Why Microsoft Tried to Buy Nintendo (and got laughed at)
Channel: Video Game Story Time
Date: 2021-01-08

According to an article on Bloomberg, recounting the oral history of the original Xbox, there was once a time when Microsoft actually tried to buy Nintendo.


You can't fault their logic - Microsoft wanted to compete against Sony, but knew they didn't actually have any games. So, they tried to buy Nintendo to solve their problem. Of course, Nintendo didn't actually want to be bought, which threw a spanner in the works somewhat.


We were going to do a video today on Nintendo buying Next Level Games, the makers of the more recent Luigi's Mansion games, but the idea of Microsoft buying Nintendo was just too funny to pass up, so we made this video instead. Sometimes, especially after a busy December, you've got to go with the video that makes you personally happy, I guess!


The Nintendo purchase is interesting, though, especially considering Microsoft's long and illustrious record of buying companies to get a leg up. As more and more studios get gobbled up by the big companies looking to set up a games subscription service, we're in danger of reaching a point where there are really only a handful of AAA companies overseeing bigger and bigger blockbusters.


It'd end up looking not that dissimilar to the state of the movie industry. Every game would have to be a hit, or else thousands of people will lose their jobs - so AAA games could potentially get increasingly bland and formulaic to prevent risky ventures tanking.


Of course, unlike the movie industry, the gaming community has a phenomenally strong indie scene that can more or less compete with many of the big studios, so who knows if things will end up quite the same.


So long as a random teenager can throw something together in their bedroom and accidentally sell ten million copies, the games industry will continue to be an odd place.


Lots of love,


BretonStripes (http://twitter.com/bretonstriped) and Kotor (http://twitter.com/kotorcomics)


Source:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-01-06/xbox-the-oral-history-of-an-american-video-game-empire?sref=dJuchiL5