Doug Bowser: Nintendo Has A "Great Relationship" With Microsoft

Even AFTER those leaked documents?

@AndroidiOS No reason for them to be mad about it I guess, like the last time when they laughed in the faces of Microsoft executives. They probably read that email and thought "aww, that's cute of them..."

microsoft one day hopes to buy nintendo..

Doug Bowser: We almost touched hands once, but we both got shy.

If this is the case then when the heck are they gonna add Banjo-Tooei, Diddy Kong Racing, & Donkey Kong 64 into the N64 NSO?! WHEN?!!

Microsoft and Nintendo are in different spaces, and they understand that. Nintendo is and always has been focused on Japan. Microsoft has ZERO footprint in Japan, and if they ever are going to get one, it's going to be because they partner with Nintendo in some mind-blowing way.

Plus Microsoft hosts all of Nintendo's online infrastructure, so MS is never going to talk crap about that company paying them likely 10s of millions a year for services.

Julius Caesar had a fine relationship with Brutus, too, until the ides of March… 😓

They’re such great friends that one wants to own the other!

@AndroidiOS @Teksetter

I think Nintendo knows MS wants to buy them. The first clue was likely that time they flat out asked Nintendo if they could buy them in the 2000s. And the second time they did that around 2010. And that time a holding company bought up 2% of Nintendo's outstanding shares and MS bought the holding company ... likely a pretty big clue. Or that other time a $1.2 billion share acquisition was tied to a MS shell company.

This is like a "leaked" e-mail from football team saying they want to buy Cristiano Ronaldo so they can beat Al-Nassr. Yeah, it's a competition. That's how it works.

I also don't understand why people think companies DON'T want to be bought out. Companies exist to make money, and if the share holders at Nintendo felt the best way to make money was to sell to Microsoft, then they would happily do that. Activision shareholders made BILLIONS from the MS buy-out. No one is sad about it.

Question : What are your thoughts about Nintendo's relationship with Microsoft?

Me : Port their Kinect XBOX 360 and XBOX ONE games to Nintendo Switch with two different gameplay style: Motion play and Button based play and I will be happy.

@AndroidiOS yo, you could've read the article and you would already know the answer . I feel like you just rushed down to the comments section to make sure that particular comment was the first

@Chibi_Manny DK 64 was never owned by Microsoft. DK64 was on the Wii U VC, so...

Rare replay please.

@AndroidiOS Microsoft provides a wealth of software to any company in the world, and has top-level development tools that are used even by Sony and Nintendo both. Windows and Office are obvious, but also Visual Studio (for Unity or Unreal), and online services like GitHub or Azure DevOps. Would be silly to fight over leaked e-mails, honestly.

Now if Nintendo bought Microsoft…that would be perfect

@FishyS

Honestly, if a new Spyro came out, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft developed it and straight up had Nintendo publish it. While I don't think we'll see gameplay integration like in Skylanders, you're leaving a ton of money on the table if Spyro doesn't launch alongside a toy line or maybe even a new cartoon. Microsoft just doesn't have the teams for that, while it's Nintendo's bread and butter.

Sony insisted on the PlayStation release of Minecraft showing "Mojang AB" as the publisher, but for the Japanize release Nintendo has zero issue with a game on Nintendo console saying "Published by Microsoft" ... so it's not as far fetched as it might sound. Plus you can buy official Nintendo themes for Xbox though Xbox marketplace, with licensing money going to Nintendo ... so we know the don't mind sharing the pie.

@ferago42 wealth of technology lolz

If we are being honest, their partnership doesn't extend much further than mutually beneficial projects and fulfilling contractual obligations after an aquisition.

Sure, CoD will be coming to Switch (because that appeased some competition regulatory body) so that makes them partners. And we can't rule out other oddities in the future, but make no mistake, Microsoft are not a third party publisher. If 'XBox Gaming' was in pole position, then Minecraft would be an exclusive in order to continue growth etc etc yadda yadda. Their aquisitions are to help provide Gamepass with 'originals' much like Netflix.

