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EA Founder Predicts MS Purchase of Nintendo
New site Xbox2News.com (via Evil Avatar) has up an interview with Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts and recent AIAS inductee. During the course of the interview, he is asked what he sees as the future course for Nintendo. His answer? "My magic eight ball says they will be acquired by Microsoft within five years." Tycho has commentary on the man's forcasting abilities in today's post.
Where was it when you were trying to figure out if making 80 Army Men games in 3 years was a good idea?
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Today, Slashdot will post silly, unsubstantiated rumors from 'experts' speculating out of their nose.
Tripp Hawkins was also the CEO of 3DO, and we all know how well that worked out. I'd say his credibility in terms of prediction was pretty much shot since he thought the 3DO would take over the world. As opposed to, you know, being a wildly overpriced system with a handful of lame, FMV-laden titles.
If Nintendo were unprofitable, I would think they could be for sale.
But they are not. They are VERY profitable. They have the BIGGEST franchizes in games. They have no reason to sell to Microsoft unless Microsoft offers ludicrous money.
Also, Nintendo isn't just video games. Pokemon anyone?
Anyway, I don't see Nintendo ever selling to anyone.
He doesn't know what HD-DVD or Bluray is! He doesn't understand the question!
With regards to his Nintendo prediction, apparently no-one's told him that Ninty has been profitable for 43 years straight, and have something like $8 billion in the bank. Why the hell would they want to sell to Microsoft?
Do you guys really think Nintendo, a traditional Japanese company would ever sell itself to an American company like Microsoft? I highly doubt it. Nintendo is a very proud company, unless they're completely dead I think they'll keep kicking. If they had to sell out I'd think they'd be more interested in giving assets to Sony than Microsoft. I'm sure Microsoft would love to acquire Nintendo, that would probably help them out a lot in the Japanese market. But coming from the founder of EA I put little to no stock in his .02.
How long before Super Mario Brother XP is released?
They'd like to break into the North American market, and what better way than opening up shop in Redmond, WA. More over they could get back to their roots with a Nintendo branded version of Freecell.
Given their management's emphasis on employee culture, deciding to merge with an organization as large as Nintendo would be a real surprise.
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Yeah, I'm sure MS will try again after what happened last time. . .
http://www.gamerah.com/ver_imagen.php?id=226
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20547
(dialogue after rescuing the Princess from King W32.MyDoom):
"Thank you, Mario, but your spyware is in another directory!"
I don't think the two companies are really comparable. Square was (and Square-Enix is) mostly a game studio for one niche genre of games with an occasional non-RPG game here and there. All they did was make the games. Before the merger Square had EA doing their distribution in the states.
Nintendo, on the other hand, does more than just make their games; they handle all the other aspects. They handle their own distribution. They have a tremendous amount of capital saved up for investing on game production. They make their own console and portable systems. And then there's Nintendo's other side markets like Pokemon cards and such.
Square made a huge gamble on borrowing all that money for the Honolulu studios that made FF: The Spirits Within. The odds didn't turn out in their favor and eventually they had to sell that studio. Mostly like they mergered with Square-Enix for a major capital boost.
Nintendo on the other hand would have to make a really huge investment to put them in the trouble that Square got in. And given Nintendo's past conservative tendencies I don't think they're going to do this anytime soon. They're going to keep playing it safe for quite sometime into future. And it's going to keep earning them money.
-Shawn "If the Name Don't Rhyme It Ain't Mine" Conn
Those are also good reasons that Nintendo won't be bought by Microsoft. They've got dominance in the mobile market, but I'll admit (I don't like to admit, but I will) that that dominance is probably not going to last out the year.
Even so, Nintendo's not going anywhere. They survived major screwups in the past because they're a huge company, and remember that video games aren't their only product. Nintendo's been around since 1889, and they have a lot of power behind them.
The worst thing that I see happening to Nintendo (it's still years off if it happens, but the PSP just might be the deciding factor one way or the other) is that they'll go the way of Sega - not making systems anymore, but producing their games accross multiple other systems. They have the franchise power, and I believe they still have the genius in there somewhere to make truely new things.
Mario on the Xbox? Pokemon on the PSP? Zelda on the PC? Hell, I never thought I'd see Sonic and Mario on the same system in my lifetime, but it's happened, and I think Sega is better for it in the long run.