Oh please God no!!

OT: Vigil and Platinum games would be good additions to the company imo.

Free Radical Design would've been perfect when they were up for sale. Alas.

If I was doing it, I'd probably just incubate a small team inside Retro, have them work on a small-scale project and expand them over time before moving them out to become their own team.

But there will be changes because there are always changes when the owner/boss changes.

Unless they get a special treatment, those studios won't be able to work on projects they want to but the projects that Nintendo tells them to do. And they will develop them the way Nintendo tells them (for example: first the gameplay, then the graphics, and then the story). Not everybody will want to lose that freedom and will quit, leaving a studio without the manpower that made it what it was.

Look at Rare. When Msoft bought them, the heads and many other staff members left the studio. Free Radical was founded by ex-Rare members. That is the biggest danger when buying studios, that the people can leave.

That's why I think that buying studios is a bad idea. It's better to hire some key members or promote internal developers and then create a studio around them.

I know that they already have a second party agreement, but I think they should snatch up Skip Ltd. just in case the secret gets out...
Nintendo definitely wants to keep the Art Style/Captain Rainbow/Chibi-Robo! developer...
I would encourage anyone who has not played the Art Style games to try Orbient, Light Trax, and PiCTOBiTS...
Art Style has easily become one of my favorite Nintendo IP's...

People in this thread seriously thinking Nintendo should buy HVS are insane!

I could understand collaborating with them on a project, even funding/publishing an original IP like they did with n-Space's game Geist. But outright buying them without any evidence they are a good investment!? Madness.

Certainly there are many, MANY independent studios with a much better track record out there. Just look at any number of those currently collaborating with Nintendo for a better candidate: Next Level, Monster, Headstrong, Curve Studios, Treasure etc. (Platinum goes without mentioning)
If that's not enough there's also tons of studios that haven't collaborated with Nintendo, but have simply released quality content for their systems over the years, such as Shinen, Nnooo,Vigil (recently deceased) and many more in the past (SK, Blue Tongue, Factor 5...).

There was nothing amazing about HVS's ability to program a half-decent engine on Wii besides the fact that they were one of a few studios in the west to make any effort to do so. Even then I don't think their results were as spectacular as they made them out to be, and certainly no better than those from Treyarch, Ubisoft, Eurocom, Head Strong etc. High Voltage just made a lot of noise about their tech because they saw it as an opportunity to gain market-share.

Monolith Soft and Retro (both technically part of Nintendo) certainly had better tech running on Wii, so it's not even accurate to say Nintendo couldn't do what HVS did if they wanted to.

The only benefit I see for Nintendo in buying HVS is that they're among the few studios that are probably desperate enough to do anything Nintendo orders them to do, no questions asked.

Platinum Games or Level5, but I don't think it would be realistic to think it could ever happen.

Platinum Games could be a good investment. Level 5 is basically all Nintendo anyway. (Still think they should buy them out... get that Ni No Kuni game!)

I think you're right on this front - Nintendo doesn't really need to buy Platinum Games out.

But they would probably be smart to buy a stake in the studio. 20% or so would be more than sufficient. It would send the message to Platinum that Nintendo believes in them, and give Platinum more encouragement to put more focus on Nintendo consoles, while still allowing them to do their own thing. And, of course, it would cost, at most, 40% of the amount of money it would have cost to buy a controlling stake.

Please, actually read what I said in the OP. I address exactly that point.

HVS have their strengths - their Quantum3 engine is the most technically capable engine on the Wii, beating out even Nintendo's own game engines, which shows their technical capabilities. Their game universe developed for The Conduit and expanded in the sequel shows great promise in terms of concept. Their AI system is quite decent, too. But their weaknesses just happen to be Nintendo's greatest strengths - game design and artistic design.

Nintendo could buy any studio, but not any studio would be a good match. The best choices for Nintendo are studios that complement what Nintendo does best, because then Nintendo can bring their strengths to the studio, and turn them from an average studio with a bit of talent in a few areas into a megastar studio that has it all covered. They did it with Retro. They did it with Rare. And in my opinion, they would do it with HVS, too.

Name an example of a studio that Nintendo bought, that soon saw people quitting the studio, and had people complaining about Nintendo's influence.

Look at Rare. When Nintendo bought them, the company grew stronger. Rare employees praise the way that Nintendo gently guided rather than imposing things on the company. It was only when MS bought them, and then started trying to change the way they do things, that it all fell apart and there was massive departure and complaints.