“Online conspiracy theorists suggest that Apple is about to frag the gaming community with a revelation that could shake Microsoft to its core: Apple will buy Nintendo. What could be more quintessentially left-field Apple behaviour than buying out the US’s number three games console manufacturer? Between howling at the moon, these looneys point to the similar corporate philosophies of Apple and Nintendo (bull-headed determination in the face of defeat); the similar consumer perception of the companies (both have followings whose brand dedication verges on the religiously devout); the similar design styles (the Nintendo DS Lite practically looks like Jonathan Ive built it); and the complementary market spaces (Apple wants games, Nintendo wants style),” Crave at CNET writes. “But somewhere in the looney’s mind, is there a scintilla of logic? A tiny fragment of truth spluttering for breath in the soup of madness? Could Apple actually buy Nintendo, and more importantly, why would it want to?”
Crave writes, “Consider this: the Mac Mini currently retails for not much more than the forthcoming Sony PlayStation 3 will. The Mac Mini can play high-definition video, edit music and photographs, surf the Web, word process and edit video — things no console can currently do well, if at all. The Mini also runs Apple’s extremely robust OS X operating system. What if the Mini could also play Nintendo games? And not just play Nintendo games, but play Nintendo games specifically tailored to the strengths of the Mac Mini’s hardware? Would Apple have a viable console on its hands? And if so, could it penetrate the mainstream consumer market with Macintosh computers in a way that has constantly eluded it in the past?”
Full article with much more here.
MacDailyNews Take: You read 100+ Apple-related articles daily and you develop a strange subconscious sixth sense. Maybe that’s why we’re so interested in Nintendo’s Wii? Is Nintendo lately tingling our warped Apple geek sense for a bigger reason than your basic “Wii lust” or is it just something we ate?
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what was the last recognizable company that Apple bought? The last one i can remember is Logic?
Gee – read the article, idiot. It says “DS Lite”, not “DS”.
Don’t forget Apple Logic Audio… They scooped up a very powerful, cutting-edge, sampler/editor technology, tore it appart and put the technological components into basically all of its audio technologies – as well as retaining the full original product, and have even continued to develop the Logic software product.
Instead of just buying the company to get it out of the way, they actually had a plan, and its yielded excellent products for the end user in the form of Soundtrack Pro, Logic, and Garage Band.
I’d love to see Apple get Nintendo and go with it as only Apple can and does do.
Actually, I think purchasing Nintendo makes good sense. Jobs has stated that he wants Apple to become the Sony of CE.
Well, let’s look at what Sony manufactures:
Computers
Music Payers
Game Consoles
Televisions
Entertainment content
Apple has Sony dominated in computers and music players, and is doing nothing in the game console, television or entertainment sectors.
Games are Nintendo’s only products, making them a perfect fit in Apple’s CE strategy. Couple that with similar corporate and leadership personalities/cultures, and at the very least you have strong reasons for Apple and Nintendo to explore working together.
Apple could certainly afford Nintendo, and if they did purchase them, I think the Street would react very positively.
Yes the article is nothing but rank speculation, but it is grounded in some reasonable ideas. I think an Apple purchase of Nintendo could work.
As mentioned in the article, the fan base of the two companies is almost eerily similar. A purchase of Nintendo wouldn’t mean Apple would deviate from its core competencies at *all* if they chose not to.
Just the opposite in fact. They could endorse a Mac/Wii tandem as the perfect home combo, sell iTunes through the Wii and DS, allow iPod Syncing on a Wii, etc. In fact, *lots* of Apple fans do that already due to the weak gaming selection on the Mac. They pair a Nintendo unit for gaming with their Mac of choice.
Of course, the whole concept is admitedly a highly unlikely but, I believe, a potentially great pairing.
At any rate, Apple *should* step into gaming to some degree. They are leaving money on the table by not doing so. The control the ‘entire widget’ as Jobs is fond of saying. They would have a *guaranteed* market for their games with the Mac and, could release the really popular ones for the PC six months later for an even better return.
MDN Webmaster: <cue Twilight Zone theme music>
this would have a lot more credibility if the Wii wasn’t powered by a power pc chip. it doesn’t make sense.
if the Wii was intel ( or macs were still power PC ) I could see it.
curious though
mdn magic word – wrong
take it as you wish
Why not Adobe?
i’ve been saying this since the pippin failed.
curious:
“this would have a lot more credibility if the Wii wasn’t powered by a power pc chip. it doesn’t make sense.”
