I wish more companies operated this way: Owning IPs people care about and working with separate studios to bring them to life in new ways.

I definitely appreciate Nintendo taking a more hands off approach to buying studios and simply collaborating with them to make new games. The only one that was truly a missed opportunity was Rare. They really should have swooped in and bought them before Microsoft did, especially after all they did for the N64. Sure, their output may not have been the best on Xbox--but that was probably due to them having to cancel projects that could only have worked with the Nintendo IP.

With HAL it's actually even more complicated, they both have a share in owning the Kirby franchise, meaning HAL and Nintendo both own it and because of this HAL makes the games for exclusively Nintendo. And they both have co-ownership of the company Warpstar inc. the company in charge of managing the kirby franchise with HAL owning 50% and Nintendo owning the other 50%. So Nintendo doesn't buy HAL because they see them more as a business partner compared to other companies, kind of like the pokemon company being owned by creatures, gamefreak, and nintendo

Acquisition is something common to western companies. Japanese companies tend to prefer collaboration. There are some exceptions though.

Nintendo is in a special situation where they don't need to buy companies for their IP's because they already have all the IP's they need. All they need is conpanies who can work on those IP's

We also have to consider the fact Nintendo is the only pure gaming company, the other two are conglomerate with several revenue streams leading to deeper pockets and much higher risk tolerance. What Nintendo is able to do as a tiny company is just incredible! Wanna how big the others are simply in terms of employee count? Nintendo - 6,574 (Source: CSR - 2021) Microsoft - 181,000 (Source: MS Website - 2021) Sony - 114,400 (Source: Corporate Report - 2019)

Thing is that most developers would jump at the chance work on a Nintendo IP, given how much weight their games carry. So they don’t need to buy other studios.

the answer is simple, really; nintendo are fortunate enough to be in the position of both being a console maker and a software developer with extremely popular ips to boot. they don't need third parties to bolster up sales of their hardware when their in-house developed first party offerings are already some of the most profitable franchises worldwide.

감사합니다. (Thank you in Korean) Thank you Jon for explanation. (I'm not an expert, but I want to say something about it) 1. Nintendo is one of the company that lived over 100 years. In Japanese culture, most of the Japanese business owners don't want to invade or interrupt other competitors because it would damage their brand or business by other group of people or business owners. (Of course there's exception to other Japanese companies, but usually that's how Japanese business works in there.) 3. I think the reason why Nintendo doesn't want to buy other company it's because of the flexibility. 4. If Nitnendo bought other companies, because they usually release on their games on their manufactured gaming consoles first, the other companies that sold on other platforms, they might not able to sold in other platforms such as Steam or Microsoft. 5. When I realize about Nintendo and the other workers(Not all but most of employees), they respect the other companies. Which it makes the best job being a great partnership with others these days. They even literally colaborate with an indie developer. 6. In Future, Nintendo might buy one or two companies for their stability, they won't be crazy enough for keep buying the others. Because they can colaborate with others. 7. an old one said to me, growing a company is easy but keeping it safe is the most hardest thing to most of the business owners. Buying stuff might have a risk in future. 8. We need to understand "WHY SONY and MICROSOFT BUY STUDIOS OR COMPANIES ?" The short answer for it, less content means less interest. Nintendo have their own many recognize brands for over 40 years such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pikachu and so on. But compare to other companies (no offence to them) maybe I didn't play the other platforms but I can't think of a exclusive character in each companies. It might be a benefit for them buying stuff that was already made. Because buying it is better than making it. 9. I'm very very curious what Nintendo is upto their plans.

People forget that Sony and Microsoft biggest games are not made by them so buying studios made sense. Nintendo can make everything in house plus they give them freedom to be creative and not chained to them.

It's interesting to see that also when Nintendo works with a third party company they tend to work with them at least a second time if not more, like when they worked with Gambarion on Pandora's Tower they did it again on Wii Fit U or when they worked with Platinum on Wonderful 101 they then worked again on many other titles. I expect them to work again with Mages after the FDC remake. Of course this aproach is not perfect, aside from the case of Alpha Dream there is Headstron (the Art Academy team) which stopped existing a few years ago or Monster Games, which stopped working with them after a decade for unknown reasons, so you could see a sudden stop of some Nintendo series for this reason and that's a shame, but overall I like this aproach and keep things healthy.

