Nintendo is Microsoft’s ‘the one that got away’
Everyone’s got a the-one-that-got-away story. Maybe it’s a fish. A fair girl or boy.Or a great job opportunity that pays twice as much for less work and without a boss who is a product of a genetic project involving humans and pit bulls.
Now it can be told. Before the bloody next-gen console war began between the Xbox 360 and Wii, Microsoft actually wanted to bag Nintendo! According to what is now part of corporate history, MS didn’t want to build a game console from scratch. Instead, the company wanted to purchase a company already in the business of making game consoles. And Nintendo was just shiny enough to catch MS attention.
“I wanted to acquire Nintendo,” recalls Rick Thompson, former vice-president of MS hardware business. However, Xbox overlord James Allard decide to do the whole project in-house. We don’t know how much MS wanted to pay for Nintendo back then, but should they re-consider buying the maker of the outrageously successful DS, it will burn a hole in their pockets the size of US$ 6.378 billion. That’s how much Nintendo will be worth a few months from now.
But the more interesting question is what if MS did buy Nintendo? What would the gaming world be like today? For one, the on-going next-gen console war would be less colorful with one less participant. Or perhaps MS-Nintendo would pit an Xbox 360/Wii hybrid against the PS3. What about the DS and the DS Lite? What would Gate’s version of Nintendo’s toast of the handheld world? No one knows for sure.
Perhaps there’s a parallel universe out there where MS and Nintendo did marry each other. If we can only take peek at what’s driving gamers there crazy!
Via Business Week
Everyone’s got a the-one-that-got-away story. Maybe it’s a fish. A fair girl or boy.Or a great job opportunity that pays twice as much for less work and without a boss who is a product of a genetic project involving humans and pit bulls.
Now it can be told. Before the bloody next-gen console war began between the Xbox 360 and Wii, Microsoft actually wanted to bag Nintendo! According to what is now part of corporate history, MS didn’t want to build a game console from scratch. Instead, the company wanted to purchase a company already in the business of making game consoles. And Nintendo was just shiny enough to catch MS attention.
“I wanted to acquire Nintendo,” recalls Rick Thompson, former vice-president of MS hardware business. However, Xbox overlord James Allard decide to do the whole project in-house. We don’t know how much MS wanted to pay for Nintendo back then, but should they re-consider buying the maker of the outrageously successful DS, it will burn a hole in their pockets the size of US$ 6.378 billion. That’s how much Nintendo will be worth a few months from now.
But the more interesting question is what if MS did buy Nintendo? What would the gaming world be like today? For one, the on-going next-gen console war would be less colorful with one less participant. Or perhaps MS-Nintendo would pit an Xbox 360/Wii hybrid against the PS3. What about the DS and the DS Lite? What would Gate’s version of Nintendo’s toast of the handheld world? No one knows for sure.
Perhaps there’s a parallel universe out there where MS and Nintendo did marry each other. If we can only take peek at what’s driving gamers there crazy!
Via Business Week
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