Rumormongering - Apple Could Buy Nintendo?

An anonymous reader writes "CNET wonders if 'Apple is about to frag the gaming community with a revelation that could shake Microsoft to its core: Apple will buy Nintendo. What could be more quintessentially left-field Apple behaviour than buying out the U.S.'s number three games console manufacturer?' The article goes on to compare the companies, saying 'both have followings whose brand dedication verges on the religiously devout' and design styles that are so similar that 'the Nintendo DS Lite practically looks like Jonathan Ive built it.' The writer says an Apple and Nintendo merger will 'penetrate the mainstream consumer market with Macintosh computers'. The possible outcome of a merger would be a console based around the Mac Mini. As for whether Apple have the cash to pull it off: 'Cisco was rumoured to be looking at a purchase of Nintendo earlier in the year, so the idea of Nintendo being bought is not outlandish in itself. Apple's market cap is $51.7bn (Nintendo's is $23.1bn)'"

Comments

Stupid.

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Article is speculation of the stupidist sort. Check this:

A Nintendo purchase could potentially let Apple bring the success enjoyed by the iPod to the Macintosh computer.

That is quite possibly the stupidest sentence I've ever read.

I certainly hope that Apple doesn't buy nintendo (even if they could) because the reason nintendo are great is because the concentrate on games, games, games. No failed computer / pda / music player / whatever for them. They just concentrate on what they're good at.

Any dillution of that fervour would be sad.

Re:Stupid.

[AKAImBatman]

Article is speculation of the stupidist sort.

Agreed. My first thought was, "Who let Dvorak out of his cage?"

While the white plastic designs of the current Nintendos and Macs may make them seem like a good match from a marketing perspective, this fellow's suggestions on technology integration show a distinct lack of understanding of the Game Console market.

Game Consoles are very good at what they do. They play games, and they support the graphics and sound of those games. Generally speaking, they are capable of providing a gaming experience far in excess of anything a general-purpose computer could do at a similar price point. The reason for this is the use of customized graphics, sound, and CPU hardware. Engineers who look at the specs of most game consoles tend to think, "but this would perform horribly under condition XYZ, which most computers see on a regular basis!" And they would, if they were made into general purpose computers. But they're not. They are focused gaming hardware.

Now the Mac Mini is NOT a piece of focused gaming hardware. All of its internals are all wrong. Its graphics performance would be slow, its bus bandwidth is poor, and its CPU is on a distinct bus from the GPU. Not a very good gaming machine.

Of course, all of this discussion is academic. Nintendo won't sell, and no vector exists for a hostile takeover. So it's a virtual certainty that Nintendo will not be bought off, even if Apple wanted to purchase them.

And how.

[cryptochrome]

I think anyone that has ever submitted a perfectly good verifiable story here only to see it rejected within minutes must be pulling their hair out when they see incredibly idle speculative obvious bullshit like this on the front page.

And they wonder how digg grew so fast...