I imagine it’s likely that Nintendo has a “right of first refusal” contract with some of these companies, so that if Sony offered to buy Intelligent Systems for example, Nintendo could block the sale by buying IS at market cap.

I'm surprised that people would speculate about Nintendo buying Square Enix. That sounds more like a misguided wish (they want to see more SE-developed games on the Switch) than something that would be remotely likely to happen. Kinda like a lot of those 'leaks' and rumors that're always flying around. No basis in reality, just things some people want to see happen.

With the Hal situation I think Nintendo partly owns them because Yamauchi made a deal with Hal in the mid 90s to save them from bankruptcy and then they became a 2nd party developer for Nintendo

Nintendo will always have the support of Japanese companies because the Nintendo consoles are the only ones that do really well over there the last decade, especially the handhelds. That’s a lot of support already. And then there’s always the indies of which you have many new ones each year.

i really like the way they do that, it kinda give a sense of pride, like "were that good at treating the people that worked with us, that we don't even have to sweat it, we know that we are the only option for them, even if we technically aren't". Shows a sign of relationship and respect for the industry. And I know that acquisitions are not that simple, but with Microsoft and Bethesda/Activision it just feels like a "we don't know how to make our console more appealing and don't care to make new teams, throw in the cash, you're working for me whether you like it or not!", yeah that's one way to do it, but it makes the themes qualities and brand as a whole inconsistent, in one hand you have halo, and in the other you have fukcing candy crush.

The thought of Sony buying Square Enix could probably give me a heart attack!

Nintendo operates in it's own demographic separate from Sony and Microsoft. I don't think Hal Laboratories, Intelligent systems, Camelot, or Good feel would be good fits for sony or microsoft, so it makes sense to just do business with Nintendo. If there was a 4th console manufacturer that tried to directly compete with Nintendo, like if Sega was still in the console business, than it would make sense for Nintendo to buy more companies, but they don't really have to.

I don't like what appears to be a gaming monopoly forming and can see Nintendo just staying out. But if they need to get into the game, buying Platinum Games would be amazing. They've all ready made several great exclusives with them.

Very well put together video, Jon. Fantastic job 👏🏼

In cases of alphadream, something tells me they weren't worth saving. Not because they don't make good games but other factors. the company had a massive debt, the last games were selling poorly and the last thing we knew about them before bankruptcy was that they were hiring people specifically for HD development which tells me that they didn't quite have the resources to make Switch games. I think Nintendo saw this and deemed too risky to save the company. Harsh but its actually reasonable. If they atleast had 2 of these 3 problems, thay could've had a better fate

It says a lot about the culture, so many amazing developers work with Nintendo (almost exclusively) for decades. I can’t imagine anyone would work with EA more than once or twice, if they didn’t have to.

According to VGChartz, the global sales of the Nintendo Switch have surpassed the original PlayStation (also known as the PS1 or PSX). The Switch sold 341,662 units in the week ending January 15, 2022, bringing its total sales to 102.81 million units. This also means that the Nintendo Switch officially surpassed the 102.5 million sales of Sony’s PlayStation (the first generation) and jumped to fifth place in the history of game console sales.

Man, this is really a healthy approach to business and creation. People are talking how the Acti-Blizz purchase is bad for the industry although good for the studio, but the thing is, the bad part outweights the good, good products for the exchange of a monopoly is just not good, companies shouldn't be allowed to dominate like that.

