With this week's unprecedented news that Microsoft is kickstarting the process to acquire Activision Blizzard for a little under $70 Billion, there's been a lot of talk about what the company could do next. The likelihood is not very much for the next 12-18 months; like with the Bethesda deal the process will have regulatory hurdles to get through, and in this case Activision Blizzard shareholders will need to agree (they probably will); any challenges to the takeover that are cleared will still cause delays. Even if it goes entirely smoothly, it'll take time.
A topic that also did the rounds yesterday was whether Microsoft could target Nintendo once again. It famously did this 20 years ago and was laughed out of the room, and we suggested in an editorial yesterday that's an outcome that'd probably be repeated. However, maybe it's worth expanding on why a Microsoft takeover of Nintendo is extremely unlikely.
Corporate culture and law are rather different in Japan, adding resistance and complications to acquiring these companies.
One argument made has been that, prior to the takeover, Activision Blizzard's market capitalisation was in the same sort of region to Nintendo's - remember, the company isn't just Call of Duty and other console gaming IPs, but has a sizeable mobile business. Therefore if Microsoft can pull this move off, why not Nintendo? For one thing, Microsoft picked a smart moment - from an investment point of view - to jump into this deal, with Activision Blizzard coming off the back of an underperforming Call of Duty: Vanguard (by the IP's high standards), and more tellingly a year of court cases and extremely damaging allegations about its corporate culture and behaviours. If there was a point to try and acquire a huge corporation at only a modest percentage over cost, this was it.
But that's not the only big reason that a Microsoft takeover of Nintendo is unlikely. First of all, it's telling that Microsoft's major targets - in gaming and elsewhere in its business - have mainly been other American businesses. Corporate culture and law are rather different in Japan, adding resistance and complications to acquiring these companies. Maybe it'll happen more down the line, but the idea of takeovers and buyouts is still relatively fresh and full of uncertainties in Japan.
Mergers and acquisitions do of course happen, though many are internal to the country. There are a number of deals in and out of the country, for example Sony acquired Crunchyroll, yet sizeable corporate takeovers in which a major American or European company buys out a Japanese company are extremely rare. Part of the reason is entrenched culture and practices - for example Japanese companies often have 'cross-shareholdings' between business partners. This can include banks with which the company does business, for example. As you can see in Nintendo's most recent top 10 shareholders list, below, with the largest being a 'Trust Bank' (essentially an investment administration business), Nintendo's shareholdings reflect a mix of investments and these cross-shareholdings.
That said, there's a shift taking place in Japan that may open it up to more foreign takeovers in the future, even those that are unsolicited. This is nicely summarised in this M&A Explorer article, as it outlines some key cases and changes that are opening Japanese business up to more global interventions. Interestingly it highlights some things we've seen from Nintendo as it adjusts to new regulations and requirements - greater transparency in its dealings, opening up to shareholder requests, and an expansion in overseas and independent board members. These are all changes that are, without a doubt, opening up the Japanese corporate arena.
Nintendo's IPs are among the highest-regarded in the industry, and the company has given zero indication of being open to a sale.
So, if the sands are slowly shifting in Japanese corporate culture, does it give Microsoft a 'better chance' than it had 20 years ago? Theoretically, yes, but in addition to the remaining challenges of initiating a takeover of that scale in Japan, there's also the question of valuation. At this moment Nintendo's industry value includes a userbase in the tens of millions, not just in terms of online customers but in the hardware business. Nintendo's IPs are among the highest-regarded in the industry, and the company has given zero indication of being open to a sale. In each shareholder's meeting there are questions about the company's plans, how it will sustain success, but there's also a lot of contentment and box ticking. Nintendo's Directors are routinely nominated and accepted with little drama; the business is strong.
While Microsoft would join every other gaming company in desiring Nintendo's iconic franchises, the deal wouldn't make much sense beyond that. Microsoft is betting big on its consoles, PC and the cloud combining to make games available to 'everyone', with streaming to phones and tablets a key part of that. The hybrid hardware nature of the Switch doesn't align cleanly with that, especially in the context of the dizzying amount of money that'd even be needed to attempt a buy-out of Nintendo.
It all seems pretty fanciful. Admittedly, the idea of Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard also seemed unlikely, but the spend on that deal alongside all the factors that make purchasing Nintendo more difficult suggests that excitable talk about the mother of all takeovers is just that - excitable talk.
We certainly won't lose any sleep over the prospect at this time, in any case.
Further Reading:
Comments 90
The day Nintendo gets bought is the day F-Zero gets a new game.
