Discussion Three year old emails surface from FTC case about Microsoft’s interest in buying Nintendo

[bmfrosty]

Don't think Nintendo would agree to that unless they got a cut of the GamePass $$$ or at least a non-negotiable amount of yearly money from MS for doing that. It's not in their company interest to help Game Pass succeed unless they are benefitting from it a lot more than just some MS games on their platforms.

Gotta be a lot of money bags headed to Nintendo HQ.

Think there would also have to be a guarantee that MS never tries to make a move to buy out Nintendo for a long, long time, so Nintendo would never have to worry about that.

Honestly think MS would be better off just basically giving the XBox division to Nintendo, let them basically run it, but in exchange for that let them work towards making Game Pass a success. Because really, 3-4 years ago, MS reportedly was thinking of just bailing out of the console side anyway, so why not just let Nintendo handle all that, if there is profit there, Nintendo can keep it with MS getting a slice of the licensing fees.

Pretty sure I said they'd get a portion of the Japan gamepass revenue for use on Switch, but that can't come first. First has to be a good working relationship. In regions where Xbox is hopeful at best - let's just say Asia for the sake of argument - Xbox ports all of it's 1st/2nd party titles to the Switch - day and date with their Xbox release. Do that through the Switch 2 generation. Build that good relationship.

There is no hostile takeover of Nintendo. That's not going to happen. What might happen is that if Nintendo and MS have a very good relationship, and in that case, when Nintendo is in a bad place, maybe they'd take investment from Microsoft. Maybe a partnership could turn into more.

Spoiler

Ask me about my MS/Nintendo slashfic.

 

[Mango]

I don't get the point in mocking anyone scared or perturb by these emails. It's a scary thought to have Nintendo be bought by anyone. No one reasonably wants a situation where Nintendo is gone or so heavily altered it's no longer Nintendo, and given how Microsoft has treated other companies they've acquired, a scenario where they bought Nintendo likely wouldn't benefit Nintendo at all. It's made all the worse by the email showing on MSs part a clear attempt to try and weasel their way into the company via the investor group.

 

[DecoReturns]

2020 feels like a decade ago.

time flies

 

[Kreese]

I don't get the point in mocking anyone scared or perturb by these emails. It's a scary thought to have Nintendo be bought by anyone. No one reasonably wants a situation where Nintendo is gone or so heavily altered it's no longer Nintendo, and given how Microsoft has treated other companies they've acquired, a scenario where they bought Nintendo likely wouldn't benefit Nintendo at all. It's made all the worse by the email showing on MSs part a clear attempt to try and weasel their way into the company via the investor group.

It's just such an unlikely scenario that it doesn't really warrant much emotion or attention. A lot of people probably want to buy Nintendo but it's never going to happen barring some cosmic anomaly. It's like sitting around and worrying if you're going to get hit by an asteroid.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

Alright, sorry. I wasn't expecting that kind of reaction. It was just a dumb joke.

I didn’t think it was that strong a reaction it’s all good

 

[P.Scoop]

Who is responsible for leaking this, FTC? Because this is a potential disaster for MS. The competition having a field day right now.

It's actually Microsoft! As this document was sent to FTC by them. Someone just didn't check the attachments that came with the PDF before sending.

Which is really bad for Microsoft yeah.

 

[kidgalactus]

Microsoft will sell off Xbox before Nintendo gets out of hardware.

 

[TheRealWario]

If this hypothetically went through, it would obviously be awful, but i'd rather it be Microsoft than Sony. Waiting 2-3 years to play a new game on PC is a nightmare.

 

[Pillydillsy]

I feel like the thing that Nintendo has over other devs IS that they are willing to make smaller games, or games from smaller franchises. No other company would ride or die with franchises like Pikmin or Metroid but Nintendo, so the idea that they JUST make Mario, Zelda, Splatoon, Smash, Animal crossing, repeat, is terrifying. And even with the big franchises Nintendo still innovates so much and takes so many risks. Like think about how easy (and profitable) it would be for Nintendo to make 5 more NSMB games instead of making one super polished game with wonder. Nintendo is obviously a company who exists to make money, I’m not denying that, but they feel like one of the only major gaming companies that still takes massive risks

 

[JorgenRaft]

I don't think any of the big 3 are necessarily known for taking massive risks, as they all kind of know their own strengths for the most part and stick to them (obviously they all have their bolder moments every now and then like BotW reinventing Zelda or TLOU2 going a very polarizing route narratively). I think part of the reason Nintendo makes smaller games is because of how core their 1st party output is to their fanbase, so it keeps the output consistent. Sony and Microsoft can afford these longer wait times in between their games because a super large part of their revenue is the 3rd party support. And that's also not to say that either of them never develop of publish smaller games, because they do. It's just not their MO, same way giant games aren't Nintendo's MO but we still get a Zelda or Smash every now and then.

When I think risk taking in video games, I first think of indies and smaller developers. Though, that's not to say a lot of those often fall into familiar patterns or cliches.