Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo and EA for the launch of the first Xbox

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the announcement of the first Xbox, the console that has finally launched Microsoft products in the gaming world, the well-known American magazine Bloomberg has decided to publish a long report that traces step by step all the last twenty years, which have seen the company of Bill Gates define itself as one of the three main powers of the videogame sector. In recent months we have seen how, especially in the last 2 years, the Redmond giant has moved to obtain the exclusivity of many software houses, inserting them within the Xbox Gaming Studios (and how not to mention the Zenimax and Bethesda affair) ... but apparently, according to the article by Dina Bass, already in the early months of 2000 Microsoft began to move in this direction, even aiming at acquire industry titans such as Nintendo and Electronic Arts.

According to the aforementioned report, after the announcement of the first Xbox in 2000, Microsoft began to try to collect as many games as possible for the launch of the console, going to talk directly with the most disparate software houses to try to buy them. Bob McBreen, the head of Microsoft's business development during that time, revealed that the first company that was contacted was Electronic Arts, but after only the first message the answer was a simple "No, thank you."

After this first hole in the water, the executives of the American multinational decided to move to another company, the Japanese giant Nintendo. On top of that, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent some employees directly to Kyoto to try and persuade the big N to be acquired. According to what Kevin Bachus, the then director of relations with third parties, confirmed, the meeting did not go well at all the leaders of the Kyoto house spent much of the meeting laughing, without taking Microsoft's proposal into consideration.

At the end of the article it is also mentioned how the American company also tries to obtain the exclusivity of Square Enix, obviously not succeeding in the least, and therefore had to "Settle for" the acquisition of Bungie, which, however, managed by itself to consolidate the success of the first Xbox by developing Halo, which still represents the main reason why many players have not yet betrayed Microsoft's "box".