Trip Hawkins:EA Founder prediction - Nintendo will be acquired by MS

[SoccerDude28]

What do you guys think of this prediction? I know Nintendo has shunned that be4, but with the number of cubes lying around in retail stores, I am not sure how long Nintendo can last in the console wars.

Here is what Trip Hawkins had to say in an interview:

"What do you think about Nintendo's future? People have commented that they should focus only on portable systems in the future."

My magic eight ball says they will be acquired by Microsoft within five years.

You can read the whole article here

[Lechimp]

Trip Hawkins is never wrong, he was the genius that created the 3do.

Please, there's no way that nintendo will be bought by another company, especially an american company like microsoft. Did you read the rant made on penny arcade about how that prediction couldn't be any more wrong?

Even if their consoles aren't successful, they make millions of dollars in the handheld market.

[SoccerDude28]

Trip Hawkins is never wrong, he was the genius that created the 3do.

Please, there's no way that nintendo will be bought by another company, especially an american company like microsoft. Did you read the rant made on penny arcade about how that prediction couldn't be any more wrong?

Even if their consoles aren't successful, they make millions of dollars in the handheld market.

Nope can you please provide a link?? Well I dunno, maybe they won't be bought by MS, but I for one don't believe that they can survive as a console company for long. They remind me a lot of Sega back in the day. Everyone was bragging about how superior the dreamcast was, but they didn't last long under the Nintendo/PS pressure. During Xmas, my gf was looking for a console, and everywhere we went, the only one that was available for sale was the cube. PS2 and XBOX were always sold out. Anyway that's my own belief, you can take it with a grain of salt.

[Lechimp]

Well it's pretty much just today's penny arcade news post...

http://www.penny-arcade.com/

Nintendo is actually making a lot of money, they aren't going to drop out of the console market.

[SoccerDude28]

Well it's pretty much just today's penny arcade news post...

http://www.penny-arcade.com/

Nintendo is actually making a lot of money, they aren't going to drop out of the console market.

Not this year or the next one but in 4-5 years? Plus Sony is slowly going into the handheld market now. You can't stop the flood - Halo.

[DuckofDoom]

Why does everyone want Nintendo to die? Their grip on the market isn't as loose as some would like to believe. As has been said they rake in alot of money off handhelds alone. Also, despite what people want to believe, the Gamecube has been profitable. And with charaters like Mario, Metroid, Zelda and the Pokemon I can see Nintendo comfortably hanging around for a few more generations.

[jokemaster]

Not this year or the next one but in 4-5 years? Plus Sony is slowly going into the handheld market now. You can't stop the flood - Halo.

1st, nintendo would rather go bankrupt than be bought by ANYONE, especially Microsoft and/or Sony..

And if the PSP succeeds, it will be the final sign that gaming is no longer about innovation and gameplay, but about multimedia and graphics. The price is too high, and the battery life too low.

3rd, why don't you like nintendo?

I agree with Penny Arcade, this guy has no idea what he's talking about.

Plus, magic eight balls suck.

[Kolzig]

Nintendo will never die, and it will never be bought by another company.

Nintendo has always been around, over 100 years and it will continue to do so.

[MrChlorophyll]

Nintendo will never die, and it will never be bought by another company.

Nintendo has always been around, over 100 years and it will continue to do so.

This from the guy with the Dreamcast avatar?

I imply nothing.

[SoccerDude28]

I don't hate Nintendo. I have nothing against them. I am just stating what I see in target, costco, best buy and most retail stores I go to. There are many cubes that are sitting there on the shelves with no one buying them. They are a very niche market compared to the XBOX and PS2. I bet you people were saying the same when Sega was into consoles. Oh they have sonic, virtua fighter and even soul calibur. How can the dreamcast fail? Well it did, there's just too much competition to handle.

Maybe MS will not buy them and most probably they won't die as a company. They will just reallign into either software like Sega and Atari did, or purely handheld. But I highly doubt that they can stay profitable in the ever competitive console war.

[BigJKO]

Well, as long as they have future consoles scheduled I'm not going to predict anything. Who knows what'll happen in the next console generation.

[lailoken]

yeah! you know, I might just buy one! I mean in the next generation... just to spite that ASSHOLE Trip Hawkins trying to be important by predicting the extinction of the house of miyamoto-sama or whatever! FUCK!

[Marek]

Hey I hate when people say "take that with a grain of salt?" Do you even know what you are saying?

Does Trip Hawkins know what he's saying? I know very little about the guy, but I do know that he's universally seen, by pretty much all of the industry, as a monolithic idiot who is best avoided. A good impression is this e-mail, which he wrote on a bad day. (The comments on that page are similar to what I've seen elsewhere.)