I mean I have always thought Nintendo and Microsoft were friendly, and like friends they have their disputes, this nice relationship can benefit us a lot so I hope it stays that way.

@TanookiLeaf

All Microsoft first party games, and therefor any future Crash and Spyro games, release day and date on PC.

I think they are going to come to Switch for sure, but even if they don't ... you won't need to buy an Xbox.

@TanookiLeaf pretty much this, as long as any future Crash and Spyro games, make there way to a Nintendo console, then I'm good.

Cuphead, Ori. Microsoft doesn’t need a handheld. They just leverage the Switch.

Kinda sick of the talk and just want to see it happen. The Wii U got a COD game, it would be nice as a show of goodwill to port an old game like Advanced Warfare for current Switch gen owners before releasing new COD games simultaneously on all next gen platforms including Switch 2

@HeadPirate
I dunno, what you’re saying makes sense somewhat - money talks and MS’s intentions are pretty evident to most everyone at this point, certainly to Nintendo - but I can easily imagine reasons why (money or not) Kyoto will resist being bought out by Silicon Valley in this case.

IIRC, even if the BOD of Japan’s proudest house of ideas decides to serf the company out to Microsoft, and Nintendo’s bylaws and shareholders allowed it, any significant foreign investment or acquisition of shares is subject to review and cancellation by the Japanese government. And I’m sure the Ministry of Finance would be quite keen to keep those dividends and taxable income focused on their side of the Pacific!

wasnt microsoft like outwardly talking ***** on nintendo and playstation last month

Screw Xbox

Nintendo and PlayStation should team up as one (I know they sort of tried that once already before Nintendo double crossed them) to defeat big bad Microsoft

@AndroidiOS If anything, whilst there was an absence of reality in the leaked memo, it was quite flattering and just shows the respect that Nintendo has in the industry and continued recognition of their relevance.

Market share in business, who'd of thought of such a notion.

A pipe dream but who wouldn't want to own Nintendo.

Standard business talk about successful competitors.

It's a good thing Nintendo's HQ is in Japan. I'd easily imagine Doug Bowser being corrupted into selling Nintendo to Microsoft if it was an American company.

@Anti-Matter I think that tech died and the consumer confirmed it with their wallet. And let's be honest, it didn't exactly work that well.

VR has the motion tech monopoly now and that's probably the best place for it. MR is the evolutionary next step but it won't be just gaming.

Recently I realized, I really do not like X Box. So please stay away from Nintendo.

@Teksetter

You're over complicated it. The point is simple; if it make sense to sell, a company well sell and they would be allowed to sell. It's not a personal or emotional consideration.

Your augment that Nintendo couldn't be forced to sell is true, but that's not the point. My point is that the overwhelming majority, over 90%, of takeovers are NOT hostile. They generally happen because both parties think it's a good idea and the board unanimously approves it. This perception that one party is upset because they "got bought out" is just not accurate.

Nintendo wants to make money for it's share holders. If they don't want to sell, it's because they think the share holders will make more money in the long term holding onto their shares then they would make in the short term from the increase offered by a buy out. Period. That's the only consideration. If that changes, so will their position.

No one's feelings matter in the board room.

So apart from hosting the Nintendo online infrastructure, what's coming xbox's way from Nintendo? It's hard to see any Nintendo IP ever appearing on a non Nintendo console

Fusion: MicroTendo
And then the old Add revived "Now your playing with Power"

Nice to see. Hopefully we get more Rare titles on NSO(or just Rare Replay straight up). Also would like to see Hi-Fi Rush on Switch or Switch 2 with a physical edition.

@Duncanballs
Microsoft have ported their Kinect XBOX 360 games such as Kinect Disneyland Adventure and Kinect Disney Rush on XBOX ONE with Normal gameplay (No Kinect using) so I think those games can be ported to Switch or even PS4 / PS5 with button based gameplay.

