Microsoft wanted to buy Nintendo instead of Build Xbox

[Zeus]

In an interesting look at the rise of MS's J Allard, Businessweek indicate that MS wanted to buy Nintendo before producing the original Xbox in order to enter the console market. Allard ultimately pushed to keep things in house ala the Xbox and gained rewards :).


Just like the pre-Internet days, Microsoft was stuck thinking conventionally. Allard's bosses wanted to develop a video game version of Windows and get computer makers, such as Dell Inc., to build the device. But the industry didn't work that way. Hardware makers lose money on console sales and make it back from royalties on games. When it became clear that Microsoft had to enter the console business, building from scratch wasn't his superior's first choice. "I wanted to acquire Nintendo," recalls Rick Thompson, a vice-president who then ran the hardware business. Allard pushed to do the whole project in-house, and Microsoft ultimately vaulted ahead of Nintendo.

Allard's reward for the success of Xbox was being put in charge of finding new multibillion-dollar device businesses, which became the quest to topple Apple's iPod. The enemy in this case is very familiar: Behind Allard's desk is a crystal given to him by his boss, Microsoft entertainment division President Robert J. Bach, upon his 15th anniversary at the company. In the middle sits a photo of Steve Jobs. Always the iconoclast, Allard works on an Apple G5 computer, next to an obviously less frequently used pc. Allard says it's important to learn about the competition.


Read More: <A href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_49/b4012001.htm" target="_Blank">Businessweek</a>

[Kenban]

Talk about rewriting history. Only two or three years ago Bill Gates was saying that Microsoft made an offer to Hiroshi Yamauchi (largest shareholder of Nintendo) to buy him out before making the xbox. Bill also went on to say that the offer was still open and that if Yamauchi were to phone him that they wanted to work out a deal.

Hiroshi Yamauchi was the president of Nintendo from the 40's (might have been some time in the 50's) until only a few years ago. He took the company from making playing cards and turned it into the video game company it is today. Although there is a long history in between including food production, owning a chain of love hotels, a taxi service, and childrens toys.

An interesting note Nintendo a company that was founded in 1889 is only on its 4th president.

[wigsplitta]

This would have been the easiest way to enter the console market although I think they would have destroyed the Nintendo that we love.

[TheClockWork]

Absolutely :)

[Trashcat]

Microsoft was involved in the developement of Dreamcast I wonder what went wrong there.

[MadonnaProject]

If they would have bought out nintendo it would have done everyone a great service and people wouldnt be stuck buying garbage hardware from that company and its crippled consoles. the gamecube was crippledby the media of choice and the wii is crippled by its strange controls.

plus microsoft would have retained the valus which make nintendo much loved amongst the idiots, yet it would have given the company and the franchises the much needed overhaul.

but then again you people ended up with an xbox with nintendo controls anyways so everything turned out the same.

[Retroboy]

nintendo will never sell out, untill its too late, if anyones arrogant its nintendo, when nintendo whent to sony to make a new console but ended up going seprate ways because nintendo wanted to stick with cartridges, which sony have proven that Discs is the future format for games.

[{{909}}]

ahem...

Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "SNES-CD". A contract was struck, and work began. Nintendo's choice of Sony was due to a prior dealing: Ken Kutaragi, the person who would later be dubbed "The Father of PlayStation," was the individual who had sold Nintendo on using the Sony SPC-700 processor for use as the 8 channel ADPCM sound synthesis set in the Super Famicom/SNES console through an impressive demonstration of the processor's capabilities.

Sony also planned to develop another, Nintendo compatible, Sony-branded console, but one which would be more of a home entertainment system playing both Super Nintendo cartridges and a new CD format which Sony would design. This was also to be the format used in SNES-CD discs, giving a large degree of control to Sony despite Nintendo's leading position in the video gaming market.

In 1989, the SNES-CD was to be announced at the June CES . However, when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement essentially handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNESCD-ROM format. Yamauchi was furious; deeming the contract totally unacceptable, he secretly cancelled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment.

[whackawookie]

nintendo will never sell out, untill its too late, if anyones arrogant its nintendo, when nintendo whent to sony to make a new console but ended up going seprate ways because nintendo wanted to stick with cartridges, which sony have proven that Discs is the future format for games.

sony was far from the first game company to use cd as a game base. sega cd, turbo grafx cd, cd-i, jaguar, and 3d0 all did it way before sony.

[BirthFromFire]

nintendo will never sell out, untill its too late, if anyones arrogant its nintendo, when nintendo whent to sony to make a new console but ended up going seprate ways because nintendo wanted to stick with cartridges, which sony have proven that Discs is the future format for games.
The main reason Ninntendo left Sony was because the original contract gave way to many rights to Sony and they realised that the last moment. What you're saying is not true because after Nintendo left Sony, they went to philips for a new cd-addon (CD-i).

[The Bat]

Microsoft was involved in the developement of Dreamcast I wonder what went wrong there.

Microsoft's only involvement was with the alternate development library which was based on Windows CE. Relatively few of the games developed for the Dreamcast actually used it, IIRC.

