For better or worse, 2022 has already seen two major shake ups to the gaming industry as a whole. Microsoft is in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard in its entirety, which includes its own subsidiaries, and Sony has recently bought Destiny 2 developer Bungie, with it already promising even more acquisitions to follow. As a result, many are looking to see if Nintendo will respond in kind, but that doesn’t look like it will be happening any time soon.
Speaking with investors, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa broached the topic of potential studio acquisitions. While it’s certainly not completely off the table, Furukawa is otherwise not that interested in just buying out other studios, with the company more focused on organically growing “Nintendo’s creative culture.”
According to Bloomberg, he said:
“Our brand was built upon products crafted with dedication by our employees, and having a large number of people who don’t possess Nintendo DNA in our group would not be a plus to the company.”
Nintendo’s outlook is hardly surprising considering it has always moved to the beat of its own drum when compared to the likes of Microsoft and Sony. It doesn’t have a particularly long history of studio buy outs to begin with. Most of its subsidiaries were founded by Nintendo, such as Retro Studios, which is responsible for Donkey Kong Country Returns and the Metroid Prime games.
The only notable acquisitions it has are Xenoblade Chronicles studio Monolith Soft, which became a subsidiary in 2007, and Canadian studio Next Level Games, which already had a strong working relationship with Nintendo. Before Nintendo bought it last year, it had made several Nintendo exclusives like the Wii Punch-Out game and the Luigi’s Mansion series.
In the wake of the Next Level Games acquisition, Furukawa explained that Nintendo would never buy a studio just because it could. The company is only interested in studios if they can enhance gameplay experiences, with the Next Level Games acquisition happening so both it and Nintendo could improve the quality and speed of development.
Compare this to Microsoft, which seems incredibly eager to bolster its library of games with major exclusives. Following its purchase of Bethesda in 2020, all its upcoming titles are slated only for Xbox and PC platforms, except for Ghostwire: Tokyo, but that’s because it was slated for a PlayStation-first release before the buyout.
Once the Activision deal goes through, many expect the same to happen to its franchises, such as Crash Bandicoot and Overwatch. Call of Duty is the big one, but Microsoft has said that the series will continue to release on PlayStation, at least for the time being.
Source: Bloomberg