What If — Nintendo and Microsoft Actually Joined Forces?

— Nintendo Enthusiast:

Despite the fierce competition to win over the masses of the gaming community, the ‘Big Three’ have a noticeable level of mutual respect for each other. This can clearly be seen with Xbox Boss Phil Spencer, who has not been shy about sharing his love for Nintendo. In a recent interview, he even stated that he’d “love” to see franchises like Super Mario come to Xbox, and that he would like to work more closely with Nintendo. The chances of any of that happening are incredibly slim, but let’s just speculate for a bit. What if this actually did happen?

[PhoenixUp]

You couldn't even photoshop Mario shaking hands with Master Chief in the thumbnail for this particular article? What a waste. Even branding Sonic as an Xbox character seems revolting.

Anyway I don't see it happening. The most we got in the past were Rareware games, Blue Dragon games and Age of Empires on Nintendo handhelds along with Minecraft on Wii U after Mojang got purchased. Nintendo has no reason to fully Team up with MS.

[Ristul]

Exactly, since when is Sonic representing Xbox, he is a Sega character and now seems to be in Nintendo camp more then anything.

Microsoft needs Nintendo more then Nintendo needs Microsoft, I don't see it happen either, but yeah, any publisher would benefit from Nintendo's roster.

[bow2yoda]

remember when people said that sonic would NEVER be on a nintendo system? I dont know man.. some sort of partnership might make sense between the two. there is way to much bad blood for nintendo and sony to join up, but ms is a powerhouse in the west. look at the switch pro controller.. kinda resembles a xbox one controller. what if you could use an xbone controller on your switch and play a digital download of the new mario on your xbox... very interesting concept. i think i would enjoy it!

[Ristul]

bow2yoda: I don't think Nintendo would partner with MS even if they were desperate, they would seek revenue in other ways (and they are, their mobile games and theme park ventures are meant to increase their overall revenue stream). What you say about Sega is true, but in this case Microsoft is not going to be Nintendo's salvation. If Nintendo would be desperate enough to not have their own platform, they would go multiplatform just like Sega did, it would make more sense just by pure numbers. Sony has more then half of the console market, if you remove Nintendo platforms, that will by default increase. Why would Nintendo go exclusive to the platform that performs the worse? No, they would go multiplat if anything, and I don't see that happening anytime soon.

[MVGeneral]

Sony and/or Microsoft would benefit from Nintendo's roster of exclusive games.

Microsoft and/or Nintendo would benefit from sony's exclusive roster.

But I don't see anyone benefitting from Microsoft's roster too much. (Sorry to say)

Sony and Nintendo teaming up with effectively end any other platform competition and they would hold an ultimate monopoly.

[indyman7777]

Good point I mean think about HISTORY on what actually happens.

First lets take an example of Microsoft DIRECTLY taking over a awesome gamer maker then we will talk about what happens when a First party goes third party.

(By the way Microsoft did good at making there own franchises example, Halo 2nd party, gears of war, project gotham, forza, etc, this is only talking about taking over another company)

1 Microsoft BOUGHT RATE which made lots of awesome Nintendo Franchises which people forgot was not owned by Nintendo because of the quality and Nintendo only appearance. What happened with all those awesome NINTENDO exclusives they had? (Microsoft royally screwed them up, BAD.) Unlike what the article claimed Microsoft did NOT leave RARE to do what it does best make games. Same would happened to Nintendo.

2 Now lets look at what happens when 1st party goes third party (first up because more people will remember them). SEGA! Sonic, Daytona, Virtual fighter, Phantasy Star, and lots more was all the rage up against Nintendo in the console war. Once they went third party there was no need for them to make the games good enough to sell consoles. Quickly Sega sunk to bad rated games and sales.

3 okay Now most people will not remember the others that used to be hardware console or ARCADE but they where. In fact if you look it up there was over 30! Out of this 30 only Sega, Bankdai, Capcom, and to a much lessor degree SNK (Neo geo), were.the only ones that went 3rd party, and got back to being good after about an average of 8 years. But non at the previous level of goodness.

Console list scroll down 4/5 of the way

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

[SouthClaw]

One great thing (apart from many others) could happen if Nintendo decided to go down the software only route. We could finally get a proper remaster of Goldeneye on Xbox One since they were the ones to stop it before.