Gat damn that Bowser’s Fury soundtrack was too good for this world

Nintendo doesn't need to because they are smart and talented enough. Also when it comes to Square Enix they are mainly a Playstation company and Nintendo. Thats fine as long as they stay with those two. Besides that Nintendi really should find a way to buy Game Freak. 👍

Not sure where else to leave this so I’ll leave it here. Jon, (and I say this also loving everything else I see on the channel with Zion and Alex too. You’re all incredible.) I will greatly miss your contributions to Nintendo Life. I’d been a life long casual Nintendo fan who basically missed everything from GameCube through to 3DS and then bought a Switch a year after launch for Breath Of The Wild. Like many the pandemic have me time to delve deep into video games, Nintendo in particular. This channel was one of the first I came across when I started down the Nintendo KZfaq rabbit-hole. Your deep dives into games like The Frog For Whom The Bell Tolls have honestly been enchanting. Can’t wait to see what you do next. (And I can’t wait to keep up with this channel and all that Alex and Zion continue to do.) Sincere thanks to you all.

Look at every Nintendo’s handheld and home consoles top 20 sold games for each of them and you’ll get your answer.

Love the way that Nintendo operates, and how they’ve always been operating

Nintendo own so many IPs that have a special place in peoples hearts due to childhood memories. That sells games and means they aren’t really in direct competition with Sony and Microsoft who don’t have the same luxury. For Nintendo buying studios doesn’t make financial sense, for Sony and Microsoft it does. It’s not Nintendo being a “nicer” company or caring more about the fans as they do plenty of things that are anti consumer. While I don’t like what Sony and Microsoft are doing I don’t blame them. They are not in the same situation as Nintendo so I can’t see how it’s directly comparable. All three companies are doing what they think will make them the most money long term, that’s it.

Fantastic video! So helpful and very instructive. I honestly learned a lot that I never knew about my favorite video game company. You guys rock!

Look up the concept of Zaibatsu. Japanese culture is all about loyalty and honor in business.

I'm on the opposite view, Jon. If Nintendo DID acquire more studios, Microsoft wouldn't have ruined Rare and we would have gotten Banjo-Threeie, Hudson Soft would have kept making more Mario Parties, and Alpha Dream wouldn't have collapsed.

This was actually quite insightful! Thanks for sharing this information in such a succinct manner!

Yeah but if a few studio acquisitions could help them get more regular releases for the Metroid, Donkey Kong, Kid Icarus, F-Zero and Pikmin series, then I’d be all for it

Nintendo really has no need to buy studios for their IPs, since they already have more IPs than they know what to do with and have the clout to make popular new IPs if there's a genre they don't have covered. If they do buy a studio it'll probably be for developer talent as opposed to absorbing a large established company with name recognition, because Nintendo doesn't need it for the purposes of selling their console. Sony and especially Microsoft can't compare in terms of their own in-house devs and franchises.

Nintendo is the majority holder of these companies shares in Japan that's why Nintendo influences their decisions. For example, Pokémon GO didn't get announced until Nintendo announced they decided to do mobile games.

Just gotta say Jon, what a well put together and insightful video!

Really the only "company" they bought recently was the team that built Mario Party, though what they actually did was basically hire everyone who made it after Konami shut the studio down.

I do like Nintendo's approach... Till someone else buys one of their collaborators, imagine if Sony bought Capcom or Square 😬 So yeah, Nintendo buying at least 1 of their long term collaborators wouldn't be that bad🤷‍♂️

So is Jon leaving Nintendo Life or did he just ascend time and space and become Nintendo Life? Real question.

Now that we have established that Nintendo buying out a bunch of game companies is not what they do, this is now exactly what they will do.

Realistically Nintendo need 8-12 exclusives a year to keep their customers happy. As long as their current 2nd party partners are solvent and willing to do business, they don’t need more developers. The difference is Xbox is playing catch up and are throwing money to try and get interest in their previously flat lineup. I get the feeling Bethesda and Activision will actually end up making less games because of the acquisition as Microsoft try’s to find a variety in what at the moment is a heavily FPS leaning lineup.

If it’s in the cards that Capcom or Square Enix has to sell no matter what I hope Nintendo is the one that buys them. If what these KZfaqr’s are saying is true with the industry consolidating then Nintendo should not sit idly by on their hands while Sony and Microsoft slowly makes the video game landscape smaller and smaller. Despite owning a PS5/Series X I really only play on my Switch. As of right now these acquisitions from Microsoft and Sony doesn’t really bother me because they haven’t bought a publisher or studio that I heavily support.

