RolStoppable said:
What a crazy post. Nintendo gets complete control over the OS, but Microsoft manages the Windows side of things. That's at odds, isn't it? Nintendo gets complete control over mission statement, but Microsoft builds the hardware and online functionality. That too is at odds, isn't it? Additionally, what's the point of this fantasy? Microsoft takes the loss on hardware, Nintendo gets to do what they want? I don't think that would be agree upon either. And why should Nintendo pick such a weak partner to begin with? What advantage is Microsoft going to bring to the table, realistically speaking? The only kind of partnership that makes sense is that Microsoft becomes a third party publisher on Nintendo systems, but that's about it. |
I think Nintendo should just accept Windows. They're a rinky dink little company by comparison, they're never going to build an OS on par with that and the OS for all the Wii/DS/3DS/Wii U quite frankly sucked, which isn't unpredicable. Nintendo has a tiny fraction of the employees, their OS division is probably liek 100 people max. Why waste money and resources on that.
Let MS have that. Hell Nintendo should have just accepted a deal from MS in the GameCube era and let the GCN run Windows. What difference would it have made to Nintendo? Instead they allowed another 800 pound gorilla into the ring for no good reason and now they find themselves basically locked out of the traditional console market.
MS doesn't really take a loss on XBox hardware any more so that's not really a big issue.
The point would be that Nintendo would be gaurunteed a decent seat at the table without having to rely on flaky trends/gimmicks. The XBox One even with all the mistakes MS has made is still a stone cold lock to sell 40 million units, with Nintendo's support that could maybe be as high as 60-70 million. That is a stable seat.
The two of them also compliment each other well software wise. Nintendo makes family friendly/nostalgic/fun games, MS would be an ideal fit as a secondary software provider that fills in the gaps present in Nintendo's lineup (Halo, Forza, Gears, etc.). Plus Minecraft and Rareware IP have a natural fit with Nintendo's offerings.
Nintendo could still make Switch systems, could even take over distribution/branding of the XBox brands in EU/Asia and I think MS would even allow them to have a cut of licensing fees.
For MS the XBox brand is kind of like a vanity project, it's something they like to have to be able to show shareholders "see, we do more than Windows" and it keeps the MS brand on some kind of tangiable consumer device. Let them have that. I think they would welcome Nintendo to handle a lot of the other stuff though, I get the sense they don't really *love* running a game division. It's something they kinda, sorta like doing.
