If Nintendo were going to buy another studio...

[JEMC]

Aielyn said:

HAL Laboratories was bought by Nintendo, too. It was an independent company, it developed the Kirby franchise before Nintendo bought them. Indeed, HAL Laboratories is more of an example of a studio bought by Nintendo than Retro is, because Retro was set up partially by Nintendo in the first place, whereas HAL started off as an actual independent studio.

And look at that - one of the two "big heads" of HAL ended up becoming the president of the entire company.

Fair enough, I didn't remember HAL and maybe others, that's why I put the "?".

Not sure who the third of the "big heads of Retro" is - there's Spangenberg, who was the original president, and Barcia, who Nintendo appointed to replace him after he (Spangenberg, that is) became derelict in his duties. Barcia was appointed from within Retro. Some ex-Retro employees blame Barcia's mismanagement for their departure (try to find one blaming Nintendo's 'meddling'). Barcia was replaced by the current president, Kelbaugh. 

I meant Mark Pacini, designer, Todd Keller, art director, and Jack Mathews, principal technology engineer. Three of the big names inside Retro and responsibles of making the Metroid Prime games what they are.

And the fact that it hasn't happened before means that you shouldn't assume that it is guaranteed to happen in the future. You're the one claiming that Nintendo buying a studio would necessarily result in the studio falling apart due to Nintendo imposing their philosophies on the studio. The mere fact that one time it failed to happen is enough to disprove your assertion - I don't need to disprove every case, I need only provide a single counterexample.

 I'm not saying that it would happen. What I'm saying is that it MAY or not happen and that the risk is not worth it. Things have changed and now it's possible to make a living from videogames without big publishers. That makes the option of leaving a studio easier than it was before.

Just look what heppened to Capcom with so many highly renowned devs leaving to make their own studios, Epic with Cliff B or Msoft with Peter Molyneux.