Support NeoGAF

[iMerc]

It's not like Nintendo had a choice. That all or nothing deal from the Stampers ruined whatever chance of Rare sticking with Nintendo.

pretty much. as far as i remember since their DKC partnership, every couple of intervals nintendo would buy more & more shares in Rare.
This happened throughout the life-cycles of both the snes & n64 generations, and by the time the latter was finishing up, they had an eventual 49% stake in the company.

Nintendo were very happy to continue buying more & more shares in Rare over time as they had done previously, and had the stampers not wanted to sell their 51% stake, who knows how much of the Rare pie Nintendo would own today.

the problem was that the stampers wanted to sell their share and retire, so they went to nintendo, as by contract, nintendo had 'first right' to buying.
Unfortunately Nintendo was unwilling to spend such a large sum all at once -and as a result the stampers had no choice but to shop their stake in Rare around to interested buyers.
it eventually came down to two companies: activision & microsoft. and we know the rest.

 

[samar11]

In dreams maybe. They're far too huge and was named one of the more powerful companies in Japan, I believe even surpassing Sony. Gundam alone gets them billions.

LMAO

 

[Aquamarine]

What if Sony bought Bandai Namco?

In dreams maybe. They're far too huge and was named one of the more powerful companies in Japan, I believe even surpassing Sony. Gundam alone gets them billions.

no.

bandai namco has a market cap of 553.47 billion jpy ($4.62 billion).

nintendo has a market cap of 1.69 trillion jpy ($14.11 billion).

sony has a market cap of 2.98 trillion jpy ($24.88 billion).



nintendo and sony are quite a bit larger than bandai namco.

 

[Nanashrew]

no.

bandai namco has a market cap of 553.47 billion jpy ($4.62 billion).

nintendo has a market cap of 1.69 trillion jpy ($14.11 billion).

sony has a market cap of 2.98 trillion jpy ($24.88 billion).

microsoft has a market cap of $388.98 billion.



nintendo and sony are quite a bit larger than bandai namco.

Well I guess I was wrong lol. How much do you think Namco might grow in 5 years? They're really getting a lot of money from Youkai Watch alongside Gundam.

 

[ChronotriggerJM]

no.

bandai namco has a market cap of 553.47 billion jpy ($4.62 billion).

nintendo has a market cap of 1.69 trillion jpy ($14.11 billion).

sony has a market cap of 2.98 trillion jpy ($24.88 billion).



nintendo and sony are quite a bit larger than bandai namco.

Is it known what these companies have regarding assets? I don't imagine Sony having much regarding reserves. But probably a ton of property.

 

[Verder]

Apple:
Square-Enix

.

 

[NEO0MJ]

no.

bandai namco has a market cap of 553.47 billion jpy ($4.62 billion).

nintendo has a market cap of 1.69 trillion jpy ($14.11 billion).

sony has a market cap of 2.98 trillion jpy ($24.88 billion).



nintendo and sony are quite a bit larger than bandai namco.

Didn't Nintendo once try to buy Namco but were blocked?

 

[Mulgrok]

I would rather see all developers picking some form of linux and throwing everything at it. It would be great to have a gaming platform not heavily influenced by a giant corporation.

 

[_Clash_]

Dare say if Itagaki stays in the game industry

His Valhalla studios will most likely be a Nintendo 2nd party.

 

[Miles X]

Sounds like MS are giving Platinum more love than Nintendo did. Scalebound is a big AAA title with the budget behind it. (according to Ken Lobb).

Always thought MS and Bethesda went very well together. Would plug that RPG hole Fable has left exposed.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Sounds like MS are giving Platinum more love than Nintendo did. Scalebound is a big AAA title with the budget behind it. (according to Ken Lobb).

Wonderful 101 was P*s biggest project until Scalebound.

And Bethesda would benefit nothing from going MS exclusive. Their games sell so much on the main three platforms.

 

[Miles X]

Wonderful 101 was P*s biggest project until Scalebound.

And Bethesda would benefit nothing from going MS exclusive. Their games sell so much on the main three platforms.

Well, would be worth it for MS. But they'd need to keep the games releasing on PC/Steam.

 

[Regret Upon Approval]

Wonderful 101 was P*s biggest project until Scalebound.

And Bethesda would benefit nothing from going MS exclusive. Their games sell so much on the main three platforms.

Yeah, they are big enough to float on their own.

Really, the only studios I would want to be acquired are ones with talent that may struggle with publishers or some of sort of difficulties.

In example. Looking at the thread, consider Platinum. Good team, not the best sales. As of yet they still get funded and supported by publishers. If publishers were to ease back on backing them, then they struggle to stay afloat. In which case I would want them to be acquired by someone who will take them in and stave off their dissolution.

So, maintain their independence, acquisition for the sake of survival.

