While Sony and Microsoft made headlines in January for their acquisitions of Bungie and Activision Blizzard respectfully, Nintendo has been largely silent on the topic of consolidation in the gaming industry. In its latest investor Q&A, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa addressed the matter and spoke about how the company would rather prioritize investing in the developers that it already owns, explaining a need to retain the "Nintendo DNA" of these studios.

"I really have a hard time imagining which of the big ones they could even be interested in buying," Furukawa said of the current acquisitions race, per Bloomberg. "Nintendo will always stay Nintendo. The company has always relied on first-party games, and I don't see any reason why they should change. Our brand was built upon products crafted with dedication by our employees, and having a large number of people who don't possess Nintendo DNA in our group would not be a plus to the company."

While Nintendo has worked with outside studios before--last year's Metroid Dread was developed by Spanish studio Mercury Steam--it has continued to invest heavily in its development studios. Last year the company announced that almost $870 million would be used to support its studios, and would only consider acquisitions if the developer in question could offer technology and expertise that Nintendo would find too costly to replicate by itself.

The last time that Nintendo bought another studio was in January 2021, when Next Level Games was acquired. Considering how Next Level had collaborated with Nintendo for many years before it was purchased, it likely had the essential DNA that the company was looking for.

2021 has been a great year for Nintendo, as it announced that the Switch had become its best-selling home console of all time, outselling the classic Wii. Its latest Pokemon games are also doing well on the market, further solidifying its decision to avoid going on a studio buying spree for now.

The commodity markets were optimistic heading into 2022. Through 2021, demand continued to return globally, after the pandemic lull.

As part of Nintendo's latest earnings release, the company updated its list of the best-selling Nintendo Switch games of all time, and Mario Kart 8 is still on top by a good margin.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has now sold 43.35 million units globally as of December 32, 2021. That's a massive number, even ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2 (39 million sold).

Rounding out the top five on Nintendo Switch in terms of sales are Animal Crossing: New Horizons (37.62 million), Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (27.4 million), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (25.8 million), and Pokemon Sword/Shield (23.9 million). Also of note, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl combined to sell 13.97 million units since they launched in November 2019, instantly propelling the games to No. 9 on the all-time highest-seller list for Switch games.

You can see the full top 10 list below, as shared by Nintendo. The numbers include games sold within bundles, as well as digital sales.

Nintendo also confirmed that Pokemon Legends Arceus sold 1.425 million copies in its first week, which is the biggest first-week for any Switch game in history except for Animal Crossing: New Horizons (1.881 million in first week).

As for hardware, the Nintendo Switch has now sold more than 103 million units, surpassing the Wii.

Nintendo Switch Top 10 Best-Sellers

As of December 31, 2021

1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe -- 43.35 million
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons -- 37.62 million
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate -- 27.4 million
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild -- 25.8 million
5. Pokemon Sword/Pokemon Shield -- 23.9 million
6. Super Mario Odyssey -- 23.02 million
7. Super Mario Party -- 17.39 million
8. Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu/Let's Go, Eevee -- 14.33 million
9. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl -- 13.97 million
10. Ring Fit Adventure -- 13.53 million

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