@EmpathTheOracle Correct!

@Anti-Matter I guess they could, but the more pertinent question is whether they should. Reviews and sales probably say otherwise.

Can't wait for Nintendo to buy Microsoft.

I mean if it means the odd xbox game came to Nintendo platforms, then cool. HI-FI rush and pentiment would probably work great on a switch, just like the Ori games.

@TanookiLeaf I hope it leads to my boy Crash finally making it to a smash bros. Being able have a match between mario, sonic and crash would blow my inner child's mind

I hope Nintendo never gets bought. One giant company to rule the whole industry would be bad for consumers.

In that case, give us a new Banjo-Kazooie and Diddy Kong Racing game. And throw in Conker as well.

@Little_Squee

One for the Dark president on his dark throne;

In the Land of Microsoft where the shadows lie.

One corporation to rule them all, one corporation to find them,

One corporation to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them;

In the Land of Microsoft where the shadows lie.

No, thank you.

Am I the only person imagining Microsoft as a giant green amorphis blob, lurking in the shadows trying to absorb its next victim?

Maybe it is just me, but when I read that “so-and-so insists that this happened” I automatically doubt it. I don’t know what it is about the word “insist” that does it to me, but anyway… glad they are on good terms, now we can get CoD in Smash (jk).

And by the way… @headpirate I like your PFP!

Well, duh, chances are we wouldn't have got stuff like Cuphead otherwise.

@JeongersGaming exactly. Being a corporate bunch themselves, everyone at Nintendo undoubtedly knows that Spencer's occasional "buy Nintendo" talks are just one of the many ways to keep investors listening and rubbing chins every other quarter report. And they likely perceive XBox as even less of a rival to them than vice versa since Microsoft has never dared to go portable in more than two decades of its gaming hardware history.

I don't use microsoft products. I'll stick to Black Ops 2 on the Wii U. They came keep all their trash.

The more MS run around buying up big publishers, ruining them and lowering the overall quality of games in the industry, the more it benefits Nintendo and sends people their way.

If MS somehow manage to buy Nintendo, then that could be the end of the industry as we know it. A market full of low quality games full of microtransactions and adverts. Nintendo's pride and standards are the only thing keeping the wolves at the door in my opinion.

Just get all the old Ultimate games own the Switch and I'll be happy

He’s sticking his head in the sand, buying up multiple massive publishers in the span of a few years isn’t the norm and isn’t leading us anywhere good. His attitude is exactly what MS wants, buy up enough of the industry that their competition kowtows to them, all those small indie studios he hypes up will be consolidated as well.
If these industry types publicly admitted that MS is playing by a new playbook with their mass consolidation plans there’s a chance this could be averted or delayed but that’s not happening yet, even the regulators fail to see this.

What kind of partnership do they have? Like would I be able to play a Xenoblade game on PC one day?

Behind the curtains I'd say Nintendo will use that info to keep it from happening.

In front of the curtains, it's just a publicly show to act like great friends and reap in the rewards with games added to the platform.

It's interesting that this came out not after the leak but after the merger was complete. I believe part of Xbox's argument was that Xbox also has Nintendo as a competitor, so pushing Sony out was not monopolistic. This would have likely hurt their cause if it was earlier.

Microsoft provides their development software.

Microsoft can burn in hell. I'm sick of them gobbling up studio after studio and IP after IP and making them MS exclusives. They finally got their paws on ActiBlizz so that's another library of games that's lost to Nintendo and Sony. Wish Nintendo and Sony just teamed up and started working together.

