Although Sony and Microsoft recently made headlines in January for their acquisitions of Bungie and Activision Blizzard, Nintendo has been quiet on the topic. In the company’s latest investor Q&A, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa addressed the matter, saying Nintendo with rather prioritize their investments into the developers it already owns–as a need to retain the “Nintendo DNA” throughout these studios.
“I really have a hard time imagining which of the big ones they could even be interested in buying,” Furukawa said of the current buyout race, via Bloomberg. “Nintendo will always stay Nintendo. The company has always relied on first-party games, and I don’t see any reason why they should change. Our brand was built upon products crafted with dedication by our employees, and having a large number of people who don’t possess Nintendo DNA in our group would not be a plus to the company.”
Nintendo does work with outside studios–last year’s Metroid Dread was developed by an outside studio (Mercury Steam)–but it continues to invest more heavily in its own studios. Last year the company announced that almost $870 million would be used to support its studios, and would consider acquisitions if that developer could offer technology and expertise that Nintendo wouldn’t find too costly to replicate by itself.
Nintendo’s last purchase of studio was in January 2021, when Next Level Games was acquired. Considering that Next Level had collaborated with Nintendo for many years before it was purchased, it likely had already had that DNA Nintendo was looking for.