 

[Bagu]

Didn't Nintendo once try to buy Namco but were blocked?

Bandai I think. Blocked by the merger with Namco.
I wonder if either side is still up for a merger.

 

[JoeM86]

game freak is an independent company located on the 22nd floor of a skyscraper in setagaya, tokyo.

they consider nintendo a "customer."


nintendo doesn't have any control over game freak whatsoever.

game freak, out of their own volition, signs contracts with nintendo to develop pokemon games.

but they could at any time develop a game outside of the nintendo ecosystem if they wanted to.



game freak created the pokemon franchise in cooperation with nintendo and creatures inc (an independent company that's very close to nintendo).

those three companies hold the copyright of pokemon equally.



to manage the hyper-successful ip, the three companies decided to found a new company in april 1998, called the pokemon company.


as of march 2014, nintendo owns a 32% affiliate stake in the pokemon company, as well as a 33% ownership in the pokemon ip.


note: nintendo does not, and they have never, directly owned the majority of the pokemon ip, nor the majority of the pokemon company.



that's why the pokemon company has released a few pokemon spinoff apps for iphone and ipad. they are unauthorized, and they don't need to be authorized, because nintendo doesn't directly control them.

that said, creatures inc. is closely allied with nintendo. it's technically a separate company, but in the event that game freak wanted to go rogue and to bring pokemon to say...xbox one...nintendo could use their influence over creatures inc. to team up against game freak and shut them down.

Both Game Freak and Creatures Inc. are closely allied with Nintendo, it's a bit disingenuous to say otherwise. They're both separate companies but are very close. Game Freak has had the Mario IP under their control a couple of times (Yoshi and Mario & Wario), Iwata has gone there and coded stuff for them too. Game Freak were also the first developers with the 3DS SDK. It's a bit more complex then you're making it out to be.

Hell, even with Nintendo's third of the IP ownership would prevent it being on other platforms. I'm fairly certain there is something in the ownership contract that prevents it. They wouldn't need to team up with anyone.

But yeah, we do need to stop the perpetuation going around that Nintendo owns all of Pokémon or Game Freak.

Also worth noting that last year, both Creatures Inc. and Game Freak released non-Pokémon iOS games.
Game Freak published Solitiba on iOS & Android. This is a port of the 3DS version that came out in Japan (which was their first self published game)
Creatures Inc. published aDanza on iOS. I have no idea what it is and am terrified to check

 

[I-hate-u]

As a primary Sony gamer, I wish they would acquire a developer that would strengthen their Japanese division immensely, and diversify their genres. I wouldn't know who they would need to acquire tho.

Surprised Shu hasn't displayed any interest/efforts in acquisitions in that region though. I guess collabs is enough for him.

 

[Visualante2]

I was under the impression Remedy wasn't for sale. They like their independence.

Remedy - I think they want to be independent, I only see an acquisition if remedy need a bailout due to QB bombing.

I don't think they will do, they've always worked with the best publishers in the business. They're like a Finnish Platinum. They probably have suitors queuing up to publish their games.

 

[Blobbers]

GTA becoming a Nintendo-exclusive franchise would literally be the worst thing in the universe.

 

[NEO0MJ]

GTA becoming a Nintendo-exclusive franchise would literally be the worst thing in the universe.

How so? I mean Rockstar would never sell themselves to a console holder, let alone Nintendo, but why would it be terrible?

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

Why would I be interested in them buying anybody? That's just further obstacles for consumers. I'd rather they sell/spin off all the studios they already own.

First party games have several big advantages over third party studios.

They only have to focus on 1 sku, they usually have alot more freedom, etc etc.

 

[Akiller]

Why buying companies when you could just hire them for an exclusive game?

 

[NEO0MJ]

Why buying companies when you could just hire them for an exclusive game?

I suppose the biggest benefit is that by buying them you block any future attempts by other publishers to hire them.

 

[Shabad]

Microsoft doesn't buy studios anymore, they outright told this many times.
Sony already has a fairly substantial amount of first party development teams, even Quantic Dream and Ready at Dawn are unlikely acquisitions.

Nintendo is the only one publisher I could see buying new studios, although neither Game Freak nor Platinum Games will ever happen.

 

[yurinka]

Sony:

Capcom
Ready at Dawn
Quantic Dream
Housemarque
Hello Games
Blitworks

Microsoft:

2K
Crystal Dynamics
Remedy
Playground Games
Ruffians Games

Nintendo:

Sega
Next Level Games
Game Freak

Fixed

Why buying companies when you could just hire them for an exclusive game?

If you hired them several times in the past you plan to do it several times more to buy them may be cheaper in the long term.

In addition to that, you secure them being exclusive forever, and in case they have cool IPs, you'll be able to use them with these or other teams.

