Topic: Could and Should Sony buy Nintendo?

Had a thought post Switch press conference. Should Sony buy Nintendo? Sony deal with the consoles, Ninty deal with the handhelds. Games from both stables on both formats. How does that sound?

It sounds absolutely amazing!

I don't know. Are Nintendo cheap enough for Sony to nab them?

Honestly, it's not something I'm against, mostly because I want to see what Nintendo games are capable of with better hardware, even though Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild look amazing. But I guess I need to think it over more, maybe see what others think.

SONY could NOT afford Nintendo. If anything Nintendo could more likely afford to buy Sony. Nintendo has made so much money in the past that it could lose Quarter of a Billion dollars each year and still be a marketable company unto 2060-something.

Honestly these two companies had a chance to work together, need I remind the Nintendo Play Station? If it were to happen it would have then.

Honestly I don't see the doom and gloom and where all this Nintendo is done for is coming from. Yeah the Switch Presentation could have been better but it wasn't that bad. I honestly think if they can market it right the Switch will do just fine.

Basically this.

As for the question itself; No and no.

No. If nintendo (let's just say) did go broke and was ditching the console war to go third party, their IP's would be up for grabs first. Each one of their IP's would go up for big bucks...and I'm talking big bucks. Nintendo could have and should have bought Sega, but didn't...they felt they didn't need them. Sony is doing pretty good on their own...the only downfall for a while was the PS3 and the PSP and VITA just couldn't compete in the handheld market against nintendo...hey, Sega and Atari couldn't compete there either. Sony creates the amazing machines and games...nintendo is all for fun and family-time games...the way gaming should be. Both had a chance to work together, they both disagreed on things...both are still good friends and good companies, neither put each other down and both ACTUALLY copy and mimic each other on ideas. If it came down to nintendo going bankrupt (which would be generations down the line if it happened), then I could see Sony buying them...or even nintendo partnering up with Sony. As to the question now...NO. Switch may not have had the best presentation, but the system will do just fine down the road...actually, once the games start pouring out for it, it will be a hit...probably selling about the same or more than the Xbox One and (it can't sell worse) than the Wii U. Nintendo will have another hit console...it may not be this one, but they'll have another Wii eventually and their merchandise sells really well. The thing I see first, is actually Microsoft dropping out of the console war eventually, Ubisoft trying their hands at the console war (they have enough of their own popular IP's to do so...Rayman, The Rabbids, Assassin's Creed, Just Dance and more)...sega never will, atari never will, which will then just leave Sony and Nintendo duking it out, which nintendo clearly doesn't care.

Sorry this comment is so long.

It would make more sense for Microsoft to buy Nintendo - not that I can see Nintendo being sold to anyone. Sony and Nintendo are 'rivals' in Japan and MS has no foothold over there. MS also have no 'Japanese' games so it would make sense for MS to buy Nintendo. Sony already have a handheld too.

Financially, the only company that could buy Nintendo or at least a majority share would be MS...

It couldn't, it definitely should if it had the money to but it doesn't

Sony couldn't afford Nintendo. Not by a long shot.

It would make more sense for Nintendo to go third party and put there games onto systems with a huge install base.

@johncalmc: First point is true, second point, nah. Nintendo should stick to their own hardware and drive its unique market, like they did with the Wii, just better than they did with the Wii U.

If I could just play Nintendo games on my PS4 I would be so freaking happy. If they just made games like Sega it would be amazing. I know it's not the nicest thing to say but it's how I feel. I love their games but hate the direction they have been going with their hardware.

But their hardware sucks. That's the problem. They've made catastrophic hardware decisions in every one of their consoles post-SNES that has eroded their fan base and made them increasingly irrelevant in every generation with the exception of the Wii, which was a fad. If the Switch fails what are they going to do? Churn out another console in three years time?