Microsoft opened their venture into console gaming by attempting to buy Nintendo, and they were laughed out of the office. Not to say they'd be impenetrable to an incredible offer, but I don't see it happening.
It will never happen. Every second article doesn't really need to be about this.
I just think that the story needs some calming down now and the hysteria to be dropped. Microsoft is a massive company and of course they can buy up others in such deals but it’s not the end of PlayStation, It’s not the end of Nintendo it’s just the start of gaming continuing to get bigger and reaching more people. Let’s step back and get on with enjoying gaming no matter which system you have.
Old man Nintendo watching the playground scrap from a far muttering "Kids today eh. Back in my day ....."
Microsoft are just playing the long game, ultimately leading to a time when they don’t even have a console, where every game is on an app on your tv or phone and you just have a controller.
Nintendo will continue to do what Nintendo always do.
Wouldn’t like to be in Sony’s shoes at the moment as they don’t have anywhere near the financial wallop as Microsoft.
CRASH and SPIRO for SMASH BROS!!!!!!!!!!!
@jarvismp Think I watched an IGN video the other day where they mentioned how big the industry had grown in recent years. It's a good thing.
Because it isn't for sale
How ***** that would be
@jarvismp
i like your attitude, and i think i generally agree.
BUT
I'd say MS buying Activision is an example of gaming getting SMALLER, not bigger.
more companies operating independently is what we want for a big, varied, competitive game world. The more companies that become microsoft subs the smaller my world gets. not that i GAF about activision. 😎
have a good one!
Probably? They tried before when Nintendo were more or less at their weakest during the N64-Gamecube era and were literally laughed out of the offices. Considering how good of a state Nintendo is in right now, I think it's more of a pipe dream than something to be concerned about (which, to be fair, you do agree with in the article).
@The_BAAD_Man I wouldn't say never, that's a dangerous word to say...
But basically the chances are extremely small as it currently stands and long may that outlook continue.
Give it some time. Eventually all entertainment will be owned by a small handful of companies. This stuff is happening really fast, could be in a completely different place in 5 years
@-wc- I take the point about it possibly making gaming smaller but it doesn’t have to be that way. It will all depend on how MS manage the situation. If they antagonise too many in gaming they will ultimately shoot themselves in the foot so they need to be careful. I think Spencer is thankfully the right man to lead this but should he ever strop down then t.here might be more cause for concern but right now I do feel there is less to worry about than many are saying.
@Crockin Well, it's more or less already in the hands of Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Apple and Google at this point, so you're already right about that.
@Duncanballs Old man Sega walks past: "Ha, old friend. Remember whan that was us?"
@BANJO You're right, it is.
To rephrase - the chances are astronomically low based on Nintendo's practices and current market strength.
MS wont be bought by Nintendo because tech companies will be defended by each country/govt, they are worth a lot. Especially gaming and entertainment.
The thing is Nintendo is not a corporate own business, they are a family own business just like the WWE. For Microsoft to buy Nintendo they had to pay the Yamauchi clan a great amount of money and a pledge that they wouldn't use the Nintendo property to dishonor its Japanese heritage. Microsoft couldn't even break sales in Japan so they had no say in buying the big one over there.
Imagine there just being one video game company with every brand xx Nintendo in the mid 80s pretty much, and that seemed to work out well for everyone xx
I wouldn't say never, but stocks and company profile were dangerously low in the Wii U slump that it might have been a reality then. Currently in 2022 Nintendo is the richest company in Japan above Sony, Toyota, Honda.
Honestly wouldn’t be against it if they were bought out. Probably wouldn’t see a difference anyway. Nintendo lives in their own world.
Microsoft can't buy an entity that won't put itself up for sale.
Simple.
Japanese M&A’s lean toward the M while in the US they lean toward the A since Japanese culture is more cooperative than US culture. Sharp was sold to Foxconn a few years ago though. And companies like Rakuten, Cyberagent, Softbank, and even Recruit, which owns Indeed, are changing the climate in Japan.
So maybe Sony will try to buy Nintendo?!
@HotGoomba So never? Got it.
Microsoft has no reason to buy Nintendo. Why would they?
It wouldn't make any sense. They actually have a very good business relationship at the moment and its good for the gaming industry to keep Nintendo independent and doing what they do.
The ActiVisionBlizzard deal is a different matter, since their main games are an important chunk in the XBox/PC library.