Universal binaries leave a lot of doors open, George.
However, I don’t think either will happen (the buying of Nintendo or switching back to PPC chips).
Now be a good little monkey, and don’t be so curious.
First time I’ve heard of it. I wouldn’t get excited to much until Apple says something. Most likely they will deny this and that will be the end of this story.
“the US’s number three games console manufacturer”
Have I missed something all these years?
Nintendo is an American company?!!
A merger or co-operation (like Nike/Apple) is more likely.
Why would Nintendo let itself be bought out now – with such a winner (Wii) on its hands?
Sod Nintendo, They’re just ripping off Apples Design and marketing. A Deal With Sega/Sammy Holdings Would Be Ace!
>Yes, to define the games. No A in definitely. (collidge graddyouate?)<
hey Ron, you caught the blooper and made one of your own, cool! The day your Danish is as good as my English, we’ll talk.
mw: research ’nuff said
Interesting thought, but it may well be the death of Nintendo if it happens. Still, Apple could take the technology two compatible ways after purchase:
a) integrate half the Wii into a Mac mini-G(amer) (and an iMac-G?)
b) bring the Wii into the sweet spot of the Apple Store
This would give Apple a new market segment to target. So it’s coming from third place, so? That’s still tens (hundreds?) of thousands of Macs sold a year and tens of thousands of people a month checking out the goodies at the Apple Store nearest them.
Well as much as that would be interesting, its not happening… Nintendo is VERY strong and couldn’t easily be bought out.
Collaborations are imminent in some time, and we all see the apple in nintendo (especially their upcoming hardware designs)
“Sod Nintendo, They’re just ripping off Apples Design and marketing. A Deal With Sega/Sammy Holdings Would Be Ace!”
Im sorry, but because they have similar hardware design doesnt mean they are “ripping off” apple, it simply means a new standard for tech has been set… and its white.
Not to mention, Nintendo is collaborating with Sega, quite a bit actually.
Nintendo in the face of defeat?
LOL.. dude. Get a grip. Nintendo is the most profitable of the three gaming companies.. the DS is thrilling Japan in every possible sales category,and everyone is salivating over Nintendo’s upcoming system.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Not happening.
Nintendo’s market value is nearly 20 Billion dollars.
And it’s not like Nintendo is a privately held company…
It just may be crazy enough to work.
And just when is this partnership with Sony that we were promised a couple of years ago?
Perhaps more likely is a Sony Wega with Front Row installed?
I laughed when I read the headlines but as I read the article …. it actually makes some sense.
Apple partner with Sony? First of all, Apple has its own line of LCD displays which are quite nice, thank you. Second, Sony has done everything short of tell consumers, :fuck off and don’t buy our products.”
Why would Apple want that damaged company partnering with them? What are you smoking, sunseeker?
Speaking of smoking…
@Ampar:
me thinks matty be smoking something doobee-ous.
“me thinks matty be smoking something doobee-ous.”
And his clock goes BONG!?
curious has it right; this would have made sense a year and a half ago when Apple was still a PPC-based computer company. And Universal Binaries don’t make it academic, if for no other reason than because Nintendos library of games would cost a small fortune to convert to UBs now (and they’d have to be to play well on Macintel hardware).
No, the real reason this – or some strong partnership between Apple and Nintendo – would have made a whole lot of sense, is because of the economies of scale the two could bring to bear on IBM in getting CPUs at extremely low cost. Arguably, from the financial point of view, Apple would’ve been the main beneficiary. With Nintendo’s 4-5 million CPUs per year in console sales backing their own roughly 1 million PCs/year, they would’ve combined to be a customer that IBM would’ve bent over backward to please. But from a technological perspective, Nintendo certainly would have benefited from having Apple’s CPU design expertise in their corner. Frankly, Apple getting the CPU of its dreams out of IBM for it’s personal computers would have gauranteed a great baseline game console processor for Nintendo. The latter company could then focus on the graphics end of things almost exclusively – another plus for them. Finally, with the two of them splitting the already reduced design costs (IBM typically takes on more of that expense when it knows it’s gonna sell a shitload of units), I think you’re talking about a real win-win scenario.
Sadly, for Apple, that’s an alternate universe that has now all but collapsed in on itself forever.
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MDN magic word: “was”
Huh. How fitting.