In Crackle’s new Playing With Power: The Nintendo Story doc series, Xbox head Phil Spencer says Nintendo consoles have motivated Xbox to be more innovative, rather than “just [being] great at what others are doing.”
The five-part series, which debuted on Monday, details Nintendo’s 131-year history and features interviews with former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell and EA founder Trip Hawkins.
Although Spencer generally praises Nintendo, he admits that he had trouble with the Nintendo 64. “I still don’t understand the controller, just being honest. I guess it’s multiple controllers in one, but you needed three hands to play that!” he says.
Spencer also recalls that release the Nintendo Wii when he was general manager of Microsoft Game Studios EMEA gave the Xbox team “a jolt” in terms of developing unique features. As for the GameCube, Spencer thinks the console, which failed to meet sales expectations, was a lesson for Nintendo that helped the company pay closer attention to the Wii.
“The role that Nintendo has played in making gaming a safe and inviting family experience, while also bringing core game experiences to their platform, I think has been foundational to the industry that we have today,” Spencer says. “I don’t think you can decouple the video game industry from Nintendo, I think they’re intrinsically tied.”
“The thing that I look at is, how many people are coming into gaming because of their first experience on a Nintendo platform?” he adds. “I’ve always said that I think the health of Nintendo is something that we should cherish as an industry and watching them grow and innovate is both great for us as an industry, but also inspiration for us at Xbox to do better.”
Earlier this year, former Microsoft head of business development Bob McBreen mentioned that Nintendo “laughed their asses off” when Microsoft proposed acquiring the company 20 years ago.
“The first company we reached out to buy was EA. They said, ‘No, thanks,’ and then Nintendo. Steve made us go meet with Nintendo to see if they would consider being acquired. They just laughed their asses off. Like, imagine an hour of somebody just laughing at you. That was kind of how that meeting went,” former Xbox director of third-party relations Kevin Bachus added.
Source: VGC