And well, maybe the purchased ones have economical or management issues that can be addressed by being purchased by a bigger company who do these things better. Sometimes they also feel more stable inside a bigger company because may give them less freedom but gives them more stability to sign games and less porting/multiplatform related headaches.

 

[Axass]

Why would I be interested in them buying anybody? That's just further obstacles for consumers. I'd rather they sell/spin off all the studios they already own.

That's so naive. What you're proposing would be suicide for half those studios.

Let's take Nintendo: now they are helped financially by the company, there's a huge infrastructure behind them for R&D, localization, distribution, and they get directions from much more experienced developers, that's why they can manage to make great games in a timely fashion.

If you took all those internal studios and made them independent, making multiplatform games, they'd take ages to start from scratch and rebuild their internal structure while accounting for the lack of localization and distribution, they'd have to develop for three or two different systems, making the development process harder and longer, so in the end they'd all put out lots of small budget games that would saturate the market and would lose big time to AAA games in sales anyway: more than half of those studios would be dead after a year.

How is that beneficial to consumers? It is not.

Having great first and second party studios is great for the industry as it is now. When third parties sign exclusivity contracts with one of the big three just for money, that's a different thing: that's what's hurting the consumer.

 

[DevilFox]

Nintendo is already big enough and they've very important collaborations going on for years. They're ok as they are.
Sony in my opinion needs to grow their WWS but it looks like they avoid the mid-tier devs, they even closed the one they had. It's a shame after the great job they've done these last years. The most recent entry was Pixelopus, a very small team for low budget titles which is ok but Housemarque and RaD would be more cool additions for me.
Microsoft.. err I'm not very updated and I'm not even interested.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

None of these companies are going to buy major publishers like SE or Capcom.

I think it may be better to just fund titles from these companies or smaller ones or do collabs.

 

[Pudge]

How bout

No one

Nobody

There are already too few big companies out there. Lets build a few more up before collapsing the market again.

Not to mention that EA, Ubisoft, and Bethesda are way more likely to chew through companies than any of the console developers.

 

[CalamityPixel]

I've been thinking for a while that MS will aquire Remedy at some point.

 

[Carl]

If UD does well they'll probably sign them for a x game deal and go from there. Doubt they'll buy a studio over one game.

They bought Media Molecule after one game But LittleBigPlanet was a pretty huge game for them and i can't see that happening again.

Definitely see Sony buying QD. Cage has talked about it before and seemed open to the idea http://www.computerandvideogames.com/339405/quantic-dream-open-to-being-acquired-by-sony/

 

[Canis lupus]

Sony needs more Japanese studios (Vanillaware, Nippon Ichi, FromSoft). They also should employ talented devs who are sitting without work like IGA, who really wants to make a 3D game. He makes the type of games which would suit SCEs portfolio.

Nintendo needs more Western studios, something like Retro because Wii U is dominated by Mario and his friends. Well they had a Rare gem and destroyed it.

Microsoft needs more AAA studios, because then they wouldn't have to rely on timed exclusives and Halo/Forza/Gears so much.

Nintendo needs to buy Capcom, if not only for Mega Man. They need to buy Sega (not Sammy) just for Sonic. I wan't classic gaming to remain alive.

They can then expand Retro and NERD. Hell make Retro a 1000+ person multi-team studio. No reason not to. DK Team, Metroid Team, New IP Team, etc.

Nintendo should totally buy Sega. Keep all of the old IPs exclusive to Nintendo consoles but still allow for PC/mobile/etc. publishing of new IPs under the Sega name.

Fixed

You are living in lalaland if you think Nintendo can buy Capcom or Sega. I also don't associate the type of games they make with Nintendo.

SCE is a lifeboat and Sony is the Titanic.
(Without seriously switching things up Sony is in trouble. Their consumer electronics outside of PlayStation are doing pretty poorly.)

Yawn another "PS is the only good ting Sony has" comment

 

[Hero of Legend]

I find it odd that Nintendo hasn't attempted at grabbing Baten Kaitos and Xenosaga, maybe even Xenogears also.

It's so rare that Nintendo has a veteran studio that they bought after a long time of being elsewhere. Game Freak almost counts also as they too created Pulseman prior to their bond with Nintendo, actually doesn't Game Freak own Pulseman anyway, or does Sega?

But yeah, Monolith has a legacy they had to leave behind so it's weird that Nintendo didn't attempt to grab those IPs. Also I do hope we see more from Monolith other than Xenoblade games after X.

And obviously it's sad that they've not considered acquiring Hudson's IPs from Konami or at least Bomberman when they have a really large group of ex-Hudson folks at NdCube.

 

[Corpsepyre]

I'd completely lose my shit if Nintendo buys Platinum Games. MGR2 HAS to come out on the PC!

 

[Tenki]

Nintendo should buy EA, just for the laughs.

 

[pinkurocket]

I find it odd that Nintendo hasn't attempted at grabbing Baten Kaitos and Xenosaga, maybe even Xenogears also.

