch the series any time soon.
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Yup, he agreed that nuturing Xenoblade into a top series for Nintendo should be their main focus for now.
 
MagiCarbo said:
MonolithSoft answers to EPD anyway, but that's besides the point. Even with Xenoblade, MonolithSoft enjoys a large degree of creative freedom.

It's possible Nintendo saw more potential in Xenoblade than anything MonolithSoft was pitching. Maybe the concepts MonolithSoft proposed weren't very interesting.

Even Takahashi agrees that growing Xenoblade should be the studio's main priority at the moment.
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There could be perfectly valid reasons for it, but ultimately it's obvious they've attempted to create some things besides Xeno and it hasn't happened. It's a very similar story we've seen from other Nintendo devs. At the same time, this interview is nearly 3 years old. Monolith has continued to grow, presumably will be instrumental in BotW2 coming to market, and have assisted on numerous other titles. Maybe they'll have their chance soon, particularly considering their work on Xenoblade and BotW2 will be wrapping up over the next 6-12 months.
 
Monolith Soft used up all the goodwill they had with Disaster Day of Crisis. :cry:

Oregano said:
It's definitely possible, it might even be the reason Nintendo took sole ownership of Astral Chain.

We'll have to wait and see, even with Matt's comment.
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Definitely, just feels like one of these "writing on the wall" situations.
 
Instro said:
There could be perfectly valid reasons for it, but ultimately it's obvious they've attempted to create some things besides Xeno and it hasn't happened. It's a very similar story we've seen from other Nintendo devs. At the same time, this interview is nearly 3 years old. Monolith has continued to grow, presumably will be instrumental in BotW2 coming to market, and have assisted on numerous other titles. Maybe they'll have their chance soon, particularly considering their work on Xenoblade and BotW2 will be wrapping up over the next 6-12 months.
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Nintendo has rejected a variety of pitches for a variety of reasons. MercurySteam had their own pitch for a Metroid Wii U game that was shot down for not looking that great, as well as being tied to a series that was still trying to recover from the poor reception of Other M. It wasn't until Sakamoto began working with them that things began to go somewhere.

There's just as many examples of Nintendo allowing studios to try something different. They offered Retro the chance to do Donkey Kong instead of another Metroid, and they gladly took it. They were willing to let HAL do something other than Kirby with BoxBoy, and Intelligent Systems was allowed to do a non-FE strategy game with Codename STEAM. Yabuki was allowed to go all in on ARMS instead of a new Mario Kart, and Kawamoto's group essentially gets to do whatever it wants.
 
Platinum is an interesting one. On the one hand, the Switch is pretty much the only viable console in Japan right now, which is where Platinum's main audience lies. On the other, I can't see them being happy with exclusively sticking on hardware that's a generation behind everyone else. But then again, they have the talent which Nintendo is more interested in than the IP. But then again, a Platinum purchase would be a huge resource drain at a time when Nintendo are massively expanding themselves.

Put simply, far more likely Tencent just increase their existing investment in Platinum to end up outright owning them.
 
Galgavias said:
Platinum is an interesting one. On the one hand, the Switch is pretty much the only viable console in Japan right now, which is where Platinum's main audience lies. On the other, I can't see them being happy with exclusively sticking on hardware that's a generation behind everyone else. But then again, they have the talent which Nintendo is more interested in than the IP. But then again, a Platinum purchase would be a huge resource drain at a time when Nintendo are massively expanding themselves.

Put simply, far more likely Tencent just increase their existing investment in Platinum to end up outright owning them.
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You say that, but between Nier Automata (2017) and Babylon's Fall (2022), all they've made are Switch games or games that can run on Switch like Sol Cresta. Even World of Demons could have probably been an eshop exclusive if it wasn't designed for Apple Arcade.
 
BassForever said:
You say that, but between Nier Automata (2017) and Babylon's Fall (2022), all they've made are Switch games or games that can run on Switch like Sol Cresta. Even World of Demons could have probably been an eshop exclusive if it wasn't designed for Apple Arcade.
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That is true, but I still think the old guard there wouldn't be too happy, having struck out to gain independence all those years ago, to end up back under the stewardship of a company that dictates exactly where their games are released. It might be good for them to have that stability, but they strike me as wanting to keep their options open. Which is why I feel if they are up for grabs, Tencent or similar would be in likelier than Nintendo or Sony.

Ultimately I think Platinum want to have the freedom to create what they want without being burdened by the 'mercenary' work they often do just to keep the lights on. Nintendo would still see plenty of games from them in that scenario, but it would leave other avenues open if they wanted.
 
Galgavias said:
Platinum is an interesting one. On the one hand, the Switch is pretty much the only viable console in Japan right now, which is where Platinum's main audience lies. On the other, I can't see them being happy with exclusively sticking on hardware that's a generation behind everyone else. But then again, they have the talent which Nintendo is more interested in than the IP. But then again, a Platinum purchase would be a huge resource drain at a time when Nintendo are massively expanding themselves.

Put simply, far more likely Tencent just increase their existing investment in Platinum to end up outright owning them.
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Platinum's stuff sells way more outside of Japan.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
Maybe this is just the cynic in me speaking from being burned too many times in the past but I wouldn't be surprised if Bayo 3 is the last Nintendo-published game if a sale goes through, even if it is Tencent buying them.
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Just the thought is really depressing :/
 
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The obvious solution is for Nintendo to do some good old-fashioned talent-poaching.

The first step is to loudly talk about how people who work for Microsoft or Tencent don't get to make any Bayonetta or Astral Chain games. Then you pay people who are very clearly not Nintendo employees to talk about the cool swimming pool full of cash, how friendly the Monolith Soft Kyoto studio are to EPD people, and about how having tea poured over you by Miyamoto is actually kinda refreshing. Then you have Furukawa and Shinya Takahashi taking it in turns coincidentally walking passed Platinum's HQ loudly lamenting about how much of a shame it is that they don't have enough staff for Astral Chain 2.

And then?

The rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
Platinum's stuff sells way more outside of Japan.
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Ok now that is interesting. I knew the likes of Astral Chain did well in the west but assumed their past was a lot more Japanese centric. They operate in a kind of odd niche between two markets I suppose.

Either way, this does seem like a they're making signals that they're open to that sweet acquisiton money.
 
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Just a thought I had, but what if Bethesda bought them? It's been said before that Matt Booty at Xbox is at full capacity with 15 studios under the Xbox Game Studios banner.
 
0
If Platinum is willing to allow Nintendo to buy them then thatā€™s the best solution here. Nintendo can always use more people to help with games and Platinum will become a better studio by having Nintendo overlook them.
 
Galgavias said:
That is true, but I still think the old guard there wouldn't be too happy, having struck out to gain independence all those years ago, to end up back under the stewardship of a company that dictates exactly where their games are released. It might be good for them to have that stability, but they strike me as wanting to keep their options open. Which is why I feel if they are up for grabs, Tencent or similar would be in likelier than Nintendo or Sony.

Ultimately I think Platinum want to have the freedom to create what they want without being burdened by the 'mercenary' work they often do just to keep the lights on. Nintendo would still see plenty of games from them in that scenario, but it would leave other avenues open if they wanted.
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It sounds like PG might give the old guard the freedom of testing the unemployment line if they don't find a reliable source of money. That's why it really doesn't matter what the old guard want, companies who are financially successful get to dictate their own terms, PG isn't one of those companies. If they wanna keep the team together, and your choice is Nintendo or bust, the choice is obvious.
 
Once someone buys Platinum we're going to be besides ourselves that we can't talk about who's going to buy Platinum anymore. That conversation has carried us through like two, two and a half gens at this point.
 
Well, my earlier posting wherein I suggested Platinum, insistent on securing more independence and becoming their own publisher, wasn't going to looking to be purchased at the present time sure aged well. I was expecting it to happen eventually, but not near this quickly.

They wouldn't be in this situation if they'd just gone ahead and made that F-Zero Hyper Stylish Racing Action Game.

On a more serious note, as this is about Nintendo's stance on acquisitions, if Platinum were to find an acquisition by them favorable, this does seem like a situation where Nintendo might be interested. They've maintained a partnership with Platinum for some time now, and interviews from the Wii U era indicate the studio works well with them, that they're supportive, allow creative freedom, and so forth; by these accounts, Platinum and Nintendo actually mesh pretty well, with Nintendo bringing out the best in Platinum.

Where acquisitions are concerned, Nintendo is primarily interested in the talent, which is exactly what is acquired with Platinum; if Platinum weren't interested, if an acquisition might lead to talent leaving and the studio becoming an empty shell, then such a purchase would be pointless.

What exactly Platinum is looking for, as far as freedom and independence, would play a big part in whether Nintendo might possibly be interested. Creative freedom, Nintendo might be willing, though as a guiding hand -- the creative freedom wouldn't be absolute, though perhaps more than might be afforded elsewhere. Putting games on any platform at will, unlikely.

There are, of course, buyer possibilities that would likely mitigate noticeable impact on operations -- at least for the time being. Though something like Tencent, perhaps one of the more likely possibilities, wouldn't quite sit right with me.

MisterSpo said:
The obvious solution is for Nintendo to do some good old-fashioned talent-poaching.

The first step is to loudly talk about how people who work for Microsoft or Tencent don't get to make any Bayonetta or Astral Chain games. Then you pay people who are very clearly not Nintendo employees to talk about the cool swimming pool full of cash, how friendly the Monolith Soft Kyoto studio are to EPD people, and about how having tea poured over you by Miyamoto is actually kinda refreshing. Then you have Furukawa and Shinya Takahashi taking it in turns coincidentally walking passed Platinum's HQ loudly lamenting about how much of a shame it is that they don't have enough staff for Astral Chain 2.

And then?

The rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.
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Of course, you missed the obvious step of literally dangling Star Fox and č¬Žć®ę‘é›Ø城, Nazo no Murasame Jō in front of Kamiya. Nobody can refuse the call to save those.
 
KCannon said:
Monolith Soft already went on record that Nintendo isn't accepting anything else but Xenoblade from them despite other pitches, so we know creative independency for studios is not Nintendo's forte, at least in regards to their non-EPD subsidiaries.
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This this what happened all the time isnā€™t it?
 
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MisterSpo said:
Christopher Dring's latest column for Games Industry will be of interest here:

"Nintendo doesn't want to buy companies, but it may have to"
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Problem is Nintendo can only do so much to combat acquisitions from the likes of MS, Tencent, heck even SIE. Probably makes more sense for them to search for talent, or recruit the indie teams.
Dcubed said:
Nintendo may end up being forced to step outside of their comfort zone though once their partners and the big Japanese publishers start inevitably getting yummed up though.
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What would be Nintendoā€™s course of action in the hypothetical scenario that, say, Sony buys Square-Enix and MS buys Bandai-Namco?
 
MisterSpo said:
Christopher Dring's latest column for Games Industry will be of interest here:

"Nintendo doesn't want to buy companies, but it may have to"
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Sort of echoes my own thoughts that these acquisitions don't exist in a vacuum and even Nintendo will be affected down the line. I know recent soundbites from Phil and Bungee remaining multiplat are encouraging, but I don't think Nintendo can rely on their good words and gentlemans agreements. Stuff can change very fast.

I think Nintendo's priority needs to be expanding their own development teams and resources than necessarily going on a shopping spree for IPs like we've seen from Microsoft. They already have more IPs than they know what to do with, before you consider whether they add to that total in the future. That lines up with why they bought Next Level Games. They needed the devs, not the game catalogue. If an opportunity does come for them to secure a dev team or two, particularly in the west, they should absolutely take it.
 
meatbag said:
Problem is Nintendo can only do so much to combat acquisitions from the likes of MS, Tencent, heck even SIE. Probably makes more sense for them to search for talent, or recruit the indie teams.

What would be Nintendoā€™s course of action in the hypothetical scenario that, say, Sony buys Square-Enix and MS buys Bandai-Namco?
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In those specific cases, I would suspect that Nintendo will heavily headhunt the particular staff they want from each publisher. In particular, Nintendo would headhunt Asano's team away from S-E (hell, they've already successfully headhunted almost everyone from the original 90s Squaresoft at this point anyway!). I think Nintendo wouldn't mind losing S-E and Namco's IP all that much TBH (They would be happy to simply take Asano's team onboard and get them working on more original IP in the vein of Bravely Default & Octopath Traveller), the staff are what is important to Nintendo really. Likewise, Nintendo would probably do the same if Koei-Tecmo were up for sale; they've certainly established a strong relationship with them and they're a highly valuable development partner, but their slate of IP isn't worth all that much, and Nintendo probably don't want to get involved in the Japanese real-estate business;. It's the game development staff that Nintendo will want.

In the case of Capcom or Konami though? I think Nintendo value their IP enough to take more direct bidding action. They've invested a lot of money into reviving Konami's IP in recent years, and they also already have basically everyone from the old Konami & Hudson under their wing anyway (through NDCUBE and Good Feel); so I think they would want to keep that going and potentially get Konami's IP back into the hands of the people that made those games in the first place. Likewise, Nintendo are very much invested in Monster Hunter and the likes of Mega Man, and they wouldn't want to lose them.

The issue with Konami however, is that the majority of their business is based entierly outside of the video game industry (Sports clubs, gambling, pachinko etc); which Nintendo would almost certainly have no interest in...
 
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MisterSpo said:
Christopher Dring's latest column for Games Industry will be of interest here:

"Nintendo doesn't want to buy companies, but it may have to"
Click to expand...

Largely agree with this. However, I think what we see as "worth protecting" Nintendo might see as more disposable. Not every partnership is like the one they had with NLG which greatly facilitated an acquisition. It's difficult to say how much importance they place on their games with PlatinumGames or MercurySteam, for example. They might see them as important enough to keep making them but not financially viable to buy an entire studio for (assuming PG or MS want to sell to Nintendo in the first place).

ILCA is another example: Not to diminish their work on BDSP but how much of the success was thanks to the PokƩmon brand and and the original games? Is there something unique about ILCA that cannot be replicated by a different developer? Difficult for us to say.

I think their current partnerships largely fall into one of three groups:

Game Freak, Creatures, IntSys and HAL
Very close relationships with shared IP-ownership and partial investment into the companies themselves. I think these are largely safe from any acquisitions and if the owners wanted to sell Nintendo would most likely take over. You can probably count Grezzo in this group as well but they own no notable IP.

Bandai Namco, Koei Tecmo
Frequent projects and development support but due to the size of the holding company an acquisition would be highly unlikely and/or difficult. If either of these is bought it could (not necessarily would) greatly diminish Nintendo's output. I see it as highly unlikely but not impossible that Nintendo would merge with either of them. Not entirely sure about the nature of Nintendo's involvement with Square-Enix projects besides publishing agreements and exclusivity contracts.

PlatinumGames, MercurySteam, Good-Feel
Close relationship with multiple projects over the years but their respective leadership has other ambitions separate from working with Nintendo which makes acquisitions very unlikely. Out of this group Good-Feel is probably closest to Nintendo even though they currently have no announced project with them. Fans would definitely feel their absence, especially if all three of them stopped making games for Nintendo hardware.

I think this puts Nintendo in a bit of a difficult situation. Even under the most favourable conditions, buying BN, KT or SE would mean a massive financial burden. And if they "lost" one of those three, buying PG, MS or Good-Feel wouldn't make up for it. I think Nintendo is hoping that the status quo remains long enough until they "catch up" through internal expansions with the occasional minor acquisition here and there.
 
Going off the idea in the article, I think Nintendo's acquisitions, in whatever form and quantity they may come in, will continue to be defensive rather than offensive. I think companies like MS, Tencent and Embracer are going full offensive in acquisitions, and Sony is on the back foot a bit, and acquiring more to compete than to set the trend. With companies like Bungie at least, not ones they've a long partnership with like Insomniac or Bluepoint.

To that end, I think Nintendo eventually realizes they can't stand on the sidelines forever, but I see them being even more defensive, only snatching up devs purely out of not wanting to lose them, rather than to really gain ground. And the most likely candidates there are the smaller partners they work with, but it's not inconceivable it would extend to a somewhat bigger Japanese company, should consolidation start to winnow away some of their domestic peers and they want to stave off increasing isolation.

Of course that's hardly imminent. It will be interesting to see if Nintendo makes any big moves at all in the arena of acquisitions any time soon. Nintendo seems to either lead the pack or be content right at the back, and this is looking very much like the latter.
 
Tencent looks like the frontrunner for Platinum, but i wouldn't discard a Nintendo bid either. It doesn't seem worth it for Microsoft.
 
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Dcubed said:
In those specific cases, I would suspect that Nintendo will heavily headhunt the particular staff they want from each publisher. In particular, Nintendo would headhunt Asano's team away from S-E (hell, they've already successfully headhunted almost everyone from the original 90s Squaresoft at this point anyway!). I think Nintendo wouldn't mind losing S-E and Namco's IP all that much TBH (They would be happy to simply take Asano's team onboard and get them working on more original IP in the vein of Bravely Default & Octopath Traveller), the staff are what is important to Nintendo really. Likewise, Nintendo would probably do the same if Koei-Tecmo were up for sale; they've certainly established a strong relationship with them and they're a highly valuable development partner, but their slate of IP isn't worth all that much, and Nintendo probably don't want to get involved in the Japanese real-estate business;. It's the game development staff that Nintendo will want.

In the case of Capcom or Konami though? I think Nintendo value their IP enough to take more direct bidding action. They've invested a lot of money into reviving Konami's IP in recent years, and they also already have basically everyone from the old Konami & Hudson under their wing anyway (through NDCUBE and Good Feel); so I think they would want to keep that going and potentially get Konami's IP back into the hands of the people that made those games in the first place. Likewise, Nintendo are very much invested in Monster Hunter and the likes of Mega Man, and they wouldn't want to lose them.

The issue with Konami however, is that the majority of their business is based entierly outside of the video game industry (Sports clubs, gambling, pachinko etc); which Nintendo would almost certainly have no interest in...
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Capcom and Konami having valuable IP yet Square and Namco ostensibly not so much is certainly a take.
 
Rooster said:
Capcom and Konami having valuable IP yet Square and Namco ostensibly not so much is certainly a take.
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For Nintendo? What IP does S-E and Namco have that Nintendo really desperately value? On the S-E side, it's pretty much just Dragon Quest; and S-E don't actually fully own the rights to that series anyway (it's shared between S-E, Armor Project and Bird Studio), so even buying S-E doesn't give you full control over the series. The rest of S-E's relevent modern IP isn't coming to Nintendo platforms (including the Eidos side) outside of Asano Team's stuff.

As for Namco... err... Pacman? The majority of Namco's major IP that is relevent to the modern era (Tekken, Soul Calibur, Tales of, Ace Combat etc) is all absent from Nintendo platforms anyway. Namco already release virtually nothing on Nintendo platforms and hasn't really significantly supported them since the Gamecube; so losing them to M&A is hardly going to make Nintendo lose sleep at night.

To put this into perspective. Momotaro (Konami/Hudson) on Switch in Japan alone has outsold every single Namco game combined on Switch. Let that sink in...
 
Dcubed said:
For Nintendo? What IP does S-E and Namco have that Nintendo really desperately value? On the S-E side, it's pretty much just Dragon Quest; and S-E don't actually fully own the rights to that series anyway (it's shared between S-E, Armor Project and Bird Studio), so even buying S-E doesn't give you full control over the series. The rest of S-E's relevent modern IP isn't coming to Nintendo platforms (including the Eidos side) outside of Asano Team's stuff.

