Microsoft tried to acquire Nintendo and EA

The latest article released by Bloomberg recently revealed the history of Microsoft in the gaming industry. Microsoft wanted to achieve results in the gaming industry as early as the beginning of this century, but it was not smooth.

At that time, Microsoft hoped to participate in the game industry through acquisitions. After all, Microsoft was already a giant at that time and it was not bad for the money. However, even such acquisitions were difficult.

Microsoft had negotiated acquisitions with well-known game developer EA. As a result, EA unceremoniously rejected the acquisition by Microsoft, and Microsoft turned to find Nintendo.

Nintendo’s staff did receive Microsoft’s negotiators, but this does not mean that Nintendo really wants to be directly acquired by the then giant Microsoft.

It was reported that Steve Ballmer, who was not the CEO of the year, met with Nintendo secretly, and Ballmer explained to the Japanese company that he was interested in an acquisition.

Then in the next meeting, the Microsoft negotiators were mocked by Nintendo throughout the entire process. As you know, Microsoft ultimately failed to acquire Nintendo.

After the failure, Microsoft did not give up but continued to look for more companies. Microsoft also contacted Square Enix and Midway but was also rejected.

In the end, only Halo Game Studio agreed to be acquired by Microsoft. In the next 20 years, Microsoft continued to acquire and expand its own game business in the game industry. Of course, it turns out that Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are both correct, and now Microsoft is a giant in the gaming industry.

Now Microsoft is still looking for high-value game developers to continue to make acquisitions. For example, the company plans to spend $7.5 billion to acquire Zenimax.