As we all know, Nintendo have a number of partnerships with independent third party developers (not indies) going on right now. The two most notable, here, being Platinum Games and Valhalla Game Studios.

The interesting thing, in my opinion, about these two developers in particular is that the types of games they make are very different from any of Nintendo's usual games. In this, they bear some resemblance to Monolith Soft, makers of the Xenoblade games.

In 2006, Nintendo published Baten Kaitos Origins, despite the original Baten Kaitos being published by Namco. Nintendo were clearly already interested in the company. They were, in 2006, also working on a new game Disaster: Day of Crisis, for release on Wii. It wasn't until 2007 that Nintendo bought a controlling share of the developer from Bandai Namco.

Consider the similarity to Platinum, here. Nintendo publishing a sequel to a game published by another company, whlie the studio also developed a new game in a new franchise for Nintendo. Much of the studio's games are of a kind that Nintendo isn't particularly known for, and even if some of their games haven't been all that stellar, the studio is still highly-regarded by the industry.

Valhalla Game Studios is a slightly different situation, of course. Itagaki was known for games like Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden, but he left Tecmo and sued them. Devil's Third is his first game since then, and it's been in somewhat of a development limbo, but Nintendo picked it up and it seems to be nearing completion. But the curious thing is that Nintendo apparently approached Itagaki, not the other way around, after THQ dropped their publishing deal with Valhalla (due to lack of necessary funds to support development, this was prior to THQ collapsing).

Nintendo has recently commented that they are actively looking for acquisitions and mergers. Could their current arrangements be a hint as to which companies they are looking at? Are Platinum and Valhalla two studios that Nintendo are considering bringing into the fold, to round out their lineup of developers/IPs?

And which other developers do you think Nintendo might be specifically looking at? Keep in mind, this thread is about developers, not publishers. Capcom and Crytek are huge potential buyouts, but they aren't development studios, they're big companies with multiple studios. And while I do think Capcom (or Sega, if they can) would be great purchases for Nintendo, those are examples of massive purchases that would change the entire industry landscape, whereas I'm talking about smaller purchases that are simply about improving Nintendo themselves.

As Nintendo, I wouldn't even consider buying Platinum Games or Valhalla Games studio since one produces flops and the other hasn't proven themselves.

Crytek is a lot smaller that what you think as I would still classify them as developers since all of their games have had publishers. Capcom is worthless in itself but their IPs such as Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and maybe street fighter are worth buying so the rest of Capcom is nothing else other than crap.

Maybe they got the Fatal Frame developers from Tecmo and Next Level games is now a second party studio for them but who knows. If they do go for Platinum, I think they would want the IP rights that Sega might have (With MS keeping Scalebound.) I think Itagaki and the Valhalla studio is in real dire straights after Devils Third comes out, then we will see if the become exclusive to Nintendo. Others say Capcom and Crytek right now but I doubt Nintendo will get them as they tend to just get single dev teams and not publishers.

I think theyre just looking to diversify their games lineup. I see no point in them purchasing Valhala or platinum games as they dont exactly have anything to their names that would draw a crowd. I have no idea why crytek is being thrown around as they have even less to offer Nintendo.

It's not about the IPs, it's about the developers themselves. This is why I ruled out publisher purchases - if Nintendo were to buy Capcom, it would be primarily for the IPs. If they were to buy Crytek, it would mostly be for their tech. You mostly buy a studio for their development capabilities. And this is why I suggest that Nintendo are "testing" them for the possibility of purchase, not that they've already decided on purchasing them.

I think that what those two developers bring is a different idea of what a game should be like. Their perspective is very different to that of Nintendo, and they specialise in the more... risque kinds of development. This can only be to Nintendo's benefit, as it would broaden their overall appeal. Getting the Bayonetta and Devil's Third IPs would be just icing on the proverbial cake (which is very much not a lie).

Nintendo should buy some of Cpacom's IPs like Mega Man, Viewtiful Joe, Monster Hunter, etc...., but not the whole damn company!

As has been said before, I remember Nintendo saying sometime that they weren't out to get IP's, but out to get the talent they know makes great games. I don't see Nintendo buying Mega Man when they already have a much more popular platforming franchise.

Devil's Third and Bayonetta 2 got to Nintendo because of some personal relationships (some folks at Nintendo know people from Platinum etc). That's what they said in an interview this E3.