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Realistically, what gaming studio can/should Nintendo buy to enrich their games library?

In the latest investor meeting, President Furukawa said in the background of increasing global competitions, they will invest $900m more in Switch game development in next 5 years and they will not rule out buying third party studios. So what studios do they have in mind?

Personally, being a HUGE fan of From Soft, I think they should make an offer to Kadokawa to buy From Soft (I just learned Kadokawa is not even that huge, only less than 1-billions valuation, so From Soft couldn't be that expensive). From Soft has worldwide recognition, and their games will fill in the gap for mature audience in Nintendo library.

So what do you guys think, what game studio they can/should buy?
 
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Jaybe

Member
I haven’t heard any reviews of the cloud only games like Control but any company that helps them improve in this space of streaming would be strategically beneficial. I’m surprised more third parties and publishers aren’t capitalizing on the platform. This is a lightning in the bottle console/portable and if they make the successor backwards compatible, the install base will be immense, maybe the best largest ever.
 

Mr Hyde

Member
Buying FromSoft makes no sense. They have zero working relationship with Nintendo nowadays. Haven't produced anything remotely exclusive since Lost Kingdom 1 & 2 on GC However, Nintendo should approach them with an offer to produce a new exclusive for Nintendo Switch, similar to how they've approached Platinum Games for Astral Chain and Bayo-series. Or remaster the Lost Kingdom-franchise (and do a third one maybe).
 

Mikey Jr.

Member
In the latest investor meeting, President Furukawa said in the background of increasing global competitions, they will invest $900m more in Switch game development in next 5 years and they will not rule out buying third party studios. So what studios do they have in mind?

Personally, being a HUGE fan of From Soft, I think they should make an offer to Kadokawa to buy From Soft (I just learned Kadokawa is not even that huge, only less than 1-billions valuation, so From Soft couldn't be that expensive). From Soft has worldwide recognition, and their games will fill in the gap for mature audience in Nintendo library.

So what do you guys think, what game studio they can/should buy?

So you want a game that looks beautiful, to all of a sudden be put onto a tablet at 28fps?

The fuck?
 

Aldric

Member
Honestly I don't think they're interested in buying new studios, they'll likely strengthen their internal teams by continuing to recruit people like what they've done with Monolith Soft and Retro Studio. The only way I could see them acquire new studios is if one of their main partners like Platinum or Koei Tecmo risked getting bought by the competition and I don't think it'll happen so the people who gave a thousand bucks to scalpers can sleep tight.
 

ntropy

Member
Mercury Steam
61c6f5bd-b9b0-4df8-b296-2e6800c027f7_text.gif
 

Agent X

Member
Shin'en would be a good choice. They've done some very impressive work on numerous Nintendo systems throughout the last two decades. They truly know how to squeeze performance out of the hardware, and their games usually play reasonably well, too. They've dipped their toes into Sony and Microsoft from time to time, but it seems like they're really at home on Nintendo systems.
 

EDMIX

Member
Buying FromSoft makes no sense. They have zero working relationship with Nintendo nowadays.

Funny enough, that makes more sense as to why they'd buy them....they don't put out games on Nintendo nowadays right? Soooooo it would be something new, fresh and a respectable buy =)

You don't need to have a relationship to be bought my friend. Its irrelevant. Its not some requirement for a buyout.

FromSoft would make a great fit for Nintendo as a lot of that old school design is deeply ingrained in lots of Nintendo games just as much as its in FromSoft games.
 

Kikorin

Member
Mercury Steam, then make them Metroid 2D developers from now on. I don't think they need to buy them, since the collaboration worked out fine for 2 games already, but if they have to buy someone, could be a good match.
 

Astral Dog

Member
Nintendo has said in the past they don't like to buy developers in a risk of them wanting to be independent and leaking talent(Platinum Games certainly wants to remain independent and even publish their own games, alongside working with Square Enix and Nintendo) , its not always a good strategy for them, though there are exceptions.

Anyways this money will be for making games in-house, not buying developers
 
Nintendo has said in the past they don't like to buy developers in a risk of them wanting to be independent and leaking talent(Platinum Games certainly wants to remain independent and even publish their own games, alongside working with Square Enix and Nintendo) , its not always a good strategy for them, though there are exceptions.

Anyways this money will be for making games in-house, not buying developers

according to the translation from the investor meeting transcript, they said they don’t rule out acquiring independent studios
 
Funny enough, that makes more sense as to why they'd buy them....they don't put out games on Nintendo nowadays right? Soooooo it would be something new, fresh and a respectable buy =)

You don't need to have a relationship to be bought my friend. Its irrelevant. Its not some requirement for a buyout.

FromSoft would make a great fit for Nintendo as a lot of that old school design is deeply ingrained in lots of Nintendo games just as much as its in FromSoft games.

exactly, From Soft games are perfect fit for Nintendo, because Nintendo doesn’t have From Soft type of games
 
Nintendo is better served forming new studios than they are acquiring others. I can't think of many franchises that are better served complying with the Nintendo design approach.

That said, I wish they had the stones to go after S-E. The trove of IP they could tap into and revive makes me salivate.
 

Astral Dog

Member
according to the translation from the investor meeting transcript, they said they don’t rule out acquiring independent studios
sure, they can feel forced to buy a developer(like Next Level Games) doesn't mean they are planning to, the money is specifically for in house productions and bigger teams, like some people say Platinum Games or MercurySteam but the former is very unlikely and the latter could happen one day, but nobody is looking to work with Mercury other than Nintendo so they don't even need to buy them
 

Zannegan

Member
Older publishers woud help then fill out their rich retro libraries. Then they'd have enough content to serve as a retro arcade and beef up their online sub offering. That's an expensive proposition though.

If we're just talking about pumping up their development capabilities, I'd like to see them invest in a western studio or two. They could even pull a Sony and buy a couple of porting studios.
 

Zannegan

Member
exactly, From Soft games are perfect fit for Nintendo, because Nintendo doesn’t have From Soft type of games
Sure, but that also means they haven't built up as large an audience for that type of game. Do you think all From Soft fans are going to happily step back two gens just to play the next From game?

And From themselves are keyed up to work at a totally different level of hardware. Unless you time it for just before the Switch 2, that's going to mean a lot of wasted time reorganizing and changing things up.

All of that said, after Bloodborne, I would kill to see a From Soft developed Metroid. Thankfully, Nintendo doesn't have to buy them to make that happen, so the dream lives on.
 
level 5, platinum, ideal factory, marvelous, there are a few more but those are the smaller ones they could get xseed could be another one.
 

Robb

Gold Member
As some have already mentioned Platinum Games or Level5 seem like a good choice. Though I guess that would mean ‘more of the same’.

To enrich their current library they should probably invest in a good western dev. Not sure which one though.
 

Alandring

Member
Game Freak, Intelligent Systems, HAL Laboratory, Camelot, Grezzo, Mercury Steam...

Nintendo worked with those studios for years, but they don't own them. I think they should try to acquire them if they can, to secure this partnership in the long term.
 

b6a6es

Banned
Nintendo needs to buy Support Studio’s, and hire more 2nd party partners (especially western)
 
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