Microsoft Considered Buying Nintendo When Making the Original Xbox

Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley has revealed that Microsoft considered buying Nintendo when making the original console. 

Speaking to GamesIndustry, Blackley also said there were those at Microsoft who thought Microsoft should focus on playing movies and that all games would need to be made at Microsoft.

"Just name it, name a bad idea and it was something we had to deal with," Blackley said.

In the same piece, Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning said Microsoft even contemplated giving away the Xbox for free. 

"At the time, Xbox thought that the core market was going to be casual. They were going to be the casual gamers' machine. Now, that's why they approached us because they said 'we think you've got something that competes in that Mario space and we think Mario's the thing to kill … We see that space. We want that audience. We love Oddworld so why don't you get on this bandwagon? And we might give the box away'," Lanning commented.

"So now you're like, 'look, if you're going to give the box away, you're going to win. If you're going to win, we want to be on board'."

Of course, things changed but it's certainly interesting to consider what would have become of Nintendo and its franchises had Microsoft scooped them up. As it happened, the Xbox sold better than Nintendo's GameCube but both were far behind Sony's PlayStation 2 – still the best selling game console of all time.