Nintendo and Microsoft merge/acquisition theory
Since this week was Microsoft’s earnings announcement, that was obviously the topic of conversation with everyone in this industry. In a conversation with a former Microsoftie that certainly knows the company well (or used to at least), we discussed the following theory. Since Microsoft is still losing money on the Xbox and they are gearing up to compete with Sony they could either acquire Nintendo or spin out the Xbox division as a separate company and merge it with Nintendo. Why would they do that? Nintendo competes more with Sony than with Xbox, they have the DS that clearly competes with the PSP and Microsoft is not a player on that space. Nintendo is really focus on gaming while Microsoft is pushing the console as one step into an all-entertainment device for the living room (the same Sony is doing with the PS2 and soon with the PS3), Nintendo is successfull in Japan and understand the games that appeal to the Japanese (recently proven with the wild success they are having with the brain training games and the new DS) while Microsoft, coming from a PC background, does not understand console gamers as well. Microsoft goes after an older customer base of gamers while Nintendo tends to target a younger crowd. Sony has a broader scope in gaming that Microsoft could easily reach acquiring Nintendo. And hey, Nintendo is profitable while the Xbox is not and they are already based in Redmond so they would not even have to relocate them to Microsoft territory.
CD
