Nintendo considers mergers and acquisitions to save itself

We currently live in a gaming future that would’ve seemed completely bonkers to gamers from the ’90s. Square Enix hasn’t made a good game in years and the Final Fantasy series is almost irrelevant, Nintendo is floundering, PC gaming is as popular and accessible as it has ever been, and phones have overtaken dedicated portable gaming.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said mergers and acquisitions are an option for turning the company’s fortunes around in a Nikkei interview. Iwata said the company “should abandon old assumptions about our businesses. We are considering M&As as an option. For this reason, we’ll step up share buybacks.” This echos Iwata’s statements during a press conference earlier this month in which he said Nintendo is “thinking about a new business structure” and is specifically “studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business.” It also follows news of the company having to drastically cut its forecasts for the fiscal year, taking its expected Wii U shipments down from 9 million to 2.8 million.