Microsoft Offered To Buy Out Nintendo, Only To Be Laughed Out Of The Room

In a new article from Bloomberg, titled “Xbox: The Oral History of an American Video Game Empire“, Dina Bass tells the tale of the rise of Microsoft’s Xbox brand, and there are some hysterical tidbits inside.

In the writeup, Bob Breen, head of business development for Microsoft, discusses buying out other companies (something Microsoft has been doing pretty frequently for the last few years). Breen begins by saying that they had initially reached out to Electronic Arts to see if they’d entertain a buyout. They said, “No, thanks,” but Microsoft wasn’t stopping there.

Kevin Bachus, director of third-party relations, went on to detail that former CEO Steve Ballmer “made them” go meet with Nintendo to see they’d consider being acquired… Only to be basically laughed out of the room.

“They just laughed their asses off.” Bachus says. “Like, imagine an hour of somebody just laughing at you. That was kind of how that meeting went.”

Woof.