Nintendo “Laughed Their Asses Off” at Microsoft Purchase Offer

Until the release of the Wii back in 2006, Nintendo was having a rather difficult time in the console market. Particularly as the GameCube, while representing an excellent system, wasn’t performing very well in terms of sales (largely due to it being notably underpowered when compared to the recently launched Sony PS2). – It seems, however, that around 2001, Microsoft decided to contact Nintendo to see if the company would be willing to sell up, and in a report via Eurogamer, one of the (unfortunate) people Microsoft sent to attempt this acquisition has revealed that all Nintendo could do during the meeting was laugh at them.

Nintendo “Laughed” At Microsoft Takeover Offer

In the report, Kevin Bachus, former director of third-party relations for Microsoft, has revealed that he was sent with a number of other colleagues to attend a meeting with Nintendo in order to discuss a potential takeover. Specifically, letting Nintendo solely handle the games while Microsoft produced the hardware. It seems, however, that like a job interview you know you haven’t got inside the first couple of minutes, all Nintendo could do was (I daresay politely) laugh at the attempt.

“Steve [Ballmer, ex-Microsoft CEO] made us go meet with Nintendo to see if they would consider being acquired. They just laughed their asses off. Like, imagine an hour of somebody just laughing at you. That was kind of how that meeting went.

The pitch was their hardware stunk, and compared to Sony PlayStation, it did. So the idea was, ‘Listen, you’re much better at the game portions of it with Mario and all that stuff. Why don’t you let us take care of the hardware?’ But it didn’t work out.”

What Do We Think?

If an acquisition of Nintendo was ever going to happen, then the period of around 2001-2005 did seem to represent the best opportunity in terms of the company being at their weakest. As such, I can’t entirely blame Microsoft for at least considering it. – Looking at it retrospectively, however, all I can say is that I’m glad I wasn’t the person Microsoft sent to pitch the idea…

What do you think? Do you think the gaming market would’ve been better if this deal had gone ahead? – Let us know in the comments!