I've thought for years that Nintendo needed to leave the hardware sector and focus just on games or software for home consoles and continue to develop the area where they are strong which is handheld. I think with Spencer running Xbox he's changed their image a lot and Nintendo as a second party studio would be fantastic there. Quit before you become the next Sega and are forced to only do software.

[Aenea]

I think the chances of Xbox becoming a service and software only is much higher than Nintendo doing it.

After all Xbox is already going that route now...

[jholden3249]

I can see your point of view, and it's not illogical.

But I would hate to forfeit Nintendo hardware. A lot of people take cracks at them saying that games is all they're good at, but truth be told I value their hardware every bit as much as their software.

I'd hate to live in a world where we don't see systems like the Switch releasing. Regardless of how it fares commercially I think it's a fantastic concept, and something we would never see from Sony or Microsoft. Almost every generation they bring us something new- be it the Wii with motion, DS for dual screen portable gaming, Wii U for dual screen console gaming, 3DS for glasses-free 3D dual screen portable gaming...

Giving that up is not worth it to me. Sometimes their ideas succeed and sometimes they don't. But they are always willing to try something new, and that's rare in this industry. If they stop making hardware, we lose. I'm honest to goodness genuinely excited to see the Switch release. It's been my dream for years to have a hybrid device like that.

[demonddel]

The title clearly says what if apparently if it did happen some people won't like that man you clearly went into defense mode

[indyman7700001]

Then when you read the article it says what would happen. THIS is what people are disagreeing about. Not what if. The article is assumeing what would happen and going from history the article is wrong. Look at Sega, SNK, Atari, Bandai, over 30 other companies. out of over thirty only four are still making decent games (but still not as good as they used to).

[zerocarnage]

but there is a sonic game coming out on Xbox one next year or year after.

[XanderZane]

M$ should have bought SEGA when they were making all those games for their OG XBox. Not sure what Microsoft was thinking. They just let SEGA get away from them when they created the XBox 360. They could have had a lot of SEGA exclusives on the XBox 360. Kind of too late now. Nintendo and Microsoft might work together on a game that would be on both NX and XB1, but I doubt the big characters will ever be on the others platform.

[EddieNX]

I think they'll be ok alone with the switch.

[xfiles2099]

They would Partner with Sony before they would with Microsoft that is for sure

[DragonDDark]

Japanese + Japanese. Makes sense.

[elkaki123]

They have done it before and look what happened. I really doubt they would do it again.

[Raiden]

Nintendo would die on the sword before teaming up with an American Company, also, Nintendo wouldn't team up with Sony again, people need to remember SONY killed off SEGA and almost did the same to Nintendo, but Nintendo as a multiple platform I can see that happening.

[XanderZane]

Not likely as Sony stabbed Nintendo in the back many, many moons ago. Nintendo doesn't care much for Sony. They would work with SEGA before Sony.

[andrewsquall]

@Raiden "people need to remember SONY killed off SEGA and almost did the same to Nintendo" and all at the fault of Nintendo themselves when they turned their back on a partnership suddenly. It was their own doing remember.

[-Foxtrot]

That would be awful

Nintendo and Sony need to team up

Nintendo is allowed to do the handhelds and Sony can continue to work on the consoles. They share their IPs. I mean can you imagine Zelda, Metroid or Starfox on Playstation tec or even the next Smash Bros/Mario Kart with all the Playstation characters

[xDealtwithIt]

Nintendo would never team up with sony. That would be terrible.

Sony is more about pushing peripherals and complimenting their TVs and other non gaming departments with their system.

MS would be a better fit especially with all the rare titles they have.

Not to mention there is a lot of bad blood between sony and Nintendo, no way would they work with a company like Sony.

[-Foxtrot]

They almost did once upon a time

How would it be terrible compared to this idea? I'm just saying a Sony/Nintendo team up would be better.

Microsoft and Nintendo couldn't be more opposite. With Sony and Nintendo they are both Japanese companies and understand their audiences better.

[UCForce]

Microsoft is a western publisher. Can they understand Nintendo Motive ? No, they don't. Like @Foxtrot said, Sony and Nintendo are both a Japanese publisher. Remember how MS tried to talk and work with Japanese publishers. It didn't work so well.

