That Time Microsoft Tried To Buy Nintendo...

When Microsoft was looking to enter the gaming space they actually made an attempt to buy Nintendo even meeting with them several times. The second time they met however and interesting proposal was made that could have changed how gaming looks today.

#Nintendo #Microsoft #Xbox

[ssjfox]

“We’ve always been a little bit jealous of companies like Nintendo. When Miyamoto is sitting down and thinking about the next version of Zelda or Mario, he’s thinking what is the controller going to look like, what sort of graphics and other capabilities. He can introduce new capabilities like motion input because he controls both of those things. And he can make the hardware look as good as possible because he’s designing the software at the same time that’s really going to take advantage of it. So that is something we’ve been jealous of, and that’s something that you’ll see us taking advantage of subsequently.” -Gabe Newell

[osha]

It drives me nuts everytime this story goes around that it's interpreted as Nintendo "Laughed their asses at us.". Anyone who's done serious business meetings with any Japanese company would know that this just wouldn't have happened. The culture of business in Japan is very strict and professional.

[sadpandah]

This xbox anniversary was one of the best anniversary I could ask from a gaming company, they literally show so much stuff, I highly recommend watching the interviews with the "OGs" when they talk about having a router or a ethernet cable on 360 and how they decide to go wit the "future" and not the "past" when the world was 80% connected to the internet through telephones, man that is crazy and to see this documents is so "fun" to see what happened behind closed doors

[vikashv]

Master Chief in Smash would have happened 🤣

[kadosho]

I remember that moment. Definitely changed the atmosphere, in how it was thought to be a rumor, but totally real. From ideas, to partnership. If it did go through, we would have a very different outcome.

[WillyToons]

The black Gamecube was at launch alongside the Indigo one. They did launch the Platinum one later. The MS partnership would not work out well for Nintendo had it proceeded, the Xbox hardware, although powerful, would have been a liability in Japan as it was too large and inconvenient. It and especially the 360 also had poorer reliability than Nintendo hardware was known for, and by the Xbox One they were polar opposites.

[fishingmule]

N64 hardware in no way stunk. It was extremely overpowered compared to the PS1. The only disadvantage was using carts instead of CDs which also came with some advantages as well. This meant that there would be no RPGs or much space for video and sound files.
The 3D graphics actually looked good on N64, where on PS1, you had to just kind of overlook the butt ugly polygons. Nintendo had really high spec hardware each generation and the sales kept going down anyways. Then they released the Wii which had previous gen hardware and sold a ton. Go figure.

[vectoralphaSec]

To think that Nintendo one day would have merged with Xbox and PlayStation is insane. I can't believe that almost happened. There exist 2 parallel universes where in one there exists the Nintendo PlayStation and in the other it's the Nintendo Xbox. So weird.

[digidex]

Imagine an alternate universe where we call Microsoft's console an Xcube

[GalaxiaShadow]

This is old news, why are we talking about this again?

[lutherh]

I’m imagining Super Mario Sunshine on the original Xbox

[josiahsuarez]

nintendo did well to giggle at that suggestion.

[iliveretro]

I’m so happy Nintendo laughed them out the door.

[themacintoshnerd]

Lots of interesting possibilities. I think if it went through and was done the right way Microsoft/Nintendo would have put up a pretty good fight against Sony during the 6th gen. And honestly a 360 with the potential for Wii remote like controls in addition to a traditional controller they would have absolutely stomped the PS3. I think it would have created a very interesting company who had a platform that had something for everybody. And honestly looking back on the 6th gen having a console that played Halo, Wind Waker, Smash Melee, GTA San Andreas, Fable, Half Life 2 and Metroid Prime would have been incredible. Imagine how Bungie could have given some input on Metroid PrIme or how Nintendo could have given advice to Rare on a potential new Banjo game. It would have been an insane power house for games. And then Bethesda now too.

[williammoore]

Well at least Microsoft was able to add a little to the trajectory of the industry with online digital store fronts and built in hard drives and Achievements and now gamepass, would be cool to be able to look in on the alternate reality where the Japanese government approved the sell of Nintendo to Microsoft though as it obviously isn't a lack of funds that held the sell back since they are worth well over 10x what nintendo is.

[oror]

They also attempted to buy EA before them and they seriously considered it
from the numbers I saw it was supposed to be very generous offer to Nintendo money wise

[TayoEXE]

J Jonah Jameson as Nintendo: *Laughs out loud* "Wait, you're serious?"

[shadow_dancer]

I’d love to see Nintendo’s answer for that, they just replied something like “no lol”

[danielposey]

Looks like there is one company Microsoft can’t afford….and that is Nintendo. No amount of money will “buy us” us, we are priceless….good for Nintendo. I have new found respect and admiration for Nintendo now. Microsoft needs to learn that you need to put in the work and that you can’t just buy everyone out.

[Stratilex]

Banjo would've been in Smash much earlier, and Master Chief would have had a shot too