Microsoft and Nintendo are still in the heated console war; however, now it seems that the two companies are now in a battle for real estate. According to an article posted over at
SeattlePI.com, the two companies are currently fighting over land in the city of Redmond, Washington, where both of their North American headquarters are located. Currently, due to congested traffic and not enough land for other companies to build and expand upon, the city of Redmond has capped further developed to 2.62 million square feet. Both companies have filed proposals with the city for further expansion. Microsoft’s proposal is currently seeking about 2.2 million square feet while Nintendo’s only requests 551,000 square feet. Combined, these two proposals exceed the current cap on development by about 251,000.
Microsoft says it plans to hold the 251,000 square feet off of their current development proposals, only if the city provides priority to them when the cap expires in 2012 and more land is available. This extra space would give Microsoft a total of 10.2 million square feet of campus in the city which compliments an estimated additional 12,000 employees to the 28,000 currently employed there. Meanwhile, Nintendo currently has 756 employees in the city. Microsoft has also agreed to spend more than $30 million on traffic and road developments to improve congestion in the city. We will have to see how it all plays out. Thanks Frank.