It's all in their brand name my dude! Nintendo translates to "leave luck to heaven"! That's why they're so chill and I love Nintendo for that and not giving any care for others think and do. Although I'm kinda upset to how they use their cease and desist methods for shutting down fanmade games I still like Nintendo's library of games. They're the first console I've played on as a kid with the Famicom the Japanese equivalent to the NES. I'll always side with Nintendo whoever wins the console and gaming wars that everyone is so into nowadays even though the war has been going on since the 80s. Also Nintendo has so many great IPs at their disposal. They can easily utilize like they're doing now with Kirby and Metroid.

You are 100% right about this. They don't need to.

Great video. Everything you’ve said makes sense. The only exception would be if the likes of Microsoft start to muscle in on those developers Nintendo have built big relationships with. Unless they are under Nintendo’s ownership they could be under someone else’s. With the industry is going it seems the purchasing spree won’t end yet.

I play since 1986 and I own mostly every console of any company. I’m this type of generation who see the fascinating Time of the Beginning and the (for me) Prime time of the Videogame history (90s - middle 2000s). I’m very into the thematics of the Videogameindustry. What actually happened is not what I expected when I think about „how the Videogameindustry should work“ but I can’t change it. But as a consumer I can choose what company or games I use most for my hobby. And if I think about what’s going on in the moment and how especially MS, Sony and Nintendo acting, I can identify most with Nintendo. Not everything what Nintendo do is gold and also Nintendo changed a little bit (it’s normal). But overall, Nintendo still works rather traditionally compared to the competition. And that’s what i like. Many people say that progress is always good. I still like the classical way. And for me personally, I see more negative things in the way things are currently going than positive. Technology in general is going in a direction that I personally don't like. Everything is losing personality. Nintendo, for example, has built a strong personality as a company. In this point MS and Sony could and can never keep up. What you still call "it has heart" is no longer present to the same extent as in the past, because Nintendo now has to act more like a big company and it's also about the money, but for me there is still more love and tradition behind it than with the competition.

I think that in Nintendo's minds, just buying a ridiculous amount of indie companies is just plain stupid!

Nintendo never does whatever the other 2 do and they still do super good. And why? Because Nintendo as a brand is super strong.

Platinum Games is the only company Nintendo would purchase at this point.

That was very interesting and informative. Good job guys!

I always thought Nintendo didn't buy many developers because they have enough to stand on with their own development. Who knows.

I personally would like to see Nintendo buy some of their longtime partners, but I don't want to see buyouts of large third party companies (with the exception of Level-5 because it seems unlikely that their games will come west if they remain independent and I think they'd be a great fit for each other). It makes sense for Nintendo to focus on contracts and partnerships, but they've lost several partners over the years when they could've swooped in. Rare, AlphaDream, Skip, and now Monster Games are all unfortunate missed opportunities. I think it'd be good for Nintendo to at least buy MercurySteam, as nothing they've released outside of contract work has really gained traction and they have potential to work on other Nintendo IP or to do their own thing with more promotion. I also have a gut feeling that Babylon's Fall is going to flop due to the negative reactions to the recent trailers and closed betas, which might mean PlatinumGames could consider selling if it hurts them hard enough - and if there's any company I think should buy them, it'd be Nintendo And if nothing else, I'm glad it's the major players that are buying studios like Activision Blizzard and Bungie and not outside companies trying to get in on gaming (Amazon, Google, Netflix) or Tencent

Great video, clearly explains why these purchases from Microsoft and Sony are potentially going to be detrimental and also shows why the Nintendo buying someone suggestions just make no sense

I really liked this video. I always wondered about this. Thank you!

Considering that Gamefreak has moved their offices into Nintendo's offices they aren't as independent as they seem on paper.

1:10 Chef’s kiss for that Kirby fade in!

