well here is hoping the Justice department gets going on the MS antitrust deal. I also have hopes the states will push to split MS which would be better news for the console market especially if the XBox did not have the OS money to spend. They would then be able to compete using the PC and console gaming money only with the OS as a separate division and and the Business software divison the third one.

of course it will probably not happen and when Capcom does not help the XBox get above third place they will just keep buying someone else till they do

Are you serious? If they didn't have the backing of the big company, the Xbox wouldn't exist. If the Xbox wouldn't exist, nobody would be directly competing with Sony.

yes. I think that if they split MS up it would be better for the whole tech industry.

they use the profits from the OS to leverage themselves into additional markets. if this was taken from them they would still have two other huge companies plus an OS company however they could not just buy whatever they wanted.

I have long thought MS should be split( dating back 10 or more years) The fact that they are trying to use the OS profits to dominate the console market does not change my opinion at all.

Nintendo would still be competing with them.

Do you think there would have been a PS2 price drop if there was only the GCN and PS2?

In may no. In July yes.

The Xbox did not exist in the last generation and the PS1 has price drops with only Nintendo to compete with.

Frankly they have no choice as markets reach a certain point to expand the available market you have two choices add features or lower prices otherwise sales slow down.

PS2 sales would have slowed and Sony would have to react to that by lowering prices. They developed the Greatest Hits in the last generation with no MS in the market- why did they do this when they ruled that generation??

Because they had sold as many games as they could at the higher price point. so they dropped the price and sold to the more casual gamer.

MS is not needed for this.

Like them or not, MS has been a leader in the tech and software industry. If they were split up and didn't have the financial resources to venture into new fields of technology, we would still be in 1995 software-wise. Their latest venture into Gaming consoles has pushed the limits of technology which will cause other companies to create better hardware. Competition is always good for technology.

What OS for the PC besides Windows is worth even considering? If there was no Windows - what OS do you suppose we'd all be using? BE? OS2? You think we'd all be using Apple computers? Linux? Not a chance. Microsoft has helped shape the hardware in our computers and the way the internet works and even have their hand in cell phone and PDA technology. It's not like they just dominate because they are rich - they dominate because there is no competition. If an OS company came up and created a better OS, people would flock to it.

Look at Intel who dominated the CPU market for years... it didn't look like anybody could touch them until AMD created the Athlon and started to dethrone Intel. They never actually surpassed them, but they came close enough to humble them. Plus - with out AMD, we'd just now be getting 1.5Ghz P4s instead of 2.8 (or whatever is the fastest right now).

I know this is all very off topic, but I'm sick of all this anti-Microsoft crap. I let it go with the cracks on Microsoft's hardware being huge and heavy and all these negative comments because my trying to steer the conversation back to the topic at hand would just lead to it sinking further off topic.

Anyway - Microsoft makes a game console. They will make another. Whether anyone here likes it or not. If you don't like the idea, then don't buy one. Sure they're buying their way into the console market, but who hasn't? Neo Geo? Yeah - look at them. Atari even did it back in the day. There's room for 3 consoles in this market. There's room in my entertainment center for 3 consoles. I like to play video games. If Microsoft wants to spend billions of dollars so I can have fun, then good.

No console maker has been #1 three generations in a row... Sony's had 2 and now it's someone else's turn. Microsoft may not be it with the Xbox 2, and certainly it will never catch up to the PS2 with the Xbox - but I don't see why everyone has to be so loyal to Sony or Nintendo - what did they do for you?

That all said, I can completely understand why some of you wouldn't like it if Capcom was bought out by Microsoft because then you couldn't play your favorite Capcom games on the console you own. Those of us with an Xbox obviously like the idea for the most part. Outside of that, comments about Microsoft dominating the OS industry or making huge heavy controllers or whatever aren't really relevant.

A split up is has to be the most harmful and ridiculous solution!!! What, we should have like 5 OS floating around!?!?!?!?! Imagine the chaos with that in a consumer market! Or be in the middle of a price war where the consumer gets hurt?!?!?! Open a text book and read about AT&T! That split up killed consumers! It's so unbelievably grim to think of a split up with MS!


