I think they jumped into it because they had the financial desire to monopolize the Video Game World the same way they were doing with software across the PC. Microsoft came in with a lot of great ideas and Promises during the first console which I think is one of the best consoles ever made with some of the best games, the original Xbox did have. But with the 360 it was clear that they had malicious intention for only monopolization industry and how they did not at all care about creativity or the concept of artistic expression. Microsoft forced paid online services and timed exclusive content and really degraded the industry and I personally think Microsoft at its peak or is one of the worst things to happen to gaming. I think the Xbox franchise is really hindered by Microsoft as a whole. Their way to corporate

@meka2611

Ha! No. Windows sucks period, but it was not about “their PCs” it was about how and where they were going with it and who could end up closing Microsoft’s os out per any other software company that decided to try.
And you are right, Microsoft achieved their goal with the ps3 and the cell processor and any partnerships per software developers by commercially attacking Sony in all directions with major ramifications to their hardware manufacturing.

And no, Microsoft wanted nothing to do with gaming in the sense of “money”.. it was protecting their monopoly on the digital world, cut piracy because gaming was huge chunk of it.
But their overall goal is to control and dominate the consumers screens... play ball, and Microsoft will play friendly.

Again that's just dumb, microsoft dominates the pc market, they have been doing it and will continue to do so. And even if windows goes away, which it won't, their software is used everywhere, from direct x to office, to other programs they make.

I think they'd drop the hardware if they could get a major player to use their OS, and give them some sort of revenue on the licensing side. MS intention was to have their OS be used by more people, and to prevent Sony, and potentially others from taking over in the consumer space.

However, given how far they've come in the console space, I think it'd take a major player on the level of Sony accepting MS OS to make it happen. Plus, they'd have to consider how much they'd lose on things like XBL....which is something that could be made up with a service like Game Pass, if in this hypothetical, Sony would allow it on their system.

PS2 was designed to take hard drive, it just didn't ship standard with the system, thus ultimately, got practically no support. Hard drives in consoles were inevitable anyhow. Hardly a innovative step on MS part IMO. MS biggest contribution to console gaming was creating an ecosystem that went beyond the console, and redefining the principals of online connectivity through a centralized matchmaking and social service.

Is that why Microsoft backed the HD-DVD?

By backing HD-DVD even though they never integrated a player into their XBox360 (they had an external one) Microsoft muddies the waters in the format wars. Yes, the original PS3 was expensive but it was still the cheapest Bluray player at the time and it had inbuilt WiFi, optical 7.1 channel stereo as well as a user swappable hard drive.

Let's not go into the Immersion versus Sony lawsuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wi... of which Microsoft had a hand in.

That is not true lol. 360 had a whole year head start.. thats the only reason they were ahead.

@nitus, did you not know that MS actually backed 'both' BD and HDDVD...? It was Toshiba that offered to make the drive for MS to use an an add-on and they were in talks with another mfg for a BD drive as well but that fell through.

In the end, it is their plug-in they were really supporting that was viable in both formats. Remember... Sony is about hardware (thus their push for DVD and eventually BD) while MS is about software (supporting both HDDVD and BD with their encoding/decoding plug-in).

They got their hand in practically everyone's cookie jar. Even linux

These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse