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News Nintendo chief addresses mergers and acquisitions, gives estimation at what point Switch is in its life cycle

Kreese

Kreese

Koopa
Banned


Edit to add:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-switch-outlook-again-on-supply-logistics-jam

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The Switch will forever be at its mid-life point.
The acquisition statement is basically the same every year, no surprise there.
 
This statement dosen‘t give any indication about when they will release the switch successor. It could very well be already next year.
 
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Once in my life I want Furukawa to be like "lol I would hold off on that Switch purchase if you catch my drift ;-DDDD"
 
Do you remember when Nintendo first said Switch was mid lifecycle, and people said Nintendo would replace the system in 2023?

MisterSpo remembers.

(in all seriousness, I expect upgraded hardware this year or next, but remember that when Nintendo talk about the 'Switch platform', they're talking about the combined software/services/multiple hardware forms and not a singular console or chipset)
 
If Monolith possesses the so called "Nintendo DNA", a huge number of independent Japanese studios also should. They'd definitely consider acquiring them if they're ever under threat.
 
9-Volt said:
If Monolith possesses the so called "Nintendo DNA", a huge number of independent Japanese studios also should. They'd definitely consider acquiring them if they're ever under threat.
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I think Nintendo DNA may include their second parties and companies who assist them like Platinum, Koei-Tecmo, Bandai-Namco ect. as well.

Possibly not, but I believe Nintendo partners with companies who they feel share similar DNA.
 
Kreese said:
Nintendo may very well be looking at the turbulent state of the industry and saying fuuuuuuuck that.
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Honestly this is what I have been thinking for a while. The chip shortages do not make a new console hitting the market an appealing prospect right now.

Maybe it'll be better in 1.5-2 years, hard to say, but right now it just doesn't seem like a sensible idea, middle of life cycle memes aside.
 
I’d be 100% fine with the current Switch for a few more years. I’ve never been one of those people who are always desperate for new hardware.

Like, seeing people already talk about a hypothetical PS5 Pro blows my mind. No one can even get a regular fucking PS5.
 
Regardless this "Middle of it's Lifecycle" phrase that Nintendo is saying 2 years now,
I expect Switch 2 or at least Switch "Pro" in 2023. or 2024. latest.
 
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I think that what will carry on selling switch at this rate is a Switch version of Mario Kart! Don't forget that was Port from wiiu.
Plus legendry ips like starfox, switch sports, and obviously our very own True switch Zelda! Others have been ports again.
 
I don't get what Furukawa is saying. Is he saying developers such as Monolith Soft don't share 'Nintendo DNA', and that having too many developers like Monolith or their other external developers would not be a plus to the company?
 
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Yellowmus said:
I don't get what Furukawa is saying. Is he saying developers such as Monolith Soft don't share 'Nintendo DNA', and that having too many developers like Monolith or their other external developers would not be a plus to the company?
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Nintendo DNA means Nintendo own work culture
 
Yeah that makes sense, they really care about the quality of their IP.

In all honesty though I wish they'd acquire someone with expertise in online feature set execution...
 
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Hey! I’m in the middle of my life cycle, too. Maybe I still have potential for growth, too…
 
rokero said:
I think Nintendo will be forced into the acquisition race if Ms/Sony start getting big japanese publishers
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Nintendo can do their best to stop buyouts but ultimately Sony can probably outbid them. MS at least has less of a chance of acquiring Japanese pubs due to laws set in place.
ngpdrew said:
Hey! I’m in the middle of my life cycle, too. Maybe I still have potential for growth, too…
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You don’t need a Pro edition, you kick ass just by being you.
 
Seems like a standard PR statement from Furukawa and in line with what they've said in the past. With ther way the Switch is still selling makes sense for them to keep insisting its still halfway through its life. Hell, we're looking at a potential DS beater here, why not encourage people to keep buying and beat that milestone?
 
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Full disclaimer: I know next to nothing about business, let alone at the level of M+A, and I do not mean to imply that I do. In fact, there is a non-zero chance I am making an ass of myself here. What follows are the ramblings of an onlooker, who is admittedly frustrated by the growing prevalence of large-scale acquisitions by Microsoft and Sony in the last couple of months and years, which seems to be likely to only continue on an increasingly larger scale in the future.


Furukawa is throwing some shade there, but my takeaway is that Nintendo is adopting a rather firm stance on this topic. As I understand it, they mean to continue to do what they are currently doing, investing in the growth of their in-house capabilities and their relationship with long-time partners. And imo, they absolutely should.

Acquisitions come with a great deal of stress for all parties involved, I imagine. The buyer has to integrate their newly acquired studios into their overall work-flow and work culture, though the latter part might be somewhat trivial if an equal-minded studio is the target. Even then, the roadmap from acquisition to full integration seems like it would be a rather lengthy and expensive one, both in terms of time and money. Making sure all the cogs fit each other nicely and run as intended seems like one of those tasks that gets ever more unwieldy the more and bigger studios, let alone entire publishers, you try to fit under your umbrella.

I understand that a big impetus, especially for Microsoft is to grow and diversify their catalogue of IPs and secure legacy and, more importantly, future content for their subscription services. I follow the logic that having more internal studios at your disposal means, in theory, that you will be able to produce more first party content more quickly. And I definitely understand the logic that having those newly acquired IPs hopefully sways consumers to choose your platform over that of your competitors. From a consumer standpoint, though, seeing IPs that were traditionally multiplatform go to one of the three hardware manufacturers — whichever one it might end up being, mind you — just does not sit well with me, and I doubt it ever will.

But I digress. Integration being a task to overcome is key, and I can not help but question if those acquisitions are going to be sustainable long-term, even putting aside the matter of market consolidation. Sure, you gain studios. You gain their IPs. And short-term, you might even be able to retain most of their talent. But what if Joe Doe jumps ship, because he originally joined a dev studio to work on Adolescent Variant Shinobi Frogs, but over the last two, three years now he has been assigned over and over again to develop Shooty Shooty Bang Bang 9, Itsy Bitsy Drifty Tires 12, or Half Game, Half Movie 6. With time, a lot of what made those studios unique in the first place might become lost to time because now they are under your leadership, you do with them as you please, which might not be in line with what they please.

Nintendo do not need new IPs. They can hardly handle all of their own ones. They do need more studios, and they would do especially well having some more in the Americas and one in Europe, but unless we have another NLG situation, it would be wise for them to build some new ones rather thang go on an acquisition spree that benefits none, with the possible exception of their ego.


Sorry for the rant and the big ol' wall of text.
 
Mandos said:
MS can’t, well easily at least as Japan has super strict laws about international M&A
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Only for some companies in key industries. From the videogames companies only SONY is in the more restricted list, all other videogame companies are fare game
 
Dark Cloud said:
The switch is never ending the mid life cycle. This is like a meme now lmao
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The Switch is currently in the middle of its midlife crisis. Please understand.

Really, though, on its own that statement doesn't mean much and could be interpreted in different ways. I suspect the next hardware will play software for the current Switch, but perhaps with potential for improved settings, and thus the current Switch might continue to receive games -- especially as Nintendo is no longer supporting two hardware lines -- and thus could continue through its life cycle in that manner. Or there's a possibility its life cycle is considered at midpoint until a successor is announced, at which time it might be expected to wind down, an endpoint. Theoretically, it could mean they aren't anywhere close to releasing substantially new hardware.

Just a couple possibilities there, but the actual statement, as it's been offered these past couple years, itself doesn't say much, and reading into it will require inserting one's own biases.

Kreese said:
I think Nintendo DNA may include their second parties and companies who assist them like Platinum, Koei-Tecmo, Bandai-Namco ect. as well.

Possibly not, but I believe Nintendo partners with companies who they feel share similar DNA.
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I expect Nintendo partners more, both strongly and frequently, with studios it finds share this DNA. They might work with other studios, but it is these with which they would forge actual partnerships.

In such a case as they did make an acquisition, it seems most likely to come from such a partnership, where the connection has been tested and strengthened, where the DNA is shown to be similar enough to splice in.
 
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The Switch will enter its end of life cycle only after its successor launches. It’s going to keep pushing units well after we have Switch 2.
 
meatbag said:
Nintendo can do their best to stop buyouts but ultimately Sony can probably outbid them. MS at least has less of a chance of acquiring Japanese pubs due to laws set in place.

You don’t need a Pro edition, you kick ass just by being you.
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As a whole I agree that Sony could outbid Nintendo in any buyout, but I doubt many of the other divisions in Sony will be pleased if the Playstation branch uses billions to acquire additional studios. Not to mention I doubt Sony will care about the AA-A studios that Nintendo might be interested in as long as they receive the AAA games from SE and Capcom.
 
"When asked about its M&A policy, Nintendo chief Furukawa said: "our brand was built upon products crafted with dedication by our employees, and having a large number of people who don’t posses Nintendo DNA in our group would not be a plus to the company""

god_damn_right_breaking_bad.gif


Nintendo work culture is something you either have or you don't. Nintendo doesn't just acquire developers willy nilly. They are groomed. Next Level Games proved themselves. It's up to any developer to prove their chops to become part of the family. MercurySteam need to clean up their management before Nintendo would purchase them, but I would only look to collaborative developers for acquisition in the future.
 
Yellowmus said:
I don't get what Furukawa is saying. Is he saying developers such as Monolith Soft don't share 'Nintendo DNA', and that having too many developers like Monolith or their other external developers would not be a plus to the company?
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One of the reasons MonolithSoft was acquired was because Nintendo saw that they thought like them, and developed the type of games they wanted on their platform.
 