PR talk
I guess I just read way too much into this whole great relationship they supposedly have going on. At the very least it could have lead to Rare replay being released on the switch which was the bare minimum people were expecting but even that would not happen.
At least it could lead to an actually decent n64 NSO instead of the excuse of a library we currently have. The whole rare catalog should be in there. It's insane. Granted banjo is an absolute classic but even goldeneye just rates okay to pretty good in my eye but not much more considering the other existing fps on the system.
Perfect dark, jet force, conker, Diddy and donkey are all desperately waiting for release. When all of this is done we finally have an okay service and we can start talking about hidden gems.

Xbox pass coming on next nintendo console

Anyone who thinks Microsoft's internal emails released through court documents will harm the two companies relationships don't really understand how the business side works. They basically said "if we could buy them we would, but that's not happening" is more of a complement than anything. It didn't contain plans to do a hostile takeover, or plans to screw over Nintendo, it was basically saying due to Nintendo's strong IP history they'd put Microsoft in a better position in the market. That is a duh! If Sony could aquire those IPs you don't think they would? You think even corporate outsiders like Disney wouldn't sniff around Nintendo if they think they could score Mario, Zelda or Donkey Kong? Pokemon alone would put Microsoft in a much better position, let alone Nintendo's other IPs.

The thing is Microsoft and Nintendo will remain to have a healthy relationship provided they continue to benefit from it. It's really that simple. Nintendo doing a major course correction and possibly jeopardize not getting Crash, Banjo, Doom, Wolfenstein, or in the future CoD over a leaked email that was mostly complementary are fooling themselves.

As for Microsoft, they have inquired twice about owning Nintendo and both times were told to take a hike. It's really not going to happen unless Nintendo has multiple Wii Us in a row and even then they'd probably just go the Sega route before being bought out.

@CutchuSlow the relationship is more what Microsoft offers to Nintendo. Nintendo gets Minecraft, CoD, and access to Rare's IPs along with access to select Microsoft IPs. It's more a win for Nintendo. What Microsoft gets is good PR, extra revenue and penetrating a market that may traditionally not have interest in their consoles.

It's more one direction as far as IP sharing goes.

ah. I wish Nintendo would bring some games to pc, or just Xenoblade haha.

@Chibi_Manny Maybe when Nintendo puts a game on Xbox? You can't expect another console manufacturer to be as generous as Microsoft has been for the last few years.

@HeadPirate Most companies aren't as insecure as Sony, tbf.

@starlessone

Most fanbases are not as insecure as PlayStation you mean. Sony needs to project this idea that PlayStation is on YOUR side in a culture war of you own creation. No stinking MICROSOFT game is ever going to show up on your console!

Meanwhile, Sony has a multibillion dollar contract with Microsoft for Azur hosting and AI development because SONY exists to make money and doesn't care who they make it with.

https://news.microsoft.com/2019/05/16/sony-and-microsoft-to-explore-strategic-partnership/

@HeadPirate I said what I meant. Microsoft allowed Sony to keep their splash card on MLB the Show. Sony as a company are petty.

@starlessone

Explain the multibillion dolor collaboration for me then? And that photo of the two COEs holding hands at a presser where they are talking about the strong future that Sony and Microsoft are going to build together as partners?

Or are you one of them "facts don't matter to my opinions" people?

@HeadPirate lol. I'm not about to get into a pointless argument over a comment I made just because some rando thinks only his or her opinion matters. I corrected your attempt to put words in my mouth. That's all.

@starlessone

I mean, you could have just said "Yeah, it's that last thing".

You made my day. Thank you!

Is this relationship good enough to put Nintendo games on PC?

