While Microsoft has been buying major publishers, and Sony has been buying live-service studios, Nintendo has been kinda just doing their own thing. Despite the constant narrative that in order to compete everybody now needs to begin buying studios Nintendo has stated that making big Acquisitions would not be a fit for them.
Last year, Nintendo had stated that they planned to invest heavily in the studios that were already part of their family setting aside 100 billion yen or in U.S. currency $870 million to help bolster their internal studios. Nintendo also planned to invest heavily in non-gaming ventures, such as films based on their IPs, as well as theme parks and stores.
Of course, all of that was before Microsoft announced the acquisition of Activision Blizzard in January, followed shortly by Sony announcing they would be acquiring Bungie to bolster plans for multiple live-service titles they had planned, with Jum Ryan stating Sony planned to acquire more studios soon.
From there many wondered if Nintendo might have plans of their own to bolster their internal workings with new studios, either one they have been working with or new ones they could reach out to. We got our answer during an investors meeting, which was translated by Bloomberg, in which Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa made clear the company would not be changing its current course in light of recent events.
Furukawa stated:
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.
This being said, Nintendo does acquire studios from time to time, such as the case with Luigi’s Mansion 3 developer Next Level Games which Nintendo Aquired in January of last year. It does appear though that the company has no intention of competing in major acquisitions like Microsoft and Sony.
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