In a new interview with The New York Game Awards on Twitch, Microsoft’s former president of entertainment and devices division, Robbie Bach, elaborated on the company’s previous interest in buying Nintendo. Microsoft was unveiled by Bloomberg earlier this month and approached Nintendo ahead of the release of the original Xbox and GameCube, but Nintendo apparently laughed at the company’s proposal. In the new interview, Bach underestimated the meeting and said that Microsoft had talked to several companies, and with Nintendo ‘they were opposite the offices of our offices, so it was not like we had to make a long journey to see them . “
“So we had a conversation and the response we got was probably what we expected,” Bach said. “You know, Microsoft does not have much to bring to the table, Nintendo has been successful and has always been a kind of standalone enterprise – doing a lot of their own content, but Bob [McBreen] and his team explored every corner. ‘
While it seems like Microsoft had a clear idea of how the conversation would go ahead of time, it’s interesting to think what could have been there! After Nintendo’s rejection, Microsoft began creating the Xbox brand. Interestingly, Bach revealed that Microsoft was also considering competing with Nintendo in the hand market.
“There were at least three groups that offered portable Xbox offerings. For some reason, they always mentioned X-Boy. It was probably a big branding issue. All three times we decided not to do it,” he said. he said. Bach.
“It would have meant starting another team; it would have been like launching Xbox, except to create a handheld, and we just did not have the bandwidth to do so.”
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Xbox brand, so Microsoft clearly does not need to use the Nintendo model (or its IP) to succeed. Meanwhile, Switch was nothing short of a huge success for Nintendo. The two would never form an official partnership, but Nintendo and Microsoft came closer with Banjo Kazooie and Minecraft‘s Steve appears in both Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Later this year, Banjo Kazooie will even receive its own amiibo manufactured by Nintendo, showing how far the two companies have come over the years.
Would you like to see a partnership between Microsoft and Nintendo? Are you disappointed that the X-Boy was not made? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to play all games!