Dude, if you don't think SONY didn't use their electronics/media capital to push PS1 and PS2 down everyone's throat you're simply naive! MONEY MAKES MONEY! As simple as that! PS couldn't have gotten as far as they did if they ONLY used the capital they gained from the video game industry. Nope, they used other industry capital to strengthen PS. Now why couldn't MS use their OS capital on the XBOX?

Trigger I'm with you! Nice post!

I believe that innovative companies that never bothered to compete due to the size and money of MS would have created even more innovation than we have seen from the MS buy it type progress we have had up till now.

I am sure that whatever OS we would use would be far more stable and have far more competition than we have now.

I own zero Capcom games that I know of although I must admit to never looking at who makes a game when I buy one . so I do not care about them as a company at all. I have felt that MS has a specific way of doing business by using the huge sums of money from their monoploy to buy up or crush other companies. I have felt that they should be split for a long long time.

the topic is that MS is looking to buy yet another company and I believe that anyone who is against it on principle would of course say why they are.

Unless the discussion should be limited to good or bad with no responses since they might cause someone to get upset


I responded to questions asked of me by Gallant. he seemed to be surprised that I felt that MS should be split up

Of course if I was asked if they should be split up 10 years ago I would have had the same answer.

The AT&T split in my opinion has been good for consumers. we have more choices than ever because of it.

Otherwise we would still be renting big black bulky phones and not having the huge choices in the consumer market had we let AT&T stay a monopoly.

Right now only two divisions of Sony are even making money Playstation and the Movie division which was losing money till last year I believe.

I would laugh so hard if Capcom is bought out by MS.

Will you ever see any of the promised RE on GC???

I don't care one way or the other. As long as capcom gets to make awesome games like Tekki (Steel Battlion)....

If MS really wants a 2D fighter powerhouse, buy SNK (Playmore/Brezza Soft), they are real cheap

Microsoft didn't get into the console business to merely "compete". It got into the industry because they believed that this was a field that they could easily dominate. Microsoft doesn't want the X-Box just to be competive, they want it to be No. 1. And that means crushing the competition by any means necessary.

Now this was my take on the X-Box from the begining (mind you this is just my opinion); Microsoft set out to make the greatest gaming system ever. And to their credit they have done that. But What Bill Gates and Seamus Blackely failed to take into account were the actual games themselves. They kept saying "We've made the greatest system ever and you're going to buy it because it's the greatest system ever. Games? It doesn't matter what you play on it. It's the greatest system ever." An X-Box brochure at Funcoland even stated that one of the reasons you should buy and X-Box was because Microsoft had spent an obscene amount of money marketing the machine. But if you've read any of the X-Box publications over the last year you've noticed a staggering amount of letters asking "When is GTA3 coming to X-Box?". "When is Metal Gear Solid 2 coming to X-Box?." "When is Final Fantasy coming to X-Box?". And the responses have always been dodgey at best; "There's no official word yet", "There hasn't been any confirmation on it.". Even a visit to Best Buy or Circuit City will illustrate the disparity in software the between the X-Box and PS2 and GameCube. As good a game as Halo is, it's not enough to carry the system over the long haul. Even the best car doesn't run without gas, and Microsoft is now realizing it's going to need to refuel and very soon at that.

Microsoft tried to adapt the video game market to suit themselves. This strategy hasn't paid off the way they had hoped. Gamers biggest complaint about the X-Box, besides the controller, is the lack of third party titles. So Microsoft decided to remedy that situation by buying Rare. Now, as rumor has it, Microsoft is allegedly trying to acquire Capcom. How is this good for the game industry? It's not. Microsoft it would appear, based on the validity of this information which is only still a rumor, is once again trying to monopolize the market place. How is this not benefiting the gaming industry? When there is no consumer choice then quality suffers. This is a bit of a different scenario, but if there was only one airline in the United States, as bad as air travel seems now, it would be unimaginabley WORSE. Planes wouldn't arrive on time, luggage would be lost even more so than now, flights would be cancelled and passengers wouldn't have to be accomodated for their inconvience. And ticket prices would be much higher than they are now. Much would be the same in the video game industry if Microsoft creates a monopoly. A call to customer service might sound like this; "Your X-Box exploded? No we're not sending you a new one. You don't like it buy a PS2! OOPS! They don't make them anymore. Too bad!!"


