When looking at how to grow its global business, Microsoft and its board of directors were “fully supportive” of the possibility of buying Nintendo.
In an email correspondence from 2020 between Xbox head Phil Spencer and Microsoft’s commercial chief marketing officer Takeshi Numoto, the idea was discussed with Spencer calling Nintendo “the prime asset” for the company.
Spencer said he had talks with the leadership team at Nintendo about future “tighter collaboration.” He admitted, however, that Nintendo is in a place where the company doesn’t have to make any large deals like a buyout due to “sitting on a big pile of cash.”
He added that a former Microsoft board of directors member has continued to purchase shares of Nintendo and would be pushing for more from Nintendo stock that could create future opportunities for Microsoft to come in.
“Without that catalyst, I don’t see an angle to a near term mutually agreeable merger of Nintendo and MS and I don’t think a hostile action would be a good move, so we are playing the long game,” Spencer said.
Aside from Nintendo, Microsoft was also interested in a potential purchase of Valve. No other information on that was discussed in the emails, though.
It’s been a bombshell day at Microsoft with confidential emails shown behind closed doors during the company’s case against the FTC becoming accidentally available online. In addition to talks of a desire to buy Nintendo, plans for a new controller, the next Xbox console, and a revamped Xbox Series X were all leaked.
What do you think of Microsoft discussing the idea of buying Nintendo back in 2020? For more Insider Gaming, check out what game remaster might have also been leaked by the FTC documents.
