Microsoft apparently still interested in acquiring Nintendo…

In a huge leak a few weeks ago, we learned that Microsoft is still very much interested in buying Nintendo…. Have a look at this document:

“Nintendo is THE prime asset for us in gaming…”

-Phil Spencer

Access to Nintendo’s first party IP is probably the magic fix in Microsoft’s eyes, especially given their much discussed first party software woes.

“…I don’t see an angle to a near term mutually agreeable merger of Nintendo and MS and I don’t think a hostile action would be a good move so we’re playing the long game.”

-Phil Spencer

We’ve known Microsoft was interested in purchasing Nintendo for two decades now. Back in 2000, Nintendo visited Microsoft to discuss a joint venture. At this meeting, Microsoft made a pitch to buy Nintendo. It did not go well.

This from Engadget:

Microsoft’s specific pitch did make some amount of sense. At the time, Nintendo was lagging behind Sony badly from a hardware perspective. So Microsoft figured it could take on hardware production and leave Nintendo to focus on the software. “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,” said head of business development Bob Mcbreen. “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.”

Not only did this not work out, but Microsoft was laughed out of the meeting.

Microsoft was laughed out of the room, says Kevin Bachus, a director for third-party relations on the Xbox project. “They just laughed their asses off,” Bachus said to Bloomberg. “Like, imagine an hour of somebody just laughing at you. That was kind of how that meeting went.”

Savage.

Still, after 23 years, Phil Spencer seems very confident that this merger should happen. And he gives us the latest in the “Nintendo should go third party” trope we’ve witnessed in gaming generations past:

At some point, getting Nintendo would be a career moment and I honestly believe a good move for both companies. It’s just taking a long time for Nintendo to see that their future exists off of their own hardware. A long time…. ;-)

Unfortunately for Phil, Nintendo would have to agree to a merger and I do not see that ever happening. Plus, Phil mentioned one of the barriers himself being Nintendo’s huge piles of cash in their war chest. Not to mention that Nintendo’s brand is bigger than ever with a massively successful and popular console in the Switch, a billion dollar grossing blockbuster film, and popular theme parks.

I don’t think any talk of a merger is anywhere within Nintendo’s calculus.

Still, it’s interesting - though not surprising - to know that Microsoft still has the hots for Nintendo.