How A Nintendo + Sony Alliance Could Work (In Theory)

[JEMC]

selnor1983 said:

JEMC said:

I'll have to disagree with you here.

While Nintendo may (or may not) still be upset by the SNES CD turned into PSX affair, they still share, albeit slightly, the same view when it comes to gaming than Sony does; as has been proven very clearly this gen, both see consoles as gaming devices that can also do other tasks, while MSoft sees them as multimedia devices that also plays games. It's a subtle but important diffeence in this kind of joint ventures. Also both Nintendo and Sony are japanese, something that while it's not as important as it used to be, still matter to some shareholders.

Besides, Nintendo weakest territory has always been Europe, and MSoft is still strugling here too, so the merging console would fight to win in the USA (probably ending first) and Japan, but will still lose in Europe. Going with Sony will ensure them being first not only in Japan but also in Europe and probably also in the USA.

But there is the other side that Microsoft are also catering for the family much more than Sony. The decison to not include the Eye on PS4 with every model is testamont to screw you casuals, we want hardcore.

With Microsoft Nintendo would be able to concentrate on games while Microsoft looks after the device and its many contoller options out of the box. Every box. Not just to 20% of the userbase who bought a Kinect.

Even just last year Nintendo and Sony took jabs at each other. Microsoft and Nintendo have never seemed to do that. Nintendo would never team with Sony. Theres to much blame and history there. If they dont go Microsoft they would just go full handheld. I dont think Sony would ever get a look in on Nintendo software ever.

Also dont forget Microsoft have released several games on Nintendo hardware in recent years. Particularly Rare games on Nintendo handheld. Microsoft have much more respect from Nintendo than Sony do.

Microsoft doesn't have a handheld, and the games they launched (sorry, I only remember Viva Piñata and Zoo Tycoon) were oriented to the younger gamers, which was more likely to have a DS than an Xbox360.

Including Kinect can be seen as a move to cater the casual audience, but that is not the Nintendo audience, they are just part of the whole gaming community and Nintendo convinced them to get their console during last gen. Also, since including the device makes the system 100 USD/EUR more expensive than its main competitor, it could be argued that not including the camera and therefore launching a cheaper less expensive system would be a better aproach to expand the userbase, which is Nintendo's approach.

We could argue about which decision/alliance would be the best one, putting all our reasonings on to why one is better than the other, but in the end the truth is that none of this will happen. Nintendo will remain alone and doing their own, even if that means failing and become a third party.