Should have bought rare though back in the day 😞

As usual Jon, this video has depth and fantastic analysis of the situation.

I wish they'd buy Level 5. Just so we can get their games international again.

The fact is, at the height of their share prices and company evaluation during the Wii days, they could've bought Factor 5 or Free Radical who were going down the drain. Nintendo could've bought a couple of studios on the cheap, downsize them accordingly and prevented software droughts.

Nintendo makes a lot of their own games. They don't just own first party studios, they ARE the first party studios.

I like the approach, i like that Nintendo is "old-school" but as always, things change, and Nintendo has been left behind several times do to change, and i fear that, change can be good, but not always and i specially don't like it when its too fast, and this seems to be very fast. Its very weird, i feel like at this time in the industry, i lean A LOT more towards retro-gaming, i have felt like not caring much about new games, i have been distancing from NL for that same reason, but you are still the only news site i follow because from time to time you talk about rare retro games and i really like that.

I think the issue in question is if Sony shows interest in some of nintendos bigger studio partners, aka losing their support, companies like sega Capcom, square or bandai, and they want to be bought. Would nintendo give into the pressure and buy them themselves to keep those exclusives or support on 1st party games

Awesome video, thank you! I think Nintendo fans needed to hear this.

Great analysis here jon especially with the comparison to Disneys amalgamation of the movie industry. I hope these massive company buy ups don't restrict innovation, and drag down the general quality of the market, like Disney and marvel seem to have done.

I had no idea that most studios that make nintendo games aren't owned by nintendo. Thanks for the informative video!

The only company I really hoped Nintendo would’ve bought was grasshopper manufacturer since alot of there big games are known mostly on Nintendo consoles and also for Travis touchdown on smash

I don't necessarily want to see Nintendo buy studios. I would like to see Nintendo buy Konami's dormant IP's. They obviously have no intention of giving any real love and they'd be a great fit for Nintendo's retro vibe.

I'm So Excited for new Nintendo Games

It's all fun and games until another company comes by purchasing everything, leaving no one to work together with them. Imagine losing Square Enix and Capcom.

Another thing to consider is companies like Square and Bandai Namco are *more* than game publishers/developers, as they have businesses like manga, music, anime, freaking GUNDAM in Bandai Namco's case. On top of that Nintendo has small shares within those companies among other game and non-game businesses. A western business buying a Japanese one rarely ever happens so if you think Microsoft are gonna buy Sega, that's gonna be an uphill battle. In general Sony and Microsoft aren't going to be scooping up these JP businesses. With that said I do think Nintendo will eventually scoop up HAL, IS, and Grezzo in the future since they're trying to make sure everything is consolidated and just in case something bad happens in the future. Nintendo did save HAL in the past from bankruptcy for example so even if they don't own the whole studio, but it was necessary to keep them afloat. There's also smaller issues like, let's say people think Nintendo should buy Platinum. While Platinum has been a great partner with Nintendo they're also known for their contractual work with other studios as that's all they have. They did attempt to publish their own IPs like W101 but the rights to the IP are still up in the air. They have published their own mobile titles as well. Platinum has also been on a crappy side of business lately. Would Nintendo purchasing them necessarily make them a better studio? I doubt this since they have a lot of other issues to take into consideration.

Every Japanese game company aside from sony: I hope this ages well.

5:55 and yet, Nintendo left Alpha Dream to die

This could be an interesting system to experiment with if and when I make a studio of my own to add to my list of Sociological systems that could work.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Nintendo won't purchase their development partners unless they are in danger of being bought by another company.

I live for that dulcet baritone. Thank you Jon

Interesting topic!

Actually surprised you didn't mention Monster Games, recently bought by another company.