It's so rare that Nintendo has a veteran studio that they bought after a long time of being elsewhere. Game Freak almost counts also as they too created Pulseman prior to their bond with Nintendo, actually doesn't Game Freak own Pulseman anyway, or does Sega?

But yeah, Monolith has a legacy they had to leave behind so it's weird that Nintendo didn't attempt to grab those IPs. Also I do hope we see more from Monolith other than Xenoblade games after X.

And obviously it's sad that they've not considered acquiring Hudson's IPs from Konami or at least Bomberman when they have a really large group of ex-Hudson folks at NdCube.

As amazing as Baten Kaitos is and as much as it deserves to be continued, they probably didn't think it was worth it to continue that series due to not being that popular. Xeno games I'm not sure, perhaps they didn't want to bother with series that have legacies on other consoles (Bayonetta notwithstanding, but they 'fixed' that by porting Bayo 1).

#PrayForBatenKaitos

 

[NahaNago]

i could see nintendo or microsoft buying platinum. Nintendo needs more western like studios,microsoft needs more studios period, and Sony needs more Japanese studios. This would round out each console nicely for now. Sony should have bought Fromsoft, that would have solved its lack of a major Japanese developer.

 

[delSai]

I feel like Housemarque already is part of WWS, seems all they do is develop (awesome) Games for PSN.

 

[PanicFreak]

I've been thinking for a while that MS will aquire Remedy at some point.

Remedy has to demonstrate that it can meet a deadline before it will become an interesting acquisition target. Remedy doesn't own any IP so you would basically be buying into the promise of the studio's future.

The only thing Remedy has going for it as a potential acquisition is that it is a European company.

 

[sturgboski]

I personally wouldn't mind if Sony purchased NIS and Falcom. Sure, its Japan centric and wouldn't be as big as say RAD or QD in most gamers eyes, but it would show a larger commitment to Japanese gamers, fans of JRPGs AND Vita owners.

I echo Canis in that Sony should also grab Vanillaware.

 

[Synth]

Microsoft: Sega
Sony: Sega
Nintendo: omfg not Sega, holy shit...

Microsoft doesn't buy studios anymore, they outright told this many times.

Would that be before or after they dropped $2.5b for Mojang?

 

[Caronte]

Would that be before or after they dropped $2.5b for Mojang?

Heh.

 

[Biker19]

I personally wouldn't mind if Sony purchased NIS and Falcom. Sure, its Japan centric and wouldn't be as big as say RAD or QD in most gamers eyes, but it would show a larger commitment to Japanese gamers, fans of JRPGs AND Vita owners.

I echo Canis in that Sony should also grab Vanillaware.

I also said the same thing earlier.

Vanillaware's one of those companies who makes awesome Beat-'Em-Up games.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

I personally wouldn't mind if Sony purchased NIS and Falcom. Sure, its Japan centric and wouldn't be as big as say RAD or QD in most gamers eyes, but it would show a larger commitment to Japanese gamers, fans of JRPGs AND Vita owners.

I echo Canis in that Sony should also grab Vanillaware.

They really should've picked up Atlus when they had the chance.

 

[ClearData]

RAD really values their independence. I don't see them getting bought out.

 

[Platy]

I am also on the dream wagon for Nintendo buying Sega and Capcom for their old school stuff.

 

[Zekra Dezivad]

Wait a sec, Game Freak is not owned by Nintendo?

EDIT: LOL! I had no idea they're independent, the more you know.

This may surprise you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xnRamS1UuI

 

[FluxWaveZ]

Still don't get the point of this except for reinforcing console warrior arguments. Anyone acquiring Sega would be a disaster scenario for me.

 

[Synth]

I am also on the dream wagon for Nintendo buying Sega and Capcom for their old school stuff.

The majority of Sega's old stuff would be super dead under Nintendo. I mean, we'll be lucky to ever even see F-Zero again.

Sega not only did what Nintendidn't, but pretty much what they never would want to.

 

[Steverulez]

I was under the impression Remedy wasn't for sale. They like their independence.

I don't think they will do, they've always worked with the best publishers in the business. They're like a Finnish Platinum. They probably have suitors queuing up to publish their games.

Well I'm not saying they will need a bailout I'm just saying that if they needed it then MS would buy them otherwise they will remain independent. They probably had people queueing up for Alan Wake publishing but I think Microsoft were probably the only publisher they spoke to about Quantum Break because they both wanted to continue the partnership.

Quite what happens to that if Quantum Break doesn't do well who knows, I think they'll probably do Alan Wake 2 if I'm honest

 

[Aquamarine]

They really should've picked up Atlus when they had the chance.

i wouldn't be surprised if sceja made a deal with sega for the persona 5 ps4 port + playstation exclusivity.

much cheaper than an outright acquisition.