In a new interview with The New York Game Awards on Twitch, Microsoft’s former president of entertainment & devices division Robbie Bach elaborated on the company’s previous interest in purchasing Nintendo. Revealed by Bloomberg earlier this month, Microsoft approached Nintendo prior to the release of the original Xbox and GameCube, but Nintendo apparently laughed off the company’s proposal. In the new interview, Bach downplayed the meeting, stating that Microsoft was talking to multiple companies, and with Nintendo “they were across the street from our offices, so it wasn’t like we had to make a long trip to go see them.”
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“So we had a conversation and the reaction we got was probably what we expected,” said Bach. “You know, Microsoft didn’t have all that much to bring to the table, Nintendo was successful and has always been sort of a self-contained company – does a lot of their own content, but Bob [McBreen] and his team explored every angle.”
While it seems that Microsoft had a clear idea how the conversation was going to go ahead of time, it’s interesting to think what might have been! Following Nintendo’s rejection, Microsoft went on to create the Xbox brand. Interestingly enough, Bach revealed that Microsoft had considered competing with Nintendo in the handheld market, as well.
“There were at least three groups that presented portable Xbox presentations. They always got called X-Boy for some reason. It would have been a huge trademark problem, I’m sure. All three times we decided not to do it,” said Bach.
“It would have meant starting up another team; it would have been like starting Xbox, except 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 Microsoft clearly did not need to use Nintendo’s model (or its IP) in order to find success. Meanwhile, Switch has been nothing short of a massive success for Nintendo. The two would never form any kind of official partnership, but Nintendo and Microsoft have become closer of late, with Banjo-Kazooie and Minecraft‘s Steve both appearing in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Later this year, Banjo-Kazooie will even receive its own amiibo produced by Nintendo, showing just how far the two companies have come over the years.
Would you have liked to see a partnership between Microsoft and Nintendo? Are you disappointed the X-Boy wasn’t made? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