"Even if Skip were acquired, would that have saved Chibi-Robo?" My heart! DX I was thinking the about this exact same topic recently, and you definitely bring up a lot of good points. When the news popped up of Nintendo buying Next Level Games, my first thought was "Wait, they didn't already own them?" A lot of my favorite Nintendo titles all come from creative minds outside of the core company, itself. So while I'd love to see more companies get the opportunity to work on all of these beloved Nintendo franchises, buying the company outright doesn't really seem like a necessary step to make that happen, since Nintendo has shown plenty of times that they're willing to let others try their hand at bringing their own ideas to a pre-existing franchise. My biggest concern with ANY company buying any other company is the thought of a pre-existing franchise becoming exclusive to a single platform when it wasn't previously. I am glad that companies seem to be a lot more open to the idea of third party companies who've made a name for themselves on all platforms to continue to cater to each of those platforms, rather than keeping everything under their control and having exclusive title after exclusive title. I always find the most magical gaming experiences come about when companies work together and just make something fun and a celebration of ALL kinds of games and creators (Smash, Layton VS Wright, etc). So here's hoping that continues to be the case and more collaborations and cross platform opportunities present themselves in the future.

Maybe they should've bought Hudson for better Mario Party titles or AlphaDream for more Mario & Luigi RPG games. I also wish they had bought Rare for the sake of more Banjo Kazooie but at least Retro Studios did an excellent job on reviving the Donkey Kong Country series.

Great explanation Jon - understand the situation much better with Nintendo and its partnerships

This is a very good Video, but I didn't expect anything else from Jon.

2:18 Mario power tennis exists tho

"Loyalty" is the key here.

The thing with Square Enix that not many know is that they do much more than games. They run arcades (through their acquisition of Taito), they supposedly have a theme park in the works, and they also own the manga publisher Gangan Comics (which published Fullmetal Alchemist, Soul Eater, Black Butler, and the list goes on. They've even published Fire Emblem manga.)

Very good and informative video.

Developers want to work with nintendo with their wealth of legendary ips

This video perfectly explains my response to nintendos “inaction” during the recent acquisitions. While Nintendo works closely with Bandai namco, I don’t think Nintendo would actually pony up that much money to buy them. I’m sure Nintendo could afford capcom or sega, but I just don’t think they will, instead I think Nintendo will continue to work with independent studios and if anything perhaps reconsider buying some of them specifically if they felt like these studios came onto the radar of Sony or Microsoft.

this just in: nintendo buys their own in house studio

Also, square enix and Capcom are worth 6 billion and 5 billion respect. And Nintendo is worth 55 billion. So Nintendo will need to pay about 8 to 10 billion dollars to aquire each company. I don't think Nintendo wants to give up 20 of their company to just buy ips

I think that the next studio that will collaborate with Nintendo is level 5

I'm conclusion; Nintendo respects their partners and their individuality in their work with only helping or surprising them with the exclusive titles or 1st party IP's.

Great vid and why I firmly believe the culture that runs through company like Nintendo is that much greater than the execs at Microsoft and Potentially PlayStation. I don’t just worry about the industry but the ethos these studios will end up having after years of restructuring and loosing their own shine on what made them great and coming under one business. Can ruin the magic of the games. I only hope I’m wrong

The nintendo reputation is enough to attract devs. They have so many popular titles that some titles are even developed by many devs. Pokemon for example has been shown to have titles not by gamefreak. So yeah I don't see them changing anytime soon. They have the rep to demmand that you get to use their IPs as long as you allow them to have a form of supervision. It's a big win win... Plus just like pokemon who didn't change much until Arcreus but sold millions of copies, any developer would be crazy to not kiss up with nintendo. Their games even if it stays repetitive will sell, so it's not even that risky cause u could just use the same formula and just add your own spice.

They have a vested interest in Bandai Namco, owning 1.75% of the company. I think if they ever wished to sale Nintendo would break their necks to buy them. Sure they have some decent IPs, but, Nintendo has relied on this company for decade to bolster their own IP.

I’m still pissed that they didn’t buy alphadream

If they're not purchasing companies then maybe buying IP's would be intriguing. Nintendo getting back Banjo or something more off the wall with yooka laylee or shovel knight would make more sense than a studio.

This is the Good Side of Nintendo, Letting Companies that are helping them and making exclusives for them do their own things. And being loyal, it's awesome