Earlier this month, Bloomberg published a story about how Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo many years ago.
EA at the time apparently told Microsoft that it had “no clue” how to make a console, while Nintendo reportedly considered Microsoft’s proposal hilarious, according to former Xbox third-party director Kevin Bachus.
In the same Twitch interview with Reggie and Jack, Robbie Bach – former president of the entertainment and devices division at Microsoft and Chief Xbox Officer – was asked to provide some information about the story and talked about how the tech giant “pure and simply looking for partners while exploring “every angle” and Nintendo was obviously located across from its own offices.
“In the early days of the Xbox concept, Microsoft didn’t want to do the hard work – that wasn’t something we knew how to do, so the idea was to look for partners. I talked to all the PC makers. , I talked to Sega and so I went and talked to Nintendo – they were definitely the big kids on the block and, by the way, they were across from our offices, so we wouldn’t have to make a long trip to go to I see them. “
“So I had a conversation and the reaction I had was probably what I was expecting. You know, Microsoft didn’t have that much to bring to the table, Nintendo was successful and was always a kind of standalone company – not a lot of content of its own, but Bob and his team explored every angle. “
“Eventually, we decided to go into hardware, which was kind of the last option and I know it sounds a little bad, but we weren’t a hardware company, so deciding that we want to produce hardware was a commitment. huge. And we tried a lot of different ways not to do that, and in the end we had to do it ourselves. “
Bach went on to explain how Microsoft seems to have been encouraged by third-party companies such as Electronic Arts, which wanted someone else to compete with Sony and Nintendo. In the end, the decision was to continue with the Xbox.
“I want to say ironically that the number one who told us we should make the hardware was actually third-party publishers. People like Electronic Arts and Activision and those guys wanted someone to compete with Sony and Nintendo – so having a third person in the market was good for them. And they didn’t want anyone to do what 3DO did, which was to license their hardware to other people, they wanted someone who had skins in play on hardware. “
“So, you know, ‘A.’ I had potential partners who said no, and ‘B.’ I had third-party editors who said, “You have to do this yourself,” so I did it. “
While Microsoft and Nintendo obviously did not reach an agreement, Xbox continued to acquire Nintendo’s favorite fan developer, Rare. Nowadays, the two video game giants maintain relatively good relations – the IP owned by Microsoft was recently represented in the Nintendo star fighter, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
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