Has anyone seen this?
Yeah, I’ve been following it mostly on another Nintendo message board.
This email, while embarrassing, isn’t even the worst part of the leak. Multiple unannounced games including a new Doom installment, plans for an updated Xbox Series X/S controller with accelerometers, plans for multiple new Xbox Series models including a digital only Series X, and tentative plans to launch a Series X/S successor in 2028 etc. are all worse. That has like fiscal year implications among other things. And imagine Nintendo and Sony now having this much lead up time to plan around your future releases. YIKES!
As for the email itself, I mean, it isn’t a stretch that Nintendo, with its wealth of popular IPs like
the most recognizable character in the world, is considered the ultimate acquisition in the gaming industry. Every company with interest in video games that also has the capital/stocks/assets to even make a run at Nintendo if it was ever for sale (e.g. Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google) would love to acquire it. Unfortunately for every one of them, Nintendo is currently the most successful it’s ever been and recently expanded to movies and theme parks. A private email brazenly admitting all this getting leaked isn’t
that bad, right? Bad optics but people will forget about it in time aside from occasional mentions on video game message boards.
And I doubt this changes anything at Nintendo. The company knows how valuable it is. Another company looking to merge/acquire is like Tuesday at Nintendo. This already happened at least once. Microsoft pitched an acquisition in like the early 2000s and got laughed out of the room. A hostile takeover isn’t feasible either as majority Nintendo stock is safely held by the company and trusted partners. I imagine Nintendo has been happy to reap the benefits of Microsoft’s goodwill over the past several years without really giving up that much in return. Maybe that changes now? 🤷♀️ However, no one at Nintendo will lose sleep if, for example, Microsoft decides to be petty and not license Banjo-Kazooie in the next Super Smash Bros. If anything, Microsoft stands to lose more by not publishing games like Ori and the Blind Forest on the eShop.