The success or failure of the X-Box is supposed to be determined by the market place. Microsoft's acquisition of Rare, and their rumored attempt to acquire Capcom, would create an unfair advantage for them in the market place. It's one thing to negotiate an exclusive title as Sony has for more than one video game release. But it's totally another to buy out all the software makers so that your's is the only console with "A" titles being released on it. By purchasing Capcom, once again which is only speculation mind, would allow Microsoft to erase one of the blunders. That blunder was getting into a business they knew little about.

I'll pretend for a moment that this rumor is true, and assume that most gamers have at least one Capcom game that they enjoy. Let's look at this from a purely objective POV as if none of us were gamers ourselves.

Who does this hurt?

People who own one or two consoles, neither of which is a Xbox.

Who does this help?

People who only own an Xbox.

(I'll leave those who own all three consoles as "Neutral.")

Bottom line: if this goes through, it's bad news for the majority of gamers.

Isn't any title not released on the PS2 bad for the majority of gamers?

As someone who owns all three consoles, I don't see this as nuetral, I see this as positive. I'm want to see more exclusive content that is built around the Xbox because I like its graphics the most. Games that have great gameplay and great graphics.

I don't see why its unfair for MS to buy out Capcom, but okay for someone like Sega or Nintendo.

Like it or not, MS is trying to win the console war and they are going do everything possible.

Buying out companies like Capcom is the best chance MS has to win this battle against Sony.

If Capcom is in financial trouble then someone will have to step up and help them. I don't want to see them vanish like SNK. I don't care who buys them out, I just want Capcom to be around in the future.

Of course you would. I'm sure Nintendo has a contract with Capcom for those games and even if MS bought them they would still have to deliver the multiconsole titles promised.

Or else like Aghama said, Nintendo will get another small fortune from some escape clause built into the contract.

Man, if this happens it is off to ebay with my GC & I'm buying an X-Box. I bought my GC for the RE Series & Metroid Prime. No RE = me buying an X-Box, Halo & any RE game that comes out for it.

As far as I know at the local game store this is the info
RE is surely gonna be in GC!But future installsments will not be guaranteed.You can see it from the Nintendo DVD which they handed out to us in Tokyo for free.
Sega is doing very well this year, and it never said it was for sale! If it was for sale then Sony would have bought it the moment it was for sale.
X-box is not doing well in Japan, as the games that interest the Japanese are really lacking. I would walk into any store and see just 20 games on the counters for X-box. Its a shame as Nintendo and Sony take a lot more space and promotions.But with the new price cut of X-box and the Dolby Digital sound the X-box is gaining ground in Japan.
With the purchase of Capcom, then X-box would have much more advantage in the console market.Maybe they could do a tie-up with Nintendo

I really hope Capcom resists, and remains third party. From what I understand, most of their losses are from bad real estate deals and other non-gaming related business flops. I hope they just cut their losses and try to recoup them as a third party company. I mean they can make a great deal of money just selling exclusive rights to their big games like they've already done with RE on the Gamecube.

That way gamers that like Capcom games will likely have a chance to play some of them regardless of which systems they own. This is important, because most people can't afford to own three consoles, and it sucks that many will miss out on a lot of games from traditional third party companies because they are being completely bought out and converted in to first parties.

Not to mention that I personally have concerns about a drop in quality of the games made by companies that are bought out. I mean if you owned a company, are you going to care as much about putting out great games if your bank accounts are already set for the rest of your life from the millions you got in the sale? It seems to me that companies like MS might only end up paying for licenses, and much of the talent could leave or not have the same motivation. But only time will tell on that.

I doubt this would happen. Any company that bought them out would not want to ruin the reputation of Capcom right after buying them.

Can't say for sure, but I would guess Microsoft or whoever would let Capcom develop their games their way. Why buy them if you are then going to tell them to make Street Fighter your way?

That's an excellent point...which is very common with buyouts. A company is only has good as their talent! I just hope that doesn't occur with Rare. But I don't think Rare is upset with the buyout. Heck, do you remember last year Rare had some kind of holiday card with a XBOX wrapped up? Wonder if that was a clue/hint that something was going on.

Well the Stampers are staying on at Rare. Not sure exactly how true those *rumors* are of talent leaving (some left before the buyout happened).

Who is the creative genius behind Capcom?

glad to hear that!