Yeah, in the short term. I mean why doesnt Netflix put their movies on all streaming services...?

Nintendo and Sony merging would be much better for the industry TBH.

You know that wouldnt make the best of Sony and the best of Nintendo come together, right? Most likely you would never see AAA games like God Of War and The Last Of Us again.

The hardware kicking their ass? 130 million sold and counting? Gee, call the doomed police.

Nah. Screw that. There's been far too much corporate consolidation across all industries, video games included.

I'm glad Nintendo does their own thing. They make great hardware and great games. I'd rather not see them under the umbrella of an entirely different corporate entity. Who knows what that would do. Would they still retain creative autonomy? Would they still make handheld systems? Would Japanese gamers actually start to pay attention to Xbox if it was the only way to play Nintendo IPs? I have my doubts. Best to maintain the status quo.

And I say all of this as someone who spends most of their time gaming on the Series X.

Yeah - this is the usual Microsoft playbook. Buy them out and shut them down.

The trouble with games though is: the back catalogue isn't worth much. Microsoft can by Blizzard/Activision/etc..etc... but they will only make their money back if *future* games are popular.

So... who benefits the most? Microsoft or all those indie companies who are going to take the place of the old third-party game developers?

Also - the usual arrogant lack of understanding about how Japanese companies work.  They never sell out.

This is quite possibly the worst thing I have ever read. I would more than likely quit gaming if that ever happened, maybe I can pick up another hobby.

In this hypothetical scenario, a company the size of Nintendo would be an entirely new division under Sony Corp, something along the lines of Sony Mobile Entertainment, rather than a subsidiary of Sony Interactive like Bungie currently is. 

I could see Nintendo doing their own thing under Sony Corp without having to collaborate with PlayStation, since Nintendo hardware would be another high end electronic product that Sony manufactures, and they instantly bolster their mobile division without adding significant overhead to SIE. The only thing that Sony would want Nintendo to collaborate on would be with Sony Pictures/Aniplex for transmedia content. 

Of course, this is a fever filled pipe dream from Phil Spencer, and is prior to the Activision Blizzard acquisition anyways. 

Nintendo under any umbrella is when new ideas and things like Astral Chain or Splatoon (initially) never happen. Just the low-risk high-reward IPs get made. Then you have the old forum fallacy come true of Nintendo only made Mario and Zelda and no new IPs. Innovation and creation die.

His deluded take is Microsoft buying Nintendo. Xbox will leave hardware before Nintendo does.
But Nintendo's future without hardware? That's inevitable. It's just a while off. Eventually, Nintendo will realize they no longer need hardware to sell their software.