Nintendo Isn’t All That Interested in Acquiring Companies, Prizes ‘Nintendo DNA’

Nintendo still isn’t ruling out game company acquisitions, but it doesn’t seem particularly interested in them, with the company president putting more priority on building its existing game development DNA.

With Xbox set to buy Activision Blizzard and Sony finalising a purchase of Bungie, it’s no surprise that Nintendo’s latest investor Q&A saw president Shuntaro Furukawa asked if he was also looking to buy video game companies.

Per Bloomberg, Furukawa seemed more keen on investing in the developers Nintendo already owns than buying brand new ones, citing the need for ‘Nintendo DNA’ in the company’s creators:

“Our brand was built upon products crafted with dedication by our employees, and having a large number of people who don’t posses Nintendo DNA in our group would not be a plus to the company.”

Last year, Nintendo announced plans to invest up to 100 billion yen in its development studios, and that remains the plan. At that time, Furukawa made clear that it wouldn’t rule out acquisitions in future, but Bloomberg reports that Furukawa added in the latest meeting that Nintendo would only do that if it were ‘necessary’.

While we didn’t get detail on what would make an acquisition necessary, it feels likely that an acquisition would only be made if a developer or company had experience or technology that Nintendo itself would find difficult or overly costly to replicate. Given that Nintendo tends to plough its own furrow in the games industry, that doesn’t feel hugely likely at this point.

The last developer Nintendo purchased was Next Level Games in January 2021. Next Level had been working with Nintendo for many years before that purchase, meaning it was very likely seen as having the correct Nintendo DNA to become a first-party studio.

The feeling that Nintendo can successfully do its own thing is only likely to have been bolstered by its latest financials. The company revealed that the Switch has now outsold the Wii, and become the fastest home console to pass 100 million units sold. Pokemon Legends: Arceus has reportedly also become the second-fastest selling Switch game.

Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.