@HeadPirate

Yes and no….what your saying is mostly true in the USA and to some degree even the rest of the western world. Japan is a little bit different and the government and the companies tend to have a more protective stance about their flag bearing companies. Sure if N wanted to sell things could be worked out but N has always expressed an interest in staying ‘pure’ in their game development and system creation. As for the board and share holders, they might reasonably have concerns about selling to M$. Nintendo has dominated Japan, totally outselling both ps4 and ps5 almost every month since Switch 2017 release. Meanwhile Microsoft has never been able to sell the Xbox brand in Japan. 4 generations and 20+ years and they can’t sell crap. So why would a Japanese company that has largely dominated japan since the 80s want to cede control to a company that has failed miserably in their market? Meanwhile N has done great in N. America whenever they have a hit product. So sure M$ would love to buy Nintendo and get a true foothold in Japan but I doubt it would ever really happen……and hopefully it doesn’t because if anyone ever purchased Nintendo they would certainly effect their creative freedom and then they wouldn’t be Nintendo anymore which would be a true loss.

@QuickSilver88

I live and work in Japan around 1/3rd of the time.

The government, as well as the articles of incorporations of most companies, have provisions against H - O - S - I - T - L - E takeovers. There are no provisions against acquisitions, because if there were no one would invest. Stokes are literally worthless unless you can leverage them for control of a company.

Acquisitions don't mean the acquired companies stops operating. Most of the time, wholly-owned subsidiary continue to operate independently because it limits liability and creates a favorable tax umbrella. The exception is when you are buying a company specifically because it is failing. But when you buy a company that is doing great ... why risk changing that?

If MS bought Nintendo, it wouldn't go anywhere. It would keep on keeping on.

In fact the far more likely scenario in that acquisition would be an offloading of Xbox division to Nintendo. They would market the portable "Switch" line as well as the flagship home console, the Nintendo Xbox.

There have been talks that Phil's constant sucking up to Nintendo is because they have been trying to work out a deal like that for years, as well as brining Xbox Game Pass to Switch in exchange for a joint developed cloud based system that has Nintendo games on it.

The console war is only a thing that exists in the minds of teenage fanboys. Sony and Microsoft have a multibillion dollar AI and cloud partnership, and behind the scenes Nintendo and MS are constantly looking for ways to leverage each other strengths to maximize profits.

@HeadPirate

Interesting info and for sure I like the 'friendly' relationship M$ and Nintendo have formed. I think it benefits both sides. Its funny you would mention a Nintendo Xbox because when I look at the Series S I think it would be a perfect Nintendo home console. Its has a nice form factor, low power consumption (compared to Series X or PS5) and packs a lot of punch for a $300 kit. When you look at what Nintendo can pull off on Switch with an aged Tegra X SoC it would be cool to see what a Zelda or 3D Mario would look and run like on a even a tame next gen home console. More than a takeover I would just like to see more collaboration and maybe some sharing of IPs. COD and other Activision titles may find some success on Switch but what about Forza 4 or 5, on Switch or Mario or Zelda mainline game on Xbox. I doubt that would ever happen unless their was an acquisition. I think how M$ handles the whole Activision/Blizzard takeover will be very telling. If M$ really wanted to entice Nintendo they could give them gamepass tomorrow for cloud play. It wouldn't take hardly any effort at all to put a cloud streaming client on Switch and then sell a cloud only gamepass for say $5 per month. I am not a huge fan of cloud streaming gaming myself but it has improved greatly and some titles can be played that way without too much performance loss. One thing for sure is $ony is definitely a market competitor with both M$ and Nintendo so I think the some of the co-operation is a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. One thing you can't deny is M$ is making crazy investments in gaming. The development of the best pay to play service with gamepass, the acquisition of first Bethseda/Bioware and now Blizzard/Activision. M$ is thinking long term and while they may lose the hardware sales competition again this cycle they are well positioned to do well in the future when all these development studios shore up their lack of compelling content issues.

@QuickSilver88

Seeing you seem genuinely interesting, here's a bit of insight.

Games like Forza are meant to show off the hardware and generally are reliant on 1st party hardware tricks. Forza 6 looks almost as good as the new reboot because it took advantage RAM/IO pipeline wizardry that was only possible on the Xbox One. That doesn't mean the Switch flat out can't run it, but games like that almost never gets ports because you basically have to recode the game from scratch.