Edit : But @Foxtrot listen to me, let's Nintendo do their own thing. I would prefer these companies do their own thing.

[xDealtwithIt]

@UCForce

"Can they understand Nintendo Motive ? No, they don't."

Yes, because MS being a world wide dominant corporation can't understand Nintendo's motives or anything Japanese.

lol!

[xfiles2099]

You are so wrong Microsoft is where games go to Die This is Pointless anyway Te Switch is going to be a awesome console Nintendo will be fine Looks like they are growing up

[S2Killinit]

Oh. Thats sounds not so legit.

[Razrye2]

Sony are pushing games more than ms.

[indyman7700001]

The last time Sony was going to be the hardware supplier (like AMD) and Nintendo they was not going to remain the console manufacturer. Sony didn't even have games back then, it was over 10 years later when they did.

[lastking95]

But Japan barely buy into console gaming sonys #1 audience is western! Just because they're both Japanese they should team up? In the world of business it dont work like that. Money and plan layout is what it's all about. However given more money and has a vision nintendo prefer is the one they'd partner with.

[XanderZane]

It obviously a lot of people don't really know the history between Nintendo and Sony, and how the PS became to be. lol!!

[xDealtwithIt]

@xander

No they don't. All they see is Sony can do no wrong and for some reason is the best fit even if it's vodka and milk.

[xDealtwithIt]

Being both Japanese doesn't mean they would be better together.

MS would be a better fit because they have more to gain with attracting a Japanese audience and Nintendo would want to have a better presence in the west in return.

Sony is not worried about that since all of their focus is mainly on the west.

[UCForce]

How ? Like MS throwing all the money to Nintendo ? Is that you want ? And also, you said that Sony focus on the West, you are not helping buddy. Sony focus both. All I think is that you have agenda and want to get rid of Sony.

[UCForce]

Is like you want MS to be empire of this world ? I'm not trolling here. After I seen your comment, your attitude are very questionable.

Edit : @XDealwithit Here the thing, MS have a rough reputation when come to partnership.

[Moonman]

Sony and Nintendo together would be a gaming monopoly. Nintendo and Apple together would be better than with Microsoft because Microsoft usually teams up to destroy the other company...lol.

[xDealtwithIt]

@UCForce

I'll never understand this way of thinking. So it's okay for Nintendo and Sony to work together (no questions asked) but as soon as anyone suggests MS and Nintendo do the same it's a background comment check, accusations of wanting Sony to go away and lastly wanting MS to be some global empire.

Too funny this site.

[ThatGuyDart]

"Nintendo would want to have a better presence in the west in return."

Doesn't Sony have the strongest presence in the west? In fact. Don't they have the strongest presence everywhere?

Yeahhhhh lol

[moegooner88]

All their focus is mainly on the west ? This counts as one of the most clueless statements I have ever read. Bravo

[Raiden]

Yes, Sony has nothing to worry about in Japan, because they know Japanese PEOPLE would never invest in anything American, but American's are dumb because they have no loyalty to there own home brands, cars tv and consoles.

Question how many Sony first party devs make multiplayer games

[xDealtwithIt]

@Raiden

Pretty sure the Japanese people love Apple as well as use windows for their PCs.

As for the rest of your comment, what?

[Lennoxb63]

Nintendo and Sony didn't work so well together in the past. Them both being Japanese meant nothing.

[-Foxtrot]

Times have changed

The Nintendo PlayStation never happened because Nintendo were too big headed thinking cartridges were the way to go over discs. They were wrong and Nintendos arrogance created PlayStation.

I'd rather see a team up then Nintendo going Mobile

[UCForce]

I would rather let these publishers go different directions.

[Indigon]

But the past is the past, both are Japanese companies. It would be a better fit.

[xDealtwithIt]

If the past is the past and they're both Japanese then why haven't they worked on anything together since their fallout?

Being both Japanese has nothing to do with them working well together. Hell that may be the reason they haven't worked together at all.

[Ck1x]

What Playstation characters? The same ones that graced PASBR?
Yuk...

[xDealtwithIt]

Exactly, a bunch of blood soaked characters along with a bunch of third party characters and yet Sony is a better fit.