Then there is the ever increasing controversy of ethics problems within ActivisionBlizzard that have become worse, not better over time. That might have finally prompted Microsoft into action to just buying them outright and so cut out the rotten management at the top and get the focus back in game development within ActivisionBlizzard.
Then there is the fact that Nintendo is a Japanese company, so even if Microsoft or any other Western company would want to buy them, it won't get passed the Japanese trade commission. Unless Nintendo themselves want to be bought out.
Looking on Google, the value of Nintendo is $95b. But I would expect that to buy it would be more than that. Plus Japan’s laws keep it difficult for foreign companies to buy Japanese ones.
I think Microsoft just saw that Activision’s share price was dropping to a value worth buying it- where the share price would go up BECAUSE Microsoft was buying it and hopefully righting the ship. Plus you ask if Microsoft hadn’t bought Activision, how long would it be until someone like Tencent would of?
Candy crush will likely keep making cash, and you would think MS will right the mess with WoW. The biggest question I have is if Microsoft owning Call Of Duty actually devalues some of their other FPS IP?
@Faruko I don’t think there was ever a question of Nintendo buying Microsoft. That is and has been a complete impossibility.
Nintendo would probably laugh at Microsoft again, if the idea was ever mentioned to them. Microsoft is planning to kill Sony. If they bundle the next CoD with Xbox Series X, and make it exclusive, bye bye Sony.
@CharlieGirl Nintendo is still a business. A business is mostly about making money. When the offer is right and the timing is correct, people would consider selling.
I guess Nintendo partnering with Sony is a bigger possibility, the PlayStation exists because of the botched deal between the two in the early 90s... or perhaps not, after all, that deal didn't come to fruition. Also, most of Sony's studios are Western, and their games seem aimed at a Western audience (God of War, The Last of Us, etc.), while Nintendo is rather Japanese.
But really, I think an independent Nintendo is the best situation for both the company itself and the gaming audience; the Big N may not be perfect, but I think that in order to produce great games, it needs total freedom to develop them, both in hardware and software.
If Nintendo was not a video game hardware manufacturer, then an acquisition would be possible. In the video game hardware market, it's pretty much an oligopoly, narrowed down between three console strains targeting the general market. An acquisition of Nintendo would be far too expensive given their relevance to the extremely tight and competitive market.
It's also worth noting how tightly-knit Nintendo's overall business structure seems to be. High levels of confidentiality running around with a LOT MORE non-disclosure agreements and many more claims over intellectual property. An acquisition from Microsoft would be very unlikely unless Nintendo's structure somehow collapses.
This subject reminds me a lot of a certain US president seriously believing that he could negotiate the purchase of Greenland, both in terms of how unlikely it is to happen and how little sense anyone would have to have to try it.
I wonder if the trust account is what was Hiroshi Yamauchi's holdings? Presumably his widow and children would have inherited his shares, but we all know Yamauchi-sama's history with family members...
Nintendo isn’t going to partner up with anyone. They’re in the middle of their biggest technological boom since the Wii, and it just seems like they’ll sell more and more. There is no reason for the big N to sell anything.
@clbowens nope. Nintendo isn’t for sale. There’s too much old money invested into the company where they would probably attack the Sony executives. Plus, Sony couldn’t afford them overall compared to Microsoft, Google and Apple.
If Nintendo were to court any buyers, it would be Apple or Google. More than likely the former since they’ve been admired one another for a long time from a distance.
If Nintendo were ever going to be up for grabs, Apple’s very deep pockets and culture would get Kyoto to budge toward an American company.
@Crockin
I agree, unfortunately.
I don’t think people understand just how much money the Five Gods of Tech have. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Tencent all together have a combined worth that if they were a country they’d be the third largest GDP in the world after the PRC and the United States.
Things are going to change drastically in every facet of entertainment and tech over the next five years.
@Rosalinho his spirit is still in their shareholder list. Guarding them. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple somehow had his blessing from his will.
I’ve never understood why Nintendo don’t get on the buying wagon?
I mean they could afford atlas and rare but they passed at the time?
I’d really like to see they buy Sega and Capcom but that would never happen?
I've always thought a Disney/Nintendo hook up makes a lot of sense.
This topic never crossed my mind...y'all are some drama queens.
I'd be okay with it if they did. Finally have Nintendo games on decent hardware. Also, finally have access to their entire catalog instead of the slow drip feed that restarts every generation.
microsoft cant buy japanese game companies so not going to happen.I rather see nintendo buy out platinum studios since they have a good relationship with them and even konami which they continue to leave their ips collecting dust.