Ports are also heavily relent on software and expert systems (generative AI). Most games, even in this generation with Sony having the much larger install base, start out as Xbox code. They get software assisted retools to run on PS, PC and Switch simply because Xbox is the most "generic" in terms of code. One really interesting result of this is that software solutions to port FROM Switch don't really exist. Multiplatform games that "start" on Switch with plans to port if sales justify it are generally based on ISO or Android code, but porting something like a core Mario game or Xenoblades, which were made exclusively in a Switch development environment, would be unbelievably labor intensive and cost prohibitive.

Amazingly, the only Software tool to port from Switch was developed by MS studios. It's almost surreal to think that Microsoft could realistically and cost effectively port a Switch exclusive to run on PS5, while Nintendo and Sony both couldn't.

MS has offered Nintendo Game Pass. I don't know the terms, I wasn't in the room, but it's been discussed multiple times. At this point, it seems that Nintendo is the hesitant party.

It is MUCH harder then people think to tool a game for cloud play. It's not as intensive on the code side as a port, but it is a nightmare on the licensing side. Something people outside the game industry might not consider is that for most games, their are dozens if not hundreds of rights holders. Most of your music, sound and assists come from vendors. You license software tools and libraries. Your license is going to allow you to release your games on any console and PC, but not streaming. To make a cloud game, you have to contact all of them and renegotiate for the new distribution method. It's expensive (in the millions) and it's risky, because if a single rights holder refuses you either have to retool the game or give up.

(continues in next post)

@QuickSilver88

And last but not least, when it comes to competition ... There is a saying; Pepsi doesn't care if you drink coke. They care if you drink Pepsi.

Nothing MS is doing has anything to do with Sony. There are around 120 million people who play games on Sony hardware. They are brand loyal. There are approximately 2.9 BILLION people who game on browser and mobile but do not play on console. Phil and Nadella have said it a billion times ... COD is an afterthought IP that they just happened to pick up when they bought Candy Crush. It was a key point they keep going back to at trail. It's why they didn't care about the multiplatform deals. Buying Activation wasn't about getting another Bethesda, a studio that moved a few million Xbox units and game pass subs with it's AAA titles, it's about getting another Mojang, the studio that made it so Microsoft own the single best selling video game ever made and associated MS with gaming in the minds of 100s of millions of new gamers.

If you suggested in a board meeting at MS that they should try and "convert" some of the PS gamers to Xbox gamers, or talked about how MS should react to something Sony was doing in the existing space, they would laugh at you, fire you, laugh some more, then replace you with someone who's only mindset is how to get the 2.9 billion non-console gamers to associate "gaming" with the Xbox brand.

Here is the greatest lie of corporates relations. If you already own a Xbox, PS, or Switch, then you mean absolutely nothing to Sony, MS, or Nintendo. You are the least important person in the universe. The more loyal you are, the less they care about you. If you are a fanatically loyal Sony fan, then Sony cares nothing about you because they can sell you garbage and you will thank them, MS cares nothing about you because nothing they do will win you over. There is a famous document from the right after the Xbox One "always online" disaster where Sony discuss charging for PSN (before +). They say that while they still don't think most PS owners will pay $5 a month just to play online games, they figure fans would gladly pay $5 a month to not have to admit they were wrong about PlayStation. Sony used the fact that people has been fanatically declaiming loyalty to PlayStation, committing to buying a PS4, and saying they they would never go back to Microsoft to justify a massive price increase in owning a PS4 and going back on their promises of not charging for online features. What's most telling is the speak about the good will as a bad thing. They actually talk about how people being that happy and loyal is a bad indicator, because it means they are leaving opportunities to exploit customers on the table. This isn't unique to Sony, it's how every large company thinks.

THAT'S how a company sees a "loyal" fan. A sucker you need to bleed dry.

As soon as you understand this, the landscape starts to make a lot more sense.