{"id":57815,"date":"2025-09-07T18:34:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T18:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/article.php?article_id=2131323"},"modified":"2025-09-07T18:34:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T18:34:52","slug":"microsoft-tried-to-buy-nintendo-20-years-ago-but-they-just-laughed-their-asses-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/microsoft-tried-to-buy-nintendo-20-years-ago-but-they-just-laughed-their-asses-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo 20 years ago &#8220;but they just laughed their asses off&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/microsoft-tried-to-buy-nintendo-20-years-ago-but-they-just-laughed-their-asses-off.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>What if Microsoft bought Nintendo in the run up to the original Xbox? The last 20 years of video games would look pretty different, I imagine. Well, it turns out Microsoft actually tried to make it happen.<\/p>\n<p>In an oral history on the creation of the original Xbox published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/features\/2021-01-06\/xbox-the-oral-history-of-an-american-video-game-empire?sref=dJuchiL5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bloomberg<\/a> (paywall), those involved with the console reveal they tried to use Microsoft&#8217;s millions to secure Xbox exclusives, and actually met Nintendo to see if they would consider being acquired.<\/p>\n<p>But, according to Kevin Bachus, former director of third-party relations, that meeting didn&#8217;t go so well.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/2021-01-06-microsoft-tried-to-buy-nintendo-but-they-just-laughed-their-asses-off\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/2021-01-06-microsoft-tried-to-buy-nintendo-but-they-just-laughed-their-asses-off\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What if Microsoft bought Nintendo in the run up to the original Xbox? The last 20 years of video games would look pretty different, I imagine. Well, it turns out Microsoft actually tried to make it happen. In an oral history on the creation of the original Xbox published by Bloomberg (paywall), those involved with the console reveal they tried to use Microsoft&#8217;s millions to secure Xbox exclusives, and actually met Nintendo to see if they would consider being acquired. But, according to Kevin Bachus, former director of third-party relations, that meeting didn&#8217;t go so well. Read more Source<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eurogamer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo 20 years ago &quot;but they just laughed their asses off&quot; | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What if Microsoft bought Nintendo in the run up to the original Xbox? The last 20 years of video games would look pretty different, I imagine. Well, it\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/microsoft-tried-to-buy-nintendo-20-years-ago-but-they-just-laughed-their-asses-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo 20 years ago &quot;but they just laughed their asses off&quot; | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What if Microsoft bought Nintendo in the run up to the original Xbox? The last 20 years of video games would look pretty different, I imagine. 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