I’ve been alive since the 80s, and so I’ve grown up seeing a lot of things happen, including things that ALMOST happened but then didn’t because of dumb luck or almost literal divine intervention. Over the last ten years of my gaming life, I’ve seen companies like Microsoft and Sony buy up massive publishers that I would’ve never thought would happen before, and we’ve seen the fallout from such actions. Yet, apparently, in 2016, we almost had another truly seismic shift in the gaming space. Specifically, Disney allegedly almost made a bid to buy Nintendo. Believe it or not.
This came from not a current Disney employee, but a former Imagineer who apparently worked with Bog Iger closely. You know, the guy in charge of the “House of Mouse” both then and now? The idea to get them happened in 2016, when Nintendo was absolutely at its lowest in many respects due to the Wii U failure.
Now, we obviously don’t know how “serious” this was or if former President Satoru Iwata would’ve entertained such an offer, let alone the Japanese government (who can apparently override such bids), but it is a fun thing to ponder and think about what would’ve happened if “The House of Mouse” merged with “The House That Mario Built.”
It’s probably for the best that this didn’t happen, especially when you think about the incredible place Nintendo is at right now versus the divisive place that Disney is in. Sometimes…things just work out how they should.
