This is the best summary I could come up with:
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer would really like to buy Nintendo someday.
The emails were revealed as part of a tranche of leaked documents from the FTC v. Microsoft lawsuit.
One executive, Takeshi Numoto, asked Spencer and Chris Capossela in an email titled “random thought” about why Microsoft isn’t finding acquisition targets like Nintendo a “more attractive” way to “increase our consumer exposure and relevance.” (At the time, Microsoft was in discussions to acquire TikTok, and Numoto didn’t feel it would be the best match.)
He added that Microsoft’s board of directors “has seen the full writeup on Nintendo (and Valve) and they are fully supportive on either if opportunity arises as am I.” Spencer also shared that the company was in “fairly active M&A discussions” around ZeniMax Media (which resulted in a deal that was announced a month later) and Warner Brothers Interactive (which did not go through).
Previous documents from the case revealed that Microsoft has considered acquiring many other studios, including Bungie (now owned by Sony), Sega, and Square Enix.
This most recent batch of documents leaked a new design for the Xbox Series X and some unannounced games from Bethesda.
The original article contains 274 words, the summary contains 192 words. Saved 30%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Please do it.
Ninendo is better at anyone’s hands but Nintendo’s.
Ah yes, more monopolization please. That sure worked out great every time we tried it
At least it would be TRYING to have more reach to consumers.
Nintendo’s strategy of only appealing to kids and only sometimes caring about it’s actual, much larger fanbase isn’t really economically estrategic if you think about it.
Seems to work reasonably well for them considering they have been in gaming much longer than Microsoft.
Microsoft wouldn’t run Nintendo. They buy shit up and let it die a slow death… Poor old Skype, Minecraft and Nokia can testify among many other.
Lol, keep dreaming Microsoft :P
I don’t really like Nintendo’s stuff that much, but really, that would be a bad outcome for the gaming industry as a whole.
They already tried to acquire them once and were laughed out of the meeting.
https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-wanted-to-buy-nintendo-145746874.html
Sure, buying Nintendo would be a win for Microsoft, but Nintendo would gain absolutely nothing from the deal. Sure, there are people like myself who loudly and rightfully complain about Nintendo’s business practices, but at the end of the day, it took until THIS year for Playstation 5 to finally outsell them in a single year, and they’re not even CLOSE to matching total unit sales, and Xbox is doing worse than THAT. Add to that Nintendo’s software attach rate, and as much as I don’t like HOW they do their business, they’re WILDLY successful at it and making more money as a function of their costs than anyone else in the industry, so they can’t be faulted for continuing to do what is working.
I honestly don’t know what Phil Spencer thinks would be different than the previous meeting in another sales proposal today, especially given Microsoft’s INCREDIBLY weakened industry market position compared to Nintendo’s. Microsoft is only able to approach the idea from a position of power based on its market capitalization funded by its other businesses - in the gaming industry, Nintendo simply occupies the more advantageous market position.