@RiasGremory
Yeah I had a small wish list of companies I wish Nintendo would purchase , Platinum Games makes a lot of sense. Konami would be sweet but unlikely to happen. Even Sega makes a ton of sense for Nintendo..they’ll have to invest all this Switch profit eventually…
It won't happen! If someone might buy Nintendo it probably would be either Sony or Tencent since they are both asian. But I don't think it will happen soon, business still goes to good for Nintendo for that to happen.
Nintendo is sort of an anomaly, but so is the Lego company for example. Lego almost went bankrupt many times. Both companies provide something unique but it's hard to keep it forever. Nintendo is at the crossroads, again and again, trying to figure out what do, and in the end it branched out to Mobile gaming and one day it must decide if the videogame hardware business is viable or not, if they can keep selling things like Switches forever. It's all about the hardware.
Otherwise Nintendo is like Capcom or SEGA or a million of others, indeed like Activision, and it is actually quite likely that one day it will be acquired or merged. But with hardware, it's its own beast. That's really what it's all about.
Microsoft might not buy Nintendo…but Bobby Kotick will! That’ll clean up his image! 😂 god could you imagine?!
@TheRedComet I’m certainly no expert on this, but it just seems really obvious at this point. Who knows when, but I think it’s coming some day
It won’t happen, but maybe they can buy some studios that make games for nintendo? What if they buy Monolith Soft? Then nintendo will not have xenoblade anymore. What if they buy capcom? The we will never see a monster hunter for nintendo console anymore… the fact that MS can buy activision with so much money makes almost everything possible in gaming.
@Jeronan
Yeah I agree with you. There has to be good business ‘sense’ or reason for one major corp to acquire another one. Even though M$ is lined with cash they too have investors and spending billions has to be board approved.
As you said M$ is buying IPs that are already a big part of their platform and having exclusive rights to those IPs helps them and hurts $ony. Plus they supposedly want a bigger ‘family’ library and Act/Bliz has a lot of IP’s like Crash and Skylanders they can use to further their aims in the US.
If anything it really makes the most sense for M$ to try to play nice with N as N is $ony’s competitor in Japan. I would like to see more co-operation as the M$ ports for Switch have been great and their markets aren’t really in opposition. Imagine if we could get a Forza 4 port and Gears or Halo on the go, Also it would be dirt easy to make a cloud client for Switch to be able to play Game Pass cloud games. Nintendo could dangle some carrots to by offering some of their second party stuff. Imagine having the new Mario Rabbids game and Bayo3 on Xbox. $ony fanboys would be crying and both N and M$ fans would be winning.
@87th look up the Nintendo corporate governance report from November. Sounds to me like Nintendo will leave being acquired up to shareholders and Nintendo does not look like they are against it. Activision $ number just set the bar, if they offer enough I think Nintendo will consider
This article actually is pretty good but it misses a key .., honestly THE key point, of acquisition and hostile take over ... the companies charter. The article becomes a lot smaller if you take that into account:
"Microsoft buying Nintendo is, while not technically, at least effectively impossible."
Oh ... I guess you want more then that. Sure. Nintendo is a Kabushiki Kaisha (KK) which mans that ownership (people who own shares) and management (people who can ... sell to Microsoft) are not directly connected by any external law. Instead, it's 100% up the company to set what the looks like in the articles of incorporation.
Given that Nintendo's charter says that the Board of Directors can regulate the sale of stock, this leads to a very interesting situation where the current board of directors can call a "red alert" and start adding regulation to prevent the transfer of shares or change how the board is elected as soon as it starts to see a hostile takeover incoming. A hostile takeover bid is shut down this easily - "Wow, Microsoft sure seems to own a lot of our shares, let's change the company laws so Microsoft can't buy any more shares without our approval". They could, in theory, even make it so control of the company lies with someone or a group of someone's not related to ownership.
Now obviously Microsoft COULD still take over Nintendo, but it's a years long process of influencing the election of board members to the point where such a reaction isn't possible, it's not just hitting the COE over the head with a suitcase of money like it often is in the US.
It's also important to not understate how much Japan hates not Japan. If Microsoft bought Nintendo, the zoning laws of every square meter of land Nintendo has a building on would change to "Nature Preservation" that same day and they would be required to relocate. They would lose their contracts to hook up to city controlled utilities like water and power. Almost every Japanese national would quit. Look it's an INSANELY polite, respectful, and superficially welcoming country as a rule, and it's not like I walk around the streets of Japan worried a cop is going to stand on my neck for 7 minutes, 46 seconds (although I get carded basically every day), but they are going to answer a call to arms with a dramatic, universal rejection of what they see as a threat to "Japan-ism".
Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard because they wanted to sell. Im just glad Facebook turned down the purchase. That wouldve messed up gaming for sure. I dont see Microsoft being interested in Nintendo at all, except maybe getting game pass cloud gaming on it somewhere down the line.
Microsoft will destroy any company that they buy anyway
Activision and Bethesda will not last in the future
We're are rare games these days all the staff left when Microsoft took them over.
Gaming future is looking grimm right now
And let face it the xbox is not selling and that is why they are buy everything
I'm kind of a dummy and not gonna pretend to understand business and corporate law, especially those related to foreign entities. As such, I have no opinion on the matter but I will say that it's been interesting watching this matter unfold and reading the discourse. Only time will tell what moves these big companies make next!
I'm more surprised that people actually thought this was a concern.
@Specter_of-the_OLED Nintendo bought the final shares in 2014, so they are no longer family owned.
Its not always about the money spiderman...
@Mirage-5x5 You are confused with the big publishers like EA.
They destroy anything they buy and touch. Especially EA has a very bad reputation.
Microsoft games/Xbox division with Spencer at the helm actually plays really nice with the studios and keeps them operating independently and on their own, without much interference.
Sony actually does a similar thing with their own studios.
@HeadPirate excellently put - i think too many others are thinking of acquisition with a western mindset
This won’t happen because Nintendo doesn’t want it to happen
End of story
You won't know that Microsoft has acquired Nintendo until the deal is done.
When they acquired Nokia, the Nokia name stayed as Nokia for a while, until the phones became Windows Mobile.
Nintendo has nothing to fall back on if the next gen console doesn't perform well. We will be back in Wii u territory. Gaming is only a small part of the Microsoft and the Sony companies. But is every thing Nintendo has got.
@HotGoomba Hahahahaha VEEEERY GOOD!!!
Ninty will never sell what they are! However, They probably won't ever make a new F-Zero either!!!
We do not need this article to know Microsoft are not going to buy Nintendo.
This is a bit of a non story to me. Nintendo won't sell out beacuse they don't need to. The World & his Dad already know that, so where is the story??? Take this bulldish story down & create articles that actually make the site worth coming to!
This is why some countries have anti-monopoly laws. Sony bought small companies to make new IPs but Microsoft is buying big ones JUST to cancel games on other systems. Financially its smart but its incredibly dirty tactics.
Really milking this activision thing nintendo life
Did people really think this was a possibility? We've been here before
Yeah, not going to happen. I like how some folks in the comments here are bringing up Sony buying Nintendo, an even LESS likely outcome. 😅
as far as sony goes, i just wish 2022 playstation would get in touch with 1998 playstation.
@Specter_of-the_OLED Microsoft is one of the richest companie in the world, they can easily buy Nintendo if they desire, Nintendo capitalization is worth less then Activision Blizzard.
@Sourcecode that was 20 years ago, Nintendo mind could have changed now.
Why do people always assume it would be Nintendo? Sony is in worse shape than Nintendo. Sony couldn't pay for Insomniac upfront. They had to use some stocks and bonds money.
Microsoft is one of the richest companie in the world, they can easily buy Nintendo if they desire, Nintendo capitalization is worth less then Activision Blizzard.
Nintendo market cap is 60 bn, but they wouldnt buy them for less than 150 bn dollars
@Giancarlothomaz wrong, that 68.7 bn was a 45% mlre than the real activision market cap, which was 38 bb, besides they were in many troubles and nintendo is king now, so they valua would be at least 3x more their current market cap to sale.
@Henmii over nintendos cold dead body they wouldnt let tencent buy them out especially since tencent has connections to the chinese communist government.
@Giancarlothomaz you do realize microsoft cant buy japanese game companies especially since their based in japan which i even doubt nintendo would let microsoft do that.
@mother_brain_85 wrong Nintendo market share still is $54.7 bilions dolars, Switch sucess dint changed Nintendo market share.
Honestly? Microsoft doesn’t have to buy Nintendo for them to enter into some major partnership in the future. I could see them collaborating on hardware and software without going that far.
Competition is good for overall product quality. I don't see Microsoft buying out Nintendo unless Nintendo decides to stop making consoles or they merge with say Valve or Sony. Never know, could make things very interesting. Personally, I would love if Nintendo came to PC/MAC. But who knows what's around the corner in 5-25 years.
@johnvboy Haha. This is an amusingly (depressingly?) apt analogy.