As for Namco... err... Pacman? The majority of Namco's major IP that is relevent to the modern era (Tekken, Soul Calibur, Tales of, Ace Combat etc) is all absent from Nintendo platforms anyway. Namco already release virtually nothing on Nintendo platforms and hasn't really significantly supported them since the Gamecube; so losing them to M&A is hardly going to make Nintendo lose sleep at night.

To put this into perspective. Momotaro (Konami/Hudson) on Switch in Japan alone has outsold every single Namco game combined on Switch. Let that sink in...
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Is this a real question? Why wouldn't Nintendo want all those "modern era" ip exclusive to their console if they could? Also for both companies they back log they'd obtain for NSO would be fantastic in the subscription wars arms race. This also ignores all the other forms of media and entertainment these companies are involved with that Nintendo would now have an easy foot in the door to.

Of course Nintendo isn't acquiring either company as some kind of defensive move, but both would be big, offensive moves to expand their business.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
ILCA is another example: Not to diminish their work on BDSP but how much of the success was thanks to the PokƩmon brand and and the original games? Is there something unique about ILCA that cannot be replicated by a different developer? Difficult for us to say.
Click to expand...

Worth keeping in mind the value of experience and an established relationship mind you. ILCA are very likely to become a long-term partner for Game Freak & TPC; especially after the success of BDSP. They're not going to want to throw away an established partner, especially when Game Freak really need development support to offload the development work of making annual/bi-annual Pokemon releases. I would think that TPC would want to keep ILCA around for ongoing work on future Pokemon remakes and ongoing support projects like Pokemon Home.

Dark Cloud said:
Bandai Namco is more important than any third party dev outside of the usual GF, HAL, Intelligent Systems
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To Nintendo? I wouldn't think so... Maybe during 2013-2017 when Nintendo were heavily leaning on them for development support with their own internal games and Smash; but now? They have Koei-Tecmo for that. And their IP isn't exactly much value to Nintendo when it's not releasing on their platforms to begin with.

BassForever said:
Is this a real question? Why wouldn't Nintendo want all those "modern era" ip exclusive to their console if they could? Also for both companies they back log they'd obtain for NSO would be fantastic in the subscription wars arms race. This also ignores all the other forms of media and entertainment these companies are involved with that Nintendo would now have an easy foot in the door to.

Of course Nintendo isn't acquiring either company as some kind of defensive move, but both would be big, offensive moves to expand their business.
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Nintendo is not going to spend $10+ billion for IP that they don't really care all that much about; especially when the development staff are very likely to just up and leave. Nintendo's M/O with M&A is to acquire development staff that they can integrate into their existing development culture; not really to get their hands on IP (Hell, they already have more internal IP than they know what to do with!). The only time I could see them really making an IP grab is if Capcom or Konami was at risk, as they have shown a strong vested interest in their respective IP in recent times.
 
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Dcubed said:
For Nintendo? What IP does S-E and Namco have that Nintendo really desperately value? On the S-E side, it's pretty much just Dragon Quest; and S-E don't actually fully own the rights to that series anyway (it's shared between S-E, Armor Project and Bird Studio), so even buying S-E doesn't give you full control over the series. The rest of S-E's relevent modern IP isn't coming to Nintendo platforms (including the Eidos side) outside of Asano Team's stuff.

As for Namco... err... Pacman? The majority of Namco's major IP that is relevent to the modern era (Tekken, Soul Calibur, Tales of, Ace Combat etc) is all absent from Nintendo platforms anyway. Namco already release virtually nothing on Nintendo platforms and hasn't really significantly supported them since the Gamecube; so losing them to M&A is hardly going to make Nintendo lose sleep at night.

