Change title Only Western Developers are willing to Sell to either big 3, While Majority of Japanese don't care to sell to big 3

[VideoGameAccountant]

Of the two, I think Sony needs to more than Nintendo. Sony's relationship with third parties has been to buy exclusive third party games and then supplement their games with their own internal studios. Microsoft is breaking that buy just buying the cow rather than the milk. Sony and Microsoft are also in direct competition as they are seen as substitutes. This is also why Sony is setting aside a lot of money for acquisitions. If the Microsoft/Activision deal is approved by regulators (which I think it will be), Sony will become more aggressive. Nintendo, for now, is going to be more defensive and get the companies they can't afford to lose or ones that approach them about selling. 

the-pi-guy said:

twintail said:

Buying and expansion are not mutually exclusive, as evident by the studios Sony have acquired also increasing their headcount with new jobs being made available. 

It's definitely not mutually exclusive.

But Nintendo has pushed back on wanting to expand that way.

They've made various comments like this: 

https://www.polygon.com/22916059/nintendo-acquisition-plans-sony-microsoft-activision-blizzard-bungie

“Our brand was built upon products crafted with dedication by our employees, and having a large number of people who don’t possess Nintendo DNA in our group would not be a plus to the company,” said Furukawa.

Could definitely change, but where Sony is saying they have "many more moves to make", Nintendo just doesn't seem to have that same ambition. Most of their acquisitions have been about keeping their partners under their wing.

I don't see Nintendo getting big into acquisitions unless Sony gets involved. Nintendo rarely cares about Microsoft but they really care about Sony does. For instance, Nintendo killed the Gameboy line and started the DS when Sony entered the market. Keep in mind the GBA was only on the market for 4 years and sold 80 million units. It was a massive risk. Nintendo keeps up these gimmicks until Sony left. If Sony buys up a major third party, then Nintendo will go from "People who don't process Nintendo DNA in our group would not be a plus to the company" to "Nintendo has always saw opportunities to bring in new talent and ideas into the company to expand the Nintendo DNA". If you want to see if Nintendo will get into the acquisition game, just watch Sony.