Apple buying Ninty: no fucking way

There are rumours on the web that a Nintendo buyout from Apple is likely. This rumour started from a baseless conjecture piece by an iPod fanboy journalist at CNet. Let me state that I think it is bull and it will never happen.

Nintendo is making money. Even with the GameCube. Apple's current cashcow is the iPod, a lucky stumble which they have taken advantage of. I doubt that even that would be sustainable. They can only re-release overpriced MP3 player so many times before consumers start to realise they are taking for a ride.

Sure Nintendo also re-release stuff but only if it is affordable. Case point - the new DS Lite when released in the UK would only cost £99 - the same price the old DS debuted a year ago. It retains the same goal - to play games. The iPods on the other hand keeps getting bloated and receive unnecessary features. Didn't Steve Jobs said once that people did not want portable video?

There are quite a few proponents to a Apple/Nintendo buy-out, mainly by Apple fanboys who probably wants more games on their Mac platform. What they don't realise is that Nintendo (along with Sega) has one of the most loyal and vocal fanbase in the video gaming industry. And many would like to see Nintendo remain an independent game provider company.

Some has pointed out that Nintendo's current strategy is similar to Apple's. I doubt so. Apple is a tech company. They are interested in numbers and the spinning the whole 'image issue' to the consumers. Sure Nintendo spins too and their numbers are always interesting (how the 'kiddie' DS is killing the PSP) but they never overestimate their products. Apple and Sony merge is a more likely outcome. Steve Jobs and Ken Kutaragi compliments each other.

The article at CNet tried to establish the design links between Apple and Nintendo. Well colour me surprise, I did not know that Apple created minimalism. Show me the US patent link to Apple's application to own the colour white. I bet you couldn't. Sure Nintendo is now following the path that Apple made popular but the whole world is. It is a revival of the post-modernism period of minimalism.

The first iPod, if anyone remember, was the polar opposite to minimalism amd even then, there were already many Japanese devices which designs were minimalist. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe would turn in his grave. Less is more my arse. In fact the whole minimalist movement began many years ago influenced by the Japanese. You could even argue that Apple took cues from the zen Japanese design and incorporated them into their later product designs.

There will be many pissed off fans out there if Apple ever buys Nintendo. Even for someone like me who just got back into gaming, would just quit if something like this happens. No, it isn't just Apple. Cisco, Microsoft etc. - all should just forget about it.

Technorati tags: Nintendo Apple