Microsoft has already tried to buy them multiple times, but it seems that Nintendo had another suitor just before the launch of the Switch.
‘If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em,’ has long been the logic of most corporations, especially American ones. Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard and Bethesda is the most obvious example of this in the games industry, but it’s been going on at a smaller scale for decades.
What’s also been going on for decades is companies trying to buy Nintendo. Microsoft has attempted to do so multiple times, including when it was first thinking about entering the games industry and as recently as 2020.
They were rebuffed every time, but a rumour has now emerged suggesting that Disney tried the same thing only a few years earlier… and were met with the same response.
The claim was made by former Imagineer Robert Carter, in a podcast from a month ago that has only recently gone viral. He was asked several questions about Disney’s business, including one about their failed attempts to buy Japanese anime studios – including Studio Ghibli.
Before he got into that though, Carter started his answer with the bombshell that: ‘In 2016, when Disney was still going really hot, there was even talk of buying Nintendo, internally.’
This resulted in shocked Pikachu faces all around for the other three presenters, although Carter offered no more details than the fact that, ‘They were not interested in the slightest.’
That’s certainly believable, as Nintendo goes to great effort to ensure they cannot be victim to a hostile takeover, thanks to large cash reserves and attempts to buy back stock whenever it becomes available.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer noted this in the leaked email that revealed Microsoft’s most recent attempt to buy the company.
‘At some point, getting Nintendo would be a career moment and I honestly believe a good move for both companies. It’s just taking a long time for Nintendo to see that their future exists off of their own hardware. A long time,’ said Spencer, in a comment that has not aged well, given Xbox’s current difficulty in selling their own hardware.
As for Disney, it’s always been strange that the company has shown so little interest in video games. Despite being in the position to take a leading role in the industry from its very inception, Disney has instead limited itself to a trickle of licensed titles and occasional, brief experiments in internal development.
2016 saw the cancellation of their last dalliance with self-publishing, in the form of toys to life franchise Disney Infinity. Its failure may have been what triggered the interest in acquiring Nintendo, combined with the fact that the company was then at a low ebb, following the failure of the Wii U.
However, a year later the Nintendo Switch was released, greatly raising the company’s worth and making them even less predisposed to a buyout.
Of course, there’s a chance that Carter is mistaken but Nintendo’s actions make it clear it knows it will always be at risk from larger companies but, especially while it remains as successful as it currently is, there seems to be no intention from Nintendo of taking them up on their offers.
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