Back in the good old days, Microsoft and Sony weren’t names that you would associate with gaming. Nintendo, however, was largely considered (and still is) a household name when it came to video game consoles, which is why it isn’t surprising to learn that Microsoft had initially approached Nintendo before they made the Xbox.
In the latest episode of IGN Unfiltered, they asked Microsoft if the company had ever considered buying Nintendo out. However according to Xbox creator Ed Fries, Microsoft actually tried to seek out a partnership with Nintendo, but it seems that Nintendo was not interested in any kind of partnership at that time.
Fries said, “When we first started thinking about doing Xbox we met with Nintendo and we sat down with Iwata and others and we said, ‘This is what we want to do. Could we partner? Could we work together on this?’ And basically they said no.” He added that Microsoft offered to handle the networking side of things while Nintendo focused on the hardware, but it was a no-go.
He also added that Microsoft approached Sony with the same deal, but it seems Sony was equally uninterested. We guess this shouldn’t be too surprising. The last time Nintendo tried to partner with someone, they kind of got burnt, although it would be interesting to see the gaming landscape today had Microsoft ended up partnering with either company.