Microsoft Tried to Buy Nintendo Before Original Xbox Launch

Microsoft Tried to Buy Nintendo Before Original Xbox Launch

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Matt Lorrigan

Microsoft apparently approached Nintendo to acquire the Japanese video game company prior to the release of the original Xbox, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The article includes some great anecdotes from many of the people responsible for the creation of Xbox, including an attempt to buy Nintendo. The subsequent meeting, requested by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, didn't go quite to plan.

“Steve made us go meet with Nintendo to see if they would consider being acquired,” recalled Kevin Bachus, one of the founders of Xbox. “They just laughed their asses off. Like, imagine an hour of somebody just laughing at you. That was kind of how that meeting went.”

Microsoft also approached Nintendo in 2000 about a joint venture, with Nintendo focusing on game development while Microsoft handled the hardware.

“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 former 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.”

The article has some other great stories, including attempts to acquire Square, Midway and even EA, as well as an alchohol-fueled deal with Konami. Microsoft was certainly bold in its attempts to enter the market nearly twenty years ago, and things haven't changed all that much since - after all, last year saw Microsoft acquire Bethesda in one of the industry's biggest ever deals.

Comments
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  • A couple years ago I played Mario 1, 2 and 3 on a Nintendo emulator that you were able to play on Xbox One using the internet browser and you also had to download the games to your computer than put them in a specific folder for you to access.

    I also played punch out and a who slew of other old games that I never thought I would be playing on the Xbox, it was pretty cool. Not sure if it still works since I haven’t done it in at least 3 years.

    I even had a gameboy emulator which also allowed me to play any gameboy game you can think of.
  • The thing is, not everything is about hardware when it comes to gaming. While Sony and Microsoft spend their time trying to claw their way to the top of the hill every year, Nintendo makes a successful spot for itself without having to do the dog and pony show that Sony and Microsoft loves engaging in with each other.
  • I'm glad they didn't buy them or do that joint venture thing with Microsoft handling the hardware because then we probably wouldn't have the switch.
  • Microsoft would have been worse off buying Nintendo.
  • i think things worked out for the best...
  • A perfect world would be one console that played everything, but then again quality would drop because competition drives them to be better. Would be nice to play Halo, God of War and Mario all on one console though.
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