Over 20 years ago, as Microsoft were gearing up to release the original Xbox, some at the company were concerned that they wouldn’t have enough games to accompany the console at launch.

It’s all water under the bridge in 2021, and in keeping with the spirit of looking back, Microsoft used its 20th anniversary memorial site to release some primary evidence of the attempted purchase, with the (partial) publication of this 1999 letter from vice president Rick Thompson to Nintendo of America.

Takeda’s concerns” is certainly an understatement given Nintendo’s ultimate reaction, and Microsoft offering to help “make Dolphin the best video game [console]” is an interesting one, and not as absurd as it first sounds since the original Xbox and GameCube (Dolphin was its codename) would go on to be very different experiences.

We can also see down the bottom the two people Microsoft would be meeting with; long-time Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi and hardware legend Genyo Takeda