Microsoft's Sleazy Tactics in the Video Game Industry?

Dyrandia asks: "I'm currently working on a Legal and Ethics course for my software engineering degree and have decided to write about microsoft's tactics of buying up video games and companies in order to keep