[freshslicepizza]

funny how there is so much hostility even now towards microsoft mainly from sony fans that they cannot even lower themselves to think of the two collaborating in a what if scenario.

[xDealtwithIt]

And that's the funniest part of the whole conversation. Supposedly Nintendo and Sony are a better fit because they're both Japanese. The fact that was written and no one called that out is what has me laughing.

The mere mention of MS with anyone in a what if scenario sends these guys into a blood frenzy.

[indyman7700001]

Good point, except Nintedo thinks they can have BOTH with the switch. So if they got togather it would create a conflicting overlap (since switch would ALSO be a console).

[Segata]

Last time Nintendo teamed up with Sony we got the SNES sound chip but also Sony stabbing Nintendo in the back forcing Nintendo to go with Phillips.

[LaWiiG]

No way. Never going to happen.

[LOL_WUT]

Make it happen Sony or Microsoft! ;)

[Lennoxb63]

Well, anything could happen. Remember when Sega was partnered with Xbox?

[PhoenixUp]

That was when Sega was a third party publisher. And when Microsoft themselves were a third party publisher when they helped out the Dreamcast.

Gaming hardware manufacturers never help one another, so not anything could happen.

[Lennoxb63]

When Sega was a third party publisher? Sega had a console out at the time. Dreamcast was still being sold when the Xbox launched.

[PhoenixUp]

Someone doesn't know their history.

Sega announced they were going to become a third party publisher in Jan 2001 and subsequently discontinued Dreamcast in March 2001. The Xbox launched in Nov 2001, so Sega was already a third party publisher by the time Microsoft released their first console.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Microsoft didn't partner with Sega like you think. They peddled windows CE because it was easy to program for and port games over if you were a PC developer trying to get into the console business. And they wanted their OS to be the main OS in Dreamcast. Sega instead went with CE being used as an option to their own proprietary software.

Did Microsoft help Sega with money? No.
Did they make any games for Dreamcast? No.

Not a partnership to me but Microsoft's foot in the door for their OS in the living room.

[Raiden]

Sony destroyed Sega and made MS join the gaming why, because of the Dreamcast, that console was a partnership between Sega and MS, if not for MS the Dreamcast wouldn't have had a PC graphic engine or internet gaming. Remember the DC had this the PS2 never did, but people fell for the deception of the emotions engine which I'm still to see this awesome power, we are at PS4 and still waiting to that demo Sony had released at the MVC press conference back then, anyway all these Company LIE,

[ApocalypseShadow]

So much information to be found, so many legitimate questions to be asked, so much content to be reviewed....

But instead we're getting bargain bin news, blogs and opinion articles. So much waste. The possibility of this idea is so ridiculous to even answer.

[jznrpg]

Thats the majority of "articles" on N4G

[FallenAngel1984]

The only thing I'd like is for Diddy Kong Racing to come to Virtual Console, but I know Microsoft would never allow it.

At least Nintendo was able to get Donkey Kong 64 on VC along with the DKC trilogy that was previously taken off the service.

[Officialxandr]

PlayStation and Nintendo makes more sense and it'll be more lethal. My two favorite gaming companies coming together would be a dream. I'd like for Nintendo to make their games on PlayStation. Lol.

[rocketpanda]

Nintendo failed to work with Sony before the PlayStation became its own product. Fat chance them joining MS. They are already testing the mobile market which is more likely suitable for them to promote their IPs to newer gamers on the platform without aligning themselves with their consoles competitors.

[kaiserxblue]

this article, kinda sad, I mean what this guy wants it's to port Nintendo Games on his Xbox and think this alliance will blow Sony out of the water... in other words this is port begging...so now screw this guy and whoever thinks like him.

[thisismyaccount]

It makes totally sense for Nintendo to team up with someone, that the japanese (market) does not give a fukc about it. Only MS would win in this hypothetical situation (esp. in Japan), Nintendo not so much.

MS still has to prove themself, personally they have not done anything remarkable on their own besides pushing that "broadband mantra" aka digital downloads etc.. (no handheld, no own ip even though they claim to have twice as many studios as Sony or Ninteno, their strategy is to acquire studios/ips instead of making their own besides Microsoft Flight X ... etc etc).