I understand that people like having wacky Nintendo around with their cool ideas but it'd be easier for everyone if they just out their games on good hardware. They'd sell a hell of a lot more games, and I wouldn't have to buy dreadful consoles just to play the Mario games I love.

@johncalmc: Couldn't agree with you more.

@BAMozzy: Not sure if that's even possible. I've always heard that there are laws in Japan that prevent buyouts from foreign companies.

@Octane: Whether there is or not, it was purely hypothetical. I can't see Nintendo being sold to anyone. IF and it was possible, of the two main rivals, MS are better financially and would benefit far more. MS head Phil Spencer is a big fan of Nintendo and has already said he would love to have Mario etc on their platform. Sony I feel would not be interested in partnering with Nintendo again and are the only Competition in Japan in this market. From a business sense, it would make more sense that MS buy Nintendo and I doubt they would lose the Nintendo branding for Japanese markets. It would enable them to sell their games in Japan as well as offer the Japanese games and big established franchises like Mario etc on their Platform. Sony of course could benefit from these franchises but I don't see them having the financial clout or the desire/need to buy out their competition.

Whilst Nintendo may not be as successful as Sony or MS in terms of global home console sales of late, in their home country, they are very big. People seem to forget though they are also massive when you look at global sales of ALL Nintendo products. The WiiU maybe the lowest selling console of the 3 (PS4 and XB1 has sold more) but add in their handhelds too and they sell more than both MS and Sony. I wouldn't be surprised if the Switch is the best selling console in Japan and seen as the 'bigger' company when it comes to gaming but in the west, we see Sony as bigger.

Sounds great but Nintendo have sooo many avenues to explore first. They also have their fingers in a lot of pies from a copyright point of view, not to mention cash in the bank.

I'm not sure of their operating costs versus revenue etc but it depends on how much profit the make on a device and software. They may be able to sustain themselves at lower levels then Sony/MS divisions. Plus they have great IP's and probably loads of patents. Plus, Switch hasn't failed yet!

honestly NO, besides IF i i stress IF anyone would buy anyone it would be the other way round i reckon or some kind of partnership between the two

Anyway Nintendo have a LOT of money to fall back on (apparently they could go to 2020 loosing money before they had any need to look into other avenues) plus keep in mind that while the Wii U was a commercial failure it was apparently a financial success so Nintendo is doing just fine and i think the main issue is it NEVER had a killer Nintendo game at launch but the Switch has Zelda (yeah i know it's also on Wii U but i don't think that will matter) not to mention they SEEM to have batter 3rd party support this time round (at least for now)

besides Nintendo has said many times they make TOYS, they have a completely different demographic to Sony or Microsoft so they don't actually compete with them as they target a completely different market which seems to suit Nintendo just fine for the moment, although i think thy realised with the Wii U that they will need to reach out into other markets at some point hence why you got Super Mario Run on Mobile

the only people who compete with each other are the "fans" and for some reason it's "hip" to hate on Nintendo at he moment, you DON'T need a ultra powerful machine to make fun, engaging games the Wii and Wii U proved that, besides we don't really know what the Switch can do yet, even if it ends up being technically less powerful than the PS4 and XB1, depending on how it's all used together then it could still produce and run games of similar quality, remember the SNES was able to increase the power of the system with special chip sets in the carts so perhaps the Switch could do the same thing if it needs too

besides i have always said if you want a great Console experience, get a Nintendo and a PlayStation and you can't go wrong

We do know what the Switch is capable of in terms of power etc. It is essentially a WiiU in handheld mode and when docked can offer a bit more power to enhance the visuals for big screen HD TV owners. The hand held screen is on a 6.2" 720p screen so you don't need 1080p visuals or great detail on something so small. Zelda for example runs at 720/30 in handheld but docked runs at 900/30 - on WiiU it also runs at 720p. Its not out yet so things of course could change. The artstyle of a lot of Nintendo's games are not ultra realistic or visually complex. The buildings in Mario Odyssey for example cannot compare with the level of detail and buildings in a game like the Division or Watchdogs 2 but whether you need it to enjoy the game is a different matter. Same goes when you look at the world of Zelda and compare to the much more realistic looking environments of Horizon:ZD.

