Phil Spencer Was Eyeing A Nintendo Purchase According To Microsoft Email Leaks

While gamers have more or less been hoping for Microsoft to finalize the Activision Blizzard deal, for various reasons, it should be noted that it’s less than ideal for them to go around buying everything. It’s also important to note that they’d really like to, though.

That fact is driven home by an email included in trial documents that were shared online. The 2020 email from Xbox CEO Phil Spencer (shared on IGN) discussed several potential or ideal acquisitions. This was prior to the Bethesda purchase, so that was one of the companies in discussion, as was Warner Brothers Interactive. Bloomberg reports that the leak was Microsoft's own doing, not the FTC's.

Spencer also had something a bit bigger in mind. The first portion of the email focused on Nintendo. In it, Spencer discusses the possibility of collaborating with Nintendo more closely, noting that if any US company would have a chance with the Mario and Zelda maker, Microsoft would be it. The email also notes that Microsoft has been purchasing shares of the developer and plans to continue pushing for more stock in order to push a potential merger. He noted he didn’t view a “hostile action” to be a good idea so instead, Microsoft would be playing a “long game”.

Interestingly, while not the focus of the email, Valve is also mentioned briefly as an option. It seems like that may have been discussed in other correspondence as it’s just kind of thrown in as a given.

From the outside, it seems most likely that Nintendo would politely decline such a merger, or not so politely as reported back in 2021, but these things are never guaranteed. That said, considering what Microsoft has been going through to purchase Activision Blizzard, the likelihood of pushback from deciding organizations would probably be even worse if they tried to make a bid for Nintendo (or Valve) in the near future.

UPDATE: Here's what Phil Spencer himself had to say about the leaked emails:

We've seen the conversation around old emails and documents. It is hard to see our team's work shared in this way because so much has changed and there's so much to be excited about right now, and in the future. We will share the real plans when we are ready.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) September 19, 2023