I feel like most people aren't even thinking this. Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda....they are all very different from Nintendo. Nintendo is much more than just software (consoles, theme parks, movies, toys, etc).
@RiasGremory
I don't know if that's a problem for them. Japan and China weren't friends in the past, but when there was a Olympic games in China Nintendo and Sega delivered their Mario and Sonic games. So there you go.
Personally I would cry if Tencent would buy them, but Sony or Microsoft...maybe they finally start using their franchises again. Nintendo is just sleeping on a big mountain of franchises, they do absolutely NOTHING with them!
@Edu23XWiiU While I don't see the deal on its own as being inherently anticompetitive or monopolistic... what you are describing, when and if the deal comes to pass, would certainly be an unfair abuse of power in a possible attempt to potentially gain a monopoly and would be very anticompetitive in my opinion. Although with the stiff competition from both Nintendo and Sony, I don't think they would actually be able to even achieve a monopoly in the console gaming market.
Good thing I don't think Microsoft is that stupid these days. At least under the current Xbox leadership, they see the value of cross-platform games where it makes sense. If anything, they would probably make single-player campaigns and spin-offs of the Call of Duty series Xbox/PC exclusives, while making their massive, online, free-to-play games in the series available practically everywhere, so all that $$$ from those microtransactions can keep coming in from every direction. They are not going to limit their profits to what may even be the least-selling console of the three, even if it is their own, and they have proven this. See: Minecraft.
As for their other franchises, my prediction is that they may come to other platforms at Microsoft's own discretion, based on how well the game would fit with a given console's user base. See: Ms. Splosion Man, Ori, Cuphead, New Super Lucky's Tale, etc.
And as for already-released games by Bethesda, Microsoft hasn't removed any of the Doom games from Nintendo or Sony's online stores, have they? Nope. In fact, if I remember right Doom 64 was released on pretty much all platforms while Bethesda was already a part of Microsoft. Same with Quake. Nothing was, or likely will be, retroactively removed. Another case in point? Look no further than the now Microsoft-owned Rare N64 classic Banjo-Kazooie, just released literally today on the Nintendo Switch Online service, and even playable with an official, authentic wireless replica Nintendo 64 controller. You can't even get that experience on the Xbox, although you can play the game on Microsoft's platform.
I don't think this is quite the same Microsoft as it was back in the mid 90s. I know, I was there. I still see their management and handling of the PC/operating system business as scummy yet toned down from the past and I have been a Linux user since about 2004-2006 with no intention to ever look back, but their Xbox division really seems to be handled even better than the main corporation and their traditional products. Which, again, by 1990s Microsoft standards is relatively tame... a shadow of its former self.
@earthinheritor
I’m not sure I would call it dirty tactics. One of the big reasons M$ languished last generation was because they couldn’t match $ony (or Nintendo) with exclusives and more particularly first party exclusives. If M$ is going to stay competitive in gaming they have to have IPs that differentiate themselves. With their recent acquisitions they now have many iconic IPs and the development houses to produce the content. Plus Activision is a mess and needs a helping hand to right the ship so they were primed for a takeover. The only persons who will be effected are $ony and $ony only fanboys. Too bad right, I can’t play Drake or Ratchet on Xbox so thats why I just own all them all and don’t pick favorites. For those who can’t own them all then you have to pick which system gives you the most of what you want and in that case M$ is lining their library with heavy hitters and only helping their cause.
@Rainz Nintendo is investing the Switch profit in more development buildings.
@UltraZelda64 they have a really healthy relationship with Nintendo now, so much that their games are coming out on Switch, and even the Rare classics will come to NSO. I do think they see Sony more as competition, hence the buyout of Activision Blizzard, and now Sony is basically begging Microsoft to keep Call of Duty on their console. Like you said, the online, free to play games of CoD might still be multiplatform, but the main entries will most likely become exclusive to Xbox, and that will hurt Sony in the long run. And yes, it seems that the Xbox department is being handled a lot better than the rest of Microsoft, and their basically turning the videogame business into their main structure. Let's see how this all plays out in the long run.
@Giancarlothomaz
Smart investment if that’s the case. They have piles upon piles of cash. They probably have Wii money they haven’t even spent yet! Nintendo rarely makes acquisitions, they are a picking bunch and for good reason. Instead of simply purchasing new studios perhaps they think smarter and partner with a chip manufacturer…not purchase them outright but enter into a tech deal. Almost sounds like something Nintendo would do, perhaps they announce a entertainment partnership with Disney perhaps?
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