That doesn't mean that games can't be fun or be worth playing of course but it does also tell us where they could struggle with 3rd Party support. It may not matter to you as you obviously have a PS, but if you had to choose just 1 console and at the price point of the Switch, that puts it in competition with the PS4 and XB1s, it could be hard sell. If you are only interested in Mario, Zelda and PS3 era games and want to game on the go, its probably an easier decision - although games do seem a lot more expensive - $40 for Street Fighter 2? A game that's ported from XB360 Arcade with a few extra characters and story mode? £60 for Zelda, Mario, Bomberman, Splatoon 2 or Skyrim? That makes this version of Skyrim the MOST expensive and I doubt it will run at 1080p either. Again I know visuals are not the most important aspect of gaming but if you own a PS4 (especially the Pro), chances are you would buy Skyrim for that console - not only is it cheaper, it will look better regardless of whether you own a 1080p or 4k TV. Unless of course, playing it whilst on the go is the MOST important aspect.

What Nintendo appear to have done is literally build a portable WiiU that when docked will give a slight boost over the WiiU. It can't match up to the XB1 in terms of power regardless. The chip they are using doesn't have the capacity to do so. It does have the advantage of handling 16bit instruction - effectively doubling its potential but even then it still can't match up. The GPU has only 256 shaders compared to 768 in the XB1, its clock speed - even docked - won't match up to the original XB1 let alone the slightly higher XB1s. At its max capacity - i.e running at the highest possible clock speed and using 16bit instruction (or half instructions), the best it could reach is 1tflop compared to the XB1s at 1.4tflops. Using 32bit (or full) instruction, like the PS4 and XB1s, the most it could achieve is 0.5tflops. However Nintendo are not running this at its fullest capacity and down-clocking the GPU from that to ensure it doesn't overheat and downclocking even further in handheld mode to prolong battery life. It doesn't have the RAM or RAM bandwidth either of the other consoles.

What this means is that a LOT of this generation (PS4/XB1s) games will not run anywhere near to the same standards - if at all. Of course that is maybe of little consequence to the majority of us here as we no doubt own a PS4 for that. But you have to ask yourself will the Switch end up going the same way as the WiiU in terms of 3rd Party games. Publishers/Developers may be happy to port over PS3 era games to start with but if they don't sell because most gamers have already played and/or still have these, not interested in playing them on the go, will 3rd party support dry up?

The switch is without doubt an impressive handheld - not the best on the market in terms of raw specs but has the added bonus of Nintendo on the box - meaning that games - especially Nintendo's will be more polished than most other handheld gaming devices can offer. In terms of Home consoles though, its little more powerful than the WiiU and appears to merge the Wii and WiiU into one (as far as game mechanic potential - some games look like they were designed or wouldn't be out of place for the Wii in terms of mechanics). To me it seems that Nintendo have merged the Wii, WiiU and Handheld division into one device which could turn out to be a success but in terms of hardware specs, its not much of an upgrade (although an upgrade none the less) over WiiU and certainly not designed to match the current generation of consoles from Sony or MS. Like you said though, its not aiming for that market and its games are not designed to compete either. If they can sell to PS4/XB1 owners looking for a 2nd (or third) system, looking for a mobile device and/or looking to play Nintendo's brand of games, its a bonus but they are not in direct competition (so to speak) like MS and Sony are. They are very much doing their own thing.

Hard to find current stats, but in the summer Pokemon GO had made Nintendo's net worth higher than Sony's. I imagine that has dipped along with Pokemon's hype, but still I'd say it is out of reach of Sony.

@Mega-Gazz: Yeah bt then there worth went down I remember when they unveiled the Switch last October.