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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.
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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.
Nintendo of America has it's HQ in Redmond, WA, already.
I suggest a move to Walla Walla.
(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
How about the comments of someone who checked with Wired, or Nintendo's own response to the article?
Or you could, you know, go straight to the supposed source (Wired Magazine, Feb. 2005 issue), and see that it's not listed anywhere.
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