Im neutral on this. I think 3rd party acquisitions are "normal" in a free market. Producers/developers need to find ways to boost the appeal of their own product. That said, Nintendo doesnt need it, the hook with Nintendo consoles is Nintendo's own games, and if their tech is "market-friendly" then 3rd party support will naturally come.

As long as the acquisitions aren't as egregious as some of the third party acquisitions from MS, Embracer, etc. I don't necessarily have a problem with it. I'd prefer if they continue working on partnerships and natural internal growth though.

Retro was founded in an alliance with Nintendo. They were always going to make exclusive games for nintendo consoles. Thats the whole reason for their existence, make Nintendo games.

I mean if it's not a stupidly big purchase why not? Sony and MS have been buying way bigger companies for awhile now. Biggest purchase I see for them is something like level 5 tbh.

How funny would it be if Nintendo were to acquire EA, after EA shunning them for many years

Imagine a company that earns billions deciding that they were just going to keep doing what they do, keep giving the public what it obviously wants (because you can't earn billions without doing that), and being happy. What a concept.

Maybe Valve? Their plan seems to keep doing their thing without expansion plans or buyouts 

Kudos to them. I know if I had a business, that's what I would do. Actually, if I had a billion-dollar business, people would probably accuse me of all sorts of socialistic things because all my employees would be paid very well with the best health insurance possible and treated with the upmost respect. I don't need more than I need, and I have found that I don't really need all that much. The soul requires no money. And usually, the more capital you gain, the more soul you lose.

As long as this means Nintendo plans to invest in smaller studios that have contributed to the success of its platforms in the past, I’m fine with it. If the company overextends itself and acquires a large multi-platform third-party developer, then I’m against it.

Well, the console companies have been buying 3rd party studios since forever. It's good thing in the sense that the studios have bigger pockets behind them after purchase, but clearly it limits what they can do in the market. Then again, the publishers already push the studios to do excatly what they're told anyway, so it's just about what platforms we are seeing the games in.

Nintendo as a general rule seems to have been pretty good about growing and nurturing the studios they acquire.

I‘m not generally in favor of consolidation, but with Nintendo I‘m at least not as worried that they‘ll close the studios 5-10 years later to boost quarterly reports. It’s not in their company philosophy to work like that and as long as they keep proceeding the way they have (carefully and considered) any acquisitions might not be that bad. People have already mentioned studios that basically exclusively work with Nintendo anyways as options and I can’t help but think that Alpha Dream might have survived, if they had been owned by Nintendo.