[pCeSlAyEr]

Microsoft's only involvement was with the alternate development library which was based on Windows CE. Relatively few of the games developed for the Dreamcast actually used it, IIRC.
but wasnt it using a form of directx?

[Evolution]

nintendo will never sell out, untill its too late, if anyones arrogant its nintendo, when nintendo whent to sony to make a new console but ended up going seprate ways because nintendo wanted to stick with cartridges, which sony have proven that Discs is the future format for games.


Edit:Sorry I never read the excellent reply from {{909}} :D

However Are you sure it was 1989 CES? I was positive it was the 1991 CES.

[The Bat]

but wasnt it using a form of directx?

Not as far as I can remember, heavily modified versions of Direct X and Windows CE were released for Dreamcast development, as part of Microsoft's earlier efforts to get into the video gaming market. For years I've been going by memory on this, but a quick check of Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast#Windows_CE) shows that my memory isn't so bad, in this case.

Windows CE

Microsoft co-operated with Sega in hopes of promoting its Windows CE operating system for video games. Windows CE offered easy porting of existing PC applications, as it came along with a special version of DirectX 6. However, compared to the Dreamcast's native operating system, it offered limited capabilities. When developers took advantage of the easy development offered by Windows CE, the resulting games (e.g., Sega Rally 2) lagged in performance and framerate. The only Windows CE applications known by most users were on a pack-in CD containing a CE-based dialer and web browser. Windows CE was not an integral part of the system. Instead, each game that ran on Windows CE had its own Windows CE version on the game disk which was loaded before the actual game.

[Scorpion3]

Hm...interesting. Although I agree, I don't think Nintendo would ever sell out. They're not all about the money, they're about trying new things with video games. I would see Sony selling out before Nintendo.

[daps83777]

nintendo will never sell out, untill its too late, if anyones arrogant its nintendo, when nintendo whent to sony to make a new console but ended up going seprate ways because nintendo wanted to stick with cartridges, which sony have proven that Discs is the future format for games.

so nintendo is going to sell out and go under? ok... so nintendo is the only company out of the three that makes profit every time they sell a system, the ds and the Wii. but they are going to have problems, yeah ok, whatever you say. we all know you aren't biased at all. and you never slam nintendo on purpose right? dude, why don't you just grow up, theres an idea huh?

eventually graphics on consoles will even out in the coming generations,and things like the way you control a console will be where the innovation is, well if nintendo does that part of it now, and catches back up with the graphics later then they will be ahead of the game. and with developers being more willing to go multiplatform we will start to see fewer and fewer exclusives until they are virtually a thing of the past, with the exception of first party games. and when it comes to first party games you are an idiot if you think that nintendo doesn't have the upper hand. so i don't see how nintendo is going to have problems. if you look at there hardware sales and game sales since the Wii came out the have made big time money. nintendo isn't going anywhere.

[WeSiDe]

ahem...

Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "SNES-CD". A contract was struck, and work began. Nintendo's choice of Sony was due to a prior dealing: Ken Kutaragi, the person who would later be dubbed "The Father of PlayStation," was the individual who had sold Nintendo on using the Sony SPC-700 processor for use as the 8 channel ADPCM sound synthesis set in the Super Famicom/SNES console through an impressive demonstration of the processor's capabilities.

Sony also planned to develop another, Nintendo compatible, Sony-branded console, but one which would be more of a home entertainment system playing both Super Nintendo cartridges and a new CD format which Sony would design. This was also to be the format used in SNES-CD discs, giving a large degree of control to Sony despite Nintendo's leading position in the video gaming market.

In 1989, the SNES-CD was to be announced at the June CES . However, when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement essentially handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNESCD-ROM format. Yamauchi was furious; deeming the contract totally unacceptable, he secretly cancelled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment.

all n00bs pwnd! thx for the history lesson.

[Retroboy]

no daps, its how i said, nintendo will rather die than be baught by sony or MS.

Just like the fans, especially a guy named Kai: www.kai666.com he woudl rather die than touch any other console that inst nintendo.

He is just like most people here, they kick off, go he used to kick off becuase i didnt buy a HDTV the same as his, he'd kick off becuase he makes codes, but when people asked for codes that required a expansion pack (therfore he couldnt make them) but i can via emulation, he'd kick off becuase its not on the n64.

He was such a freak, he used to steal other sites codes, slightly change them, and take credit for his own, since he got on the wrong side of me, i passed the word arround and now hes just a old nintendo fan with nothing left, nobody posts in his forum (only him replying to his own NINTENDO RULES, EVERY ONE ELSE SUCKS, LOADS OF SONY BAD PRESS, NOT A SINGLE WORKD WRONG FOR NINTENDO) and his site hasnt been updated since the 6,6,06, funny ehh.

I offered him DS codes, he wouldnt accept them, becuase i cant allow anyone in his site/forum to look like they can do something better than him or something he cant do.

And ive seen thousands of people here in MC who remind me of KAI.

[Ichijoe]

Meme sez it all rly...

http://img312.imageshack.us/img312/3981/wowoldnewsissoexcitingra7.jpg