Microsoft have undoubtedly had a booming success with their Xbox brand over the last twenty years. Because of this, they have recently been busy and introduced a virtual Xbox museum for players to explore the company’s past. Similarly, they’ve managed to treat their fans even more by gifting bundles with a bunch of Xbox goodies! How cool, right?
However, could it have all been different twenty years ago? One ‘exhibit’ in the virtual museum certainly seems to suggest so. Two years prior to Xbox’s creation in 2001, Microsoft executives approached Japanese gaming giant Nintendo with a proposal. Microsoft would create the hardware — a gaming console — and Nintendo would create the games. Basically, they wanted to buy Nintendo.
How did Nintendo react to this, we hear you ask? Well, not too well; for Microsoft that is. According to former Microsoft third-party relations head Kevin Bachus, Nintendo went into absolute hysterics.
“They just laughed their asses off. Like, imagine an hour of somebody just laughing at you. That was kind of how that meeting went”.
Now, fans can finally see the letter from that failed proposal on display in the virtual museum. Whilst some of the text is obscured, it’s enough to gather a certain idea of the meetings discussed in the late 90’s and early 00’s:
Why Did Nintendo Reject Microsoft Acquisition?
Despite the fact it says Spring 2000 at the bottom, the letter itself actually dates back to October 20, 1999. It was sent by Microsoft hardware vice president Rick Thompson to the then Nintendo of America executive vice president of business affairs Jacqualee Story. However, it also seems like it was in regards to the previously mentioned meeting between the two giant company’s.
It is still not known why Nintendo entirely rejected this offer. In late 1999, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo were all working on their respective consoles. Unfortunately for Microsoft and Nintendo, Sony managed to beat them both to release date by releasing the PlayStation 2 in the holiday of 2000. This forced Xbox to come up with a plan to rival this new release. The answer: team up with a rival.
This is where it becomes tricky. It seems that whoever Microsoft sent to pitch the idea was essentially trying to degrade Nintendo’s hardware in the hope that they would become desperate to combine forces.
“We actually had Nintendo in our building in January 2000 to work through the details of a joint venture where we gave them all the technical specs of the Xbox,” former Microsoft head of business development Bob McBreen told Bloomberg. “The pitch was their hardware stunk, and compared to Sony PlayStation [2], it did.”
Nintendo Don’t Bite In The Negotiations
Criticising one of the most beloved gaming company’s in the world is bad enough, irregardless of whether it was true or not. However, then going on to suggest they should just stick to the Mario content is arguably just plain disrespectful.
“So the idea was, Listen, you’re much better at the game portions of it with Mario and all that stuff” Bob Mcreen said. “Why don’t you let us take care of the hardware?”.
Nevertheless, Nintendo stood their ground. This ultimately led to Sony’s PlayStation dominating the gaming world at the time, with both Microsoft and Nintendo struggling to keep up. Obviously, we know both companies now have managed to obtain astronomical success to rival that of Sony, but it does make you wonder what could’ve been all those years ago.
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