[Jaero]

People have commented that they should focus only on portable systems in the future.

The mythical people that live in his pet gnome's trousers. What the hell. If I say, "Man, this guy said that when the world ends, Electronic Arts will be all that's left of the human race." This may seem plausible, but also, it don't mean shit.

Thanks for the link to that letter, Marek.

In conclusion, I think you owe us one because you took us by surprise and threw our review to a wolf. And you accepted his word as God without even checking in with a major advertiser or wondering about how it makes you look to rip a game you chose to put on a recent cover.

I really can't think of anything clever to say after this, and the rest of that steaming pile of shit. I mean, wow. Fuck.

[manny_c44]

Those Penny-arcade guys are turning into huge shills...(slightly unrelated, I know)

But yeah, that Trrip guy is off his tits. Fucking insane.

[SoccerDude28]

Does Trip Hawkins know what he's saying? I know very little about the guy, but I do know that he's universally seen, by pretty much all of the industry, as a monolithic idiot who is best avoided. A good impression is this e-mail, which he wrote on a bad day. (The comments on that page are similar to what I've seen elsewhere.)

Thanks Marek for the link. It puts this guy in a whole new perspective.

[JimmyTheFish]

Just beacause Nintendo was prepared for the holliday season and the others were not does not mean they are a bad company. Check the numbers man, Gamecube has been pulling in profits since it was released. XBox just recently started making profit.

[SoccerDude28]

Just beacause Nintendo was prepared for the holliday season and the others were not does not mean they are a bad company. Check the numbers man, Gamecube has been pulling in profits since it was released. XBox just recently started making profit.

I highly doubt that sony and Microsoft weren't prepared. And did you ever sit and ponder why a cube costs 99 bucks whereas a PS2 and XBOX cost 149? Could it be that people aren't actually buying it?

[RLacey]

I highly doubt that sony and Microsoft weren't prepared. And did you ever sit and ponder why a cube costs 99 bucks whereas a PS2 and XBOX cost 149? Could it be that people aren't actually buying it?

Well, I could descend into marketing spiel and claim that it's part of Nintendo's different target audience. Or something. But, yes, the Cube does sell worse than the other two consoles.

As for a buyout, though, it will be only ever be over the cold, dead body of Nintendo...

[Jake]

I highly doubt that sony and Microsoft weren't prepared. And did you ever sit and ponder why a cube costs 99 bucks whereas a PS2 and XBOX cost 149? Could it be that people aren't actually buying it?

It could be that the Cube deliberately has less functionality. Nintendo has, at least as far as I remember, always been offering the Cube for around $50 less than the other systems. They don't include a DVD player. I'm not saying it was a good move on their part (in fact I think it was arrogant and pretty dumb, really), but that's what they did and that's why they've been justifying the cheaper price point since the day it came out. Unless I'm totally mistaken, which is highly possible It's just what I remember.

[Lechimp]

Yeah, the reason why the gamecube sells for a lower price is because it's cheap as hell to make. It's pretty small and has no dvd player. Meanwhile, Microsoft actually loses money with each X-box they sell, which is probably why they're trying to get next generation consoles out the door.

[lailoken]

I REALLY don't know if anything is going to change about Microsofts MO in the next generation. And who could blame them! They got the money and they do everything they can to buy their way into the console market. IMHO Microsoft remains the "Evil Empire" and everything needs to be done to stop them! Sony is my best bet but it would be nice to see Nintendo do another Super NES (-Famicom). Obviously their biggest concern for their format since the Nintendo64 has been to counteract piracy and it hasn't payed off at all... wonder what's going to be next...

[MrHoatzin]

What are you talking about?! All three corporations, MS, SONY and Nintendo, are evil empires. Why must you single out MS?

[lailoken]

NO for Microsoft it's only another feather in their cap! (or something) I think for their own good they must be stopped. How on god's earth do you expect me to play console games without all three of them?

[Jake]

NO for Microsoft it's only another feather in their cap! (or something) I think for their own good they must be stopped. How on god's earth do you expect me to play console games without all three of them?

What? How is it not just "another feather in their cap" for Sony, then, who is also a huge record label, film production company, creator of the Walkman/Discman, purveyor of televisions and PC's, etc?

I'd much rather see Nintendo and MS pair up to confront Sony in the circle of console gaming than any other pairing, especially one with the goal to take out Microsoft. They're not the best company around, but the Xbox has been a nice system, in my mind, all things considered. MS might play dirty in general, but I suspect (a completely uneducated guess) that in the console business Sony plays dirtier.