There's no way it would happen, even if the stars aligned for Microsoft. Regulators in the EU and (hopefully) US would not allow the 2 of the only 3 console makers to combine. Plus Japan would not settle for a non-Japanese company buying a Japanese company that is such a big part of their culture.
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.
Not very. Negotiating and executing a deal of that size and complexity cross cutting major national, cultural, and business universes would be extremely difficult
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.
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