Some time ago, Microsoft, as incredible as it may seem, made the proposal to buy Nintendo to have the games developed by the Japanese on Xbox. When those in charge of Nintendo heard the proposal, they not only refused, but laughed a lot. The information came from the Bloomberg website in an interview with the former director of Microsoft relations for Xbox.
Microsoft's former director of third-party relations for Xbox Kevin Bachus, during a debate on the creation of the Xbox, at one point in the conversation said:
"Steve [Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft] had us meet with Nintendo to see if they would consider being acquired. They just laughed so hard. Like, imagine an hour of someone laughing at you. That's how the meeting went."
Microsoft even tried to buy several companies when the Xbox was first being released, according to the interview. Among the game developers that received the proposal were: Electronic Arts, Midway Games and Square (before the merger with Enix). EA refused to close the deal while Square simply received a very low offer.
After the proposals mentioned above, Nintendo received the purchase proposal. Xbox's head of business development, Bob McBreen, told Bloomberg:
"We actually had Nintendo in our building in January 2000 to work out the details of a joint venture where we gave them all the tech specs for Xbox. So the idea was, 'Listen, you're so much better at the Mario parts of the game and all. Why don't you let us handle the hardware? ' But it didn't work out."
Nintendo did not immediately respond to the request. At the time, the Nintendo 64 had already been released and the company was preparing to announce the GameCube, consoles that sold less than the Super Nintendo (SNES). However, a few years later the Japanese company would later launch the DS and the Wii, two very successful platforms.
Microsoft bought Bethesda Softworks
Last year, Microsoft even bought ZeniMax Media, which owns the Bethesda Softworks studio. It is likely that the North American giant will not stop there and acquire more studios and publishers.
What could have happened if Nintendo had accepted Microsoft's offer? Perhaps the Xbox Series X/S would have debuted with big titles at the end of last year. Comment below what you think of this story and share your thoughts with us!
