Calm down, the Xbox leaks aren’t that big of a deal | Kaser Focus

Microsoft this week leaked — apparently by complete accident — several confidential documents used in its case against the FTC. The unredacted documents provide a glimpse into the internal workings of Microsoft, including some of the conversations between top executives such as Phil Spencer. While the documents are fun to read by themselves, if only because it’s tantalizing to read something you’re not meant to, the amount of buzz they (or at least one of them) have caused doesn’t seem to be warranted. I would caution anyone against taking the leaked documents as gospel for Microsoft’s current gaming plans.

The one part that seems to be generating the most consternation is Xbox’s apparent intention to acquire Nintendo. However, if you actually read the body of the 2020 email in which this idea is floated to Phil Spencer, his response is pretty firmly in the “No” column. Translating the polite corporate jargon, he tells Takeshi Numoto, “I like the way you think but it’s not happening.” He credits Numoto’s idea, but categorically says there’s no way such at thing could be. He says that “getting Nintendo would be a career moment,” which is hard to fault because it’s true. It’d be the coup of the century if Microsoft could pull it off, but it won’t.