In a new interview with The New York Game Awards on Twitch, former president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, Robbie Bach, explained the company’s previous interest in buying Nintendo. Revealed by Bloomberg earlier this month, Microsoft approached Nintendo before launching the original Xbox and GameCube, but Nintendo seems to have laughed at the company’s proposal. In the new interview, Bach downplayed the meeting, saying that Microsoft was talking to several companies and that Nintendo “was across from our offices, so we shouldn’t have taken a long trip to see them. “
“So we had a conversation and the reaction we had was probably the expected one,” Bach said. “You know, Microsoft didn’t have much to bring to the table, Nintendo was successful and was always a kind of standalone company – it makes a lot of its own content, but Bob [McBreen] and his team explored every angle. “
Although it seems that Microsoft had a clear idea of how the conversation will go ahead of time, it is interesting to think about what it could have been! Following the rejection of Nintendo, Microsoft continued to create the Xbox brand. Interestingly enough, Bach revealed that Microsoft also considered competition with Nintendo and the portable market.
“There were at least three groups that presented portable Xbox presentations. They were always called X-Boy for some reason. It must have been a huge trademark issue. Three times we decided not to,” Bach said. .
“It would have meant setting up another team; it would have been like starting the Xbox, except for creating a handheld, and we just didn’t have the bandwidth to do that.”
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Xbox brand, so clearly Microsoft didn’t have to use the Nintendo model (or its IP) to find success. Meanwhile, Switch has been a huge success for Nintendo. The two would never form any official partnership, but Nintendo and Microsoft later came closer, with Banjo-Kazooie and MinecraftSteve both appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Later this year, Banjo-Kazooie will even receive its own Nintendo-produced amiibo, showing how far the two companies have come over the years.
Would you like to see a partnership between Microsoft and Nintendo? Are you disappointed that the X-Boy wasn’t made? Tell us in the comments or share your opinions directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp let’s talk about all the games!