Seven said:
As a whole I agree that Sony could outbid Nintendo in any buyout, but I doubt many of the other divisions in Sony will be pleased if the Playstation branch uses billions to acquire additional studios.
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They’re already doing that, though? Playstation Studios isn’t only operating from its own profits.
Seven said:
Not to mention I doubt Sony will care about the AA-A studios that Nintendo might be interested in as long as they receive the AAA games from SE and Capcom.
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The post I was replying to specified acquisition of the big third parties.
 
Specifically mentioning that past platforms grew weaker in their 6th year on the market and then saying you want to break that pattern tells me that there's no new Switch on the horizon outside of hardware revisions for the foreseeable future.

Get ready to purchase a successor in early 2024 or even early 2025 people.
 
meatbag said:
They’re already doing that, though? Playstation Studios isn’t only operating from its own profits.
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They spent a little over $3 billion acquiring one company as well as incorporating development studios that they already had strong ties with under their umbrella. That doesn't mean Playstation Studios has free reign to do as they please with Sony's coffers; if they try to go on a spending spree in an acquisition war I think other Sony divisions may step in to limit exactly how much they can spend.
meatbag said:
The post I was replying to specified acquisition of the big third parties.
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Even then I doubt there's much to worry about since Sony already gets the AAA games from those studios which means tying them down would just be a waste of money and MS would have to wade through not only legal red tape, but also having to convince these studios that the advantages of losing the Japanese Market can be offset in the west on their platform which could be a hard sell.
 
Imagine if Furukawa came out and said “yes the switch is near the end of its lifecycle”. How would people react? What would people be expecting then? Just think about it.
 
"Halfway through it's life cycle" is the "general updates to improve stability" of Furukawa answers
 
Seven said:
They spent a little over $3 billion acquiring one company as well as incorporating development studios that they already had strong ties with under their umbrella. That doesn't mean Playstation Studios has free reign to do as they please with Sony's coffers; if they try to go on a spending spree in an acquisition war I think other Sony divisions may step in to limit exactly how much they can spend.

Even then I doubt there's much to worry about since Sony already gets the AAA games from those studios which means tying them down would just be a waste of money and MS would have to wade through not only legal red tape, but also having to convince these studios that the advantages of losing the Japanese Market can be offset in the west on their platform which could be a hard sell.
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Pretty much. I don't think Sony will be purchasing a big Japanese publisher because they have no real need to, and it will allow Japanese publishers continue to work with them and Nintendo. I don't think there's much of a chance Microsoft will get in here and Sony won't let PlayStation go on a multi-billion dollar buying spree unless the company as a whole would agree that it's absolutely necessary.
 
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Seven said:
They spent a little over $3 billion acquiring one company as well as incorporating development studios that they already had strong ties with under their umbrella. That doesn't mean Playstation Studios has free reign to do as they please with Sony's coffers; if they try to go on a spending spree in an acquisition war I think other Sony divisions may step in to limit exactly how much they can spend.
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Of course. I was simply supporting my point that Nintendo isn’t going to join the acquisitions war.

If anything I find the discussion about Japanese third parties being gobbled up in an acquisition spree to be overblown.
Seven said:
Even then I doubt there's much to worry about since Sony already gets the AAA games from those studios which means tying them down would just be a waste of money and MS would have to wade through not only legal red tape, but also having to convince these studios that the advantages of losing the Japanese Market can be offset in the west on their platform which could be a hard sell.
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Agreed.
 
Middle of its life cycle is just referring to a phase, not an exact point. It's already established but still Nintendo's main platform. It'll be in the final phase of its lifecycle once a successor is around the corner and Switch support is winding down.
 
meatbag said:
Of course. I was simply supporting my point that Nintendo isn’t going to join the acquisitions war.

If anything I find the discussion about Japanese third parties being gobbled up in an acquisition spree to be overblown.

Agreed.
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Well shit, now I feel foolish for dragging it out, it was fun discussing this though. Definitely agree that all this hoopla about the acquisition of Japanese third parties is being overblown.
 
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rokero said:
I think Nintendo will be forced into the acquisition race if Ms/Sony start getting big japanese publishers
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Nintendo will never be forced into anything. They never have been. In true Nintendo fashion they will probably acquire a studio so late that no one cares about and make it seem like a big deal.
 
DEsteves said:
Only for some companies in key industries. From the videogames companies only SONY is in the more restricted list, all other videogame companies are fare game
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Nintendo falls under 'culturally significant", so there are restrictions there for them as well. Meaning a foreign company trying to aquire them would be harder than it already is to acquire a company in Japan, but the Japanese government could step in.
 
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Tron1 said:
Nintendo will never be forced into anything. They never have been. In true Nintendo fashion they will probably acquire a studio so late that no one cares about and make it seem like a big deal.
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They didn't do this with Monolith Soft or Next Level Games, not sure why they'd start now.
 
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