To put this into perspective. Momotaro (Konami/Hudson) on Switch in Japan alone has outsold every single Namco game combined on Switch. Let that sink in...
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This is... a fairly simplistic rendition of Nintendo's general awareness. By this logic Nintendo didn't recognize the value of Grand Theft Auto until last year. Just because it doesn't come to the platform doesn't mean Nintendo finds it worthless. Things are a lot more complicated than Nintendo simply picking and choosing the third-party software they want on their hardware and then just being able to get it.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
Largely agree with this. However, I think what we see as "worth protecting" Nintendo might see as more disposable. Not every partnership is like the one they had with NLG which greatly facilitated an acquisition. It's difficult to say how much importance they place on their games with PlatinumGames or MercurySteam, for example. They might see them as important enough to keep making them but not financially viable to buy an entire studio for (assuming PG or MS want to sell to Nintendo in the first place).

ILCA is another example: Not to diminish their work on BDSP but how much of the success was thanks to the PokƩmon brand and and the original games? Is there something unique about ILCA that cannot be replicated by a different developer? Difficult for us to say.

I think their current partnerships largely fall into one of three groups:

Game Freak, Creatures, IntSys and HAL
Very close relationships with shared IP-ownership and partial investment into the companies themselves. I think these are largely safe from any acquisitions and if the owners wanted to sell Nintendo would most likely take over. You can probably count Grezzo in this group as well but they own no notable IP.

Bandai Namco, Koei Tecmo
Frequent projects and development support but due to the size of the holding company an acquisition would be highly unlikely and/or difficult. If either of these is bought it could (not necessarily would) greatly diminish Nintendo's output. I see it as highly unlikely but not impossible that Nintendo would merge with either of them. Not entirely sure about the nature of Nintendo's involvement with Square-Enix projects besides publishing agreements and exclusivity contracts.

PlatinumGames, MercurySteam, Good-Feel
Close relationship with multiple projects over the years but their respective leadership has other ambitions separate from working with Nintendo which makes acquisitions very unlikely. Out of this group Good-Feel is probably closest to Nintendo even though they currently have no announced project with them. Fans would definitely feel their absence, especially if all three of them stopped making games for Nintendo hardware.

I think this puts Nintendo in a bit of a difficult situation. Even under the most favourable conditions, buying BN, KT or SE would mean a massive financial burden. And if they "lost" one of those three, buying PG, MS or Good-Feel wouldn't make up for it. I think Nintendo is hoping that the status quo remains long enough until they "catch up" through internal expansions with the occasional minor acquisition here and there.
Click to expand...
Yep - the last part I think is true. Nintendo have the security with Switch to invest and expand. But I do wonder if the sheer size of the Activision Blizzard deal will spur any response - it become public knowledge after Nintendo's own investment was announced to their shareholders last year. The situation has already changed, and arguably for the worse.
 
A big reason for buying up a studio or publisher is often what IPs you aquire with them and let's be honest, what does PG has that a big publisher want from them? Bayonetta is owned by SEGA (with some Nintendo involvement I guess), Nier by Square Enix, Astral Chain by Nintendo and Metal Gear by Konami.
So you would basically only get their talent, which could leave any time, unless you guarantee a loose end, but would that be something positive in the eyes of investors? You also wouldn't get a foot into the JP market, since PGs output was never that mega successful at all. They make great stuff, which often takes way too much time and is something for prestige, something to boost your hardware sales.

So I would guess Nintendo would make most sense, in a way that they have already a relationship and it would propably give PG more security and they could focus on one or max two projects at the time, but Nintendo wouldn't actively buy them. Only in a defensive move, would they buy PG, but then again, they could also just hire them.
 
Nintendoā€™s concern shouldnā€™t be getting IPā€™s (and they donā€™t show that). As devs are being bought out youā€™ll have less and less partners to work with. Nintendo already has too many IPā€™s they donā€™t have time to develop. Internal growth is all that matters.

We may get to the point where Nintendo will allow Gamepass on their hardware, but that could be very far away. Because Microsoft will have so much to themselves and theyā€™re not done.
 
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