Apparently even God and one of his apostle (Gates+Ballmer) didnt like the concept of the XBOX in 2001 until someoen mentioned SONY (sure ...)
http://www.lazygamer.net/ga...

Anyway, if JAPAN was still the leading market and with it we would get more platformers, quirky games like we used to. Emphasis on the VIDEO GAMING aspect, not so much on the narrative or killing each other in pretty much every friggin game coming out these days, the Xbox would haveb been dead yeas ago

It NEEDS its own turf to succeed, without USA it would flop terrible unless of course Sony does another dumb move an comes with a $599 consoles 1 year later. If you like Xbox, all cool and dandy. I pers. will never accept the XBOX as this "spiritual Dreamcast" successor, that to me and many others is insulting (sry DC > XB).

What if out of those 1000 XB2001 games only few were moneyhatted (close to 40%) and shemue2/mirrorwind/Gaiden etc were on the PS2 instead? Would that makes the PS2 too a spiritual Dreamcast?

They had the money to grab those deals, why else would someone around 2001 and onward go and release exclusively on a platform selling so poorly, of the 25ish million units 17 or so alone in the USA?

http://www.technobuffalo.co...
http://games.softpedia.com/...

READ POST #3 ... just says all about the notion/mentality around the "concept xbox" back then and pretty sure, it still applies today (at least in the USA).
http://www.ign.com/boards/t...

And my final 2c: "Can we agree that, without the help of the gruntled Mac/PC User the XBOX would have never taken off ....."

[zb1ftw777]

Mario on XBox would be incredible.

[Segata]

So would Gears 4 on Switch but it aint happening ever.

[zb1ftw777]

Gears 4 on Switch would be awesome.

You forget about Sega and Sonic though.

[Segata]

The hell does Sonic have to do with this? SEGA has nothing to do with anything said and look at my name son. I never forgot anything with SEGA,

[zb1ftw777]

Because you are too young to have been around when people were saying the exact same thing about Sonic.

"Sonic will never appear on a Nintendo machine, ever. The Genesis is just too strong".

You are having the exact same conversation about Mario that millions were discussing about Sonic in the 90's.

[Segata]

Too young? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Damn that's a good one son. You can't read my name can you. I been gaming for 30 some years dude. NES was not even out yet. I started on Atari 2600. SEGA was bad at managing money and was sitting on the edge of bankrupt for years not to mention SOJ never listened to SOA. SOA wanted SOJ to partner up with Sony for Saturn and had a spec sheet. PS1 uses the same specs proposed by SOA and SOJ used their own. By the time Dreamcast rolled out SEGA was beyond bankrupt. Only thing that saved them was the 700 million donated form the Will of the formerCEO. Nintendo is financially in fantastic shape. Nintendo has always been great with their money in making profit and taking little loss. SEGA was never in the best of shape money wise,just they were not in serious danger until Saturn.

[zb1ftw777]

And as soon as Nintendos hardware becomes a failed venture, they will roll their IP's out to other consoles.

You said it was impossible to happen.

Im not saying it will happen.

Im showing you under what conditions it is likely happen.

Ps - your communication makes you appear as a teenager rather than a man nearing his 50's.....

[Segata]

I'm lowing my level to talk to you. You seem pretty dull witted and I never said I was in my 50s.

[zb1ftw777]

I never said you was in your 50's either.

Ill just put this one down to "communicating with low intellect" rather than "he is too young" i think.

Happy gaming.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Having three systems on the market is the perfect number.
Having only two would be a bad thing for the industry, no matter how badly the naysayers claim Nintendo would be more successful trying to sell cat suit Mario to console-loyalists that only want games like Uncharted, Halo, Fallout and Call of Duty/Battlefield.

Having hardware of their own, that brings in money alongside software and peripherals for said systems, is more lucrative than software alone, for the both of them.

[XXanderXX]

It would be Awesome and the best team up ever ........

[jwillj2k4]

the titles would sit on the shelves like all of the other great ms games of the past. This cycle you have gears halo forza. That's what ms wants to be. Annual releases of the same games and half assed attempts to create good ips.

I see Sony being more eager to come in if this was possible. Sure they couldn't match ms pocketbook, but they have shown to care about new ips and both companies are Japanese. That's a big deal to them.

