Microsoft wanted Nintendo

Way back, when rumors started circulating that Microsoft was getting into the console business, there were also rumors that the big MS wanted to break in via acquiring Nintendo. Years later, the truthiness of that statement comes out (yes, I said truthiness – I like the word and know it’s not a real word).

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.

Honestly, I’m glad MS didn’t purchase Nintendo. I’m fairly confident that with MS in charge, Nintendo would have worked on the “escalating performance metric” console style, rather than the “just make gaming more fun for more people” console style. We’d now have PS3 vs. XBox360 that way. The way things are now, we have those 2 vs. Wii (which to let you all know, I would like to receive as a Christmas gift, so start saving – you only have a few weeks to buy and ship it to me).

[tags]Microsoft wanted Nintendo, Console wars could have been two-way instead of three-way[/tags]