[lastking95]

Funby you say that when Nintendo does exactly that. Recycle mario, zelda and pokemon over and over on a yearly basis. You're waiting 2-3 years for ms recycled ips. How bout uncharted?

[jwillj2k4]

Lol you really really don't want to have this convo about Sony. Yes they have staples, but the list of established and new ips completely shits on both Nintendo and ms combined. Please do a lookup on Sony exclusives (I don't care if it's on PS4/PS3/PC/vita/psp/ps2. Can't get it on ms or Nintendo consoles) before saying anything else.

[Ck1x]

The market needs someone doing something very different and both Sony and Microsoft offer the same just with a different brand name on the box. It's like going to the store and buying a manual can opener and an electric one at the same time! Just doesn't make much sense to me, at least Sega offered very different games from Nintendo that made it easy to understand why you wanted to own both...

[melonfarm3r]

If my auntie had a cock she'd be my uncle.

[rjason12]

I doubt they would become a major partner with Xbox for one reason. They're American. If anything they would go for Sony. But then again, they likely wouldn't due to past history.

[PFFT]

That partnership left an ugly ass and stale taste on Nintendos mouth it was as if someone had dipped a hobos crusty underwear in Nintendos Coffee. Highly doubtful theyd make that mistake EVER again.

[christocolus]

exactly. You should read this to know more.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

http://gonintendo.com/stori...

- Ken Kutaragi was originally in charge of the sound chip on the SNES
- Kutaragi pushed to install/attach a CD-ROM drive to the top of the SNES
- the idea didn't catch on at first and Nintendo wanted to stick to Mask ROMs for games
- Nintendo eventually decided to go ahead with the idea
- Kutaragi was told he couldn't do anything related to Mask ROMs, but could work on whatever he wanted, including CDs
- the president of NoA at the time, Mr. Arakawa, warned that letting Kutaragi do whatever he wants could cause problems
- Kutaragi said his plans would focus on everything but video games
- there was an idea for a karaoke platform
- right before the announcement, Nintendo put a lid on it
- no one seems to know why Sony didn't sue Nintendo after cancelling the project when Sony had a contract
- Maruyama told everyone it was Nintendo's fault completely, which he knew not to be the case
- Kutaragi was also stirring up trouble and talking to Sony about how Nintendo ruined their honor
- Kutaragi made the whole thing out to bigger than it really was, trying to use the situation to further his own ambitions

[Majin-vegeta]

They could actually provide Sony with a challenge...

[Mikerob2007]

never ever going to happen

[Germany7]

Ugh, never, Nintendo will be fine alone making great exclusives.

Look what happened with Rare.

[headblackman]

it would be welcomed, but it wouldn't be a good fit for microsoft. sega would be a better fit, because they very similar in hardcore game style (hence the name dude bro box). when sega got out of the business, micrsoft picked up the sega torch, but without the bad business practices in hardware and software. i think that nintendo would be a better fit for playstation over xbox. because they do better with single player games than xbox does.

[feraldrgn]

Complete opposites, no thanks.

[Vasto]

If this was to happen it would be OV.

[zerocarnage]

project sonic coming to Xbox one though.

a deal between Nintendo and ms would be amazing, seeing games that would usually be exclusive to either console and developers actually developing there games for both console would be an excellent move for gamers.

I would certainly love to see capcom create monster hunter for Xbox one and see a ton of other Nintendo games come over to my Xbox one would be a win win for me, and I'm sure it would be ace for Nintendo buyer seeing Xbox games on there consoles.

Never say never in the gaming industry, ms certainly have the money to buy anything Nintendo and deals have been struck before when we've least expect it.

if Microsoft had nintendos library it no doubt would help the console sell in the east, but the same would work other way around and help Nintendo sell more units in the West, I don't see anything bad happening if a deal was made and I think it should happen.

A deal like that would honestly make Sony get off there high horse about partnerships with other gaming developers, Sony are way to strict, the recent bannings over watch dogs 2 have all but provide that.

[Broomfondle]

No.

[Segata]

We saw what happened with Rare and Lionhead and Bizarre Creations. I don't think be such a good thing that happened with Nintendo.

[DialgaMarine]

The situation wouldn't change that much.

[NET_Nomad]

It wouldn't be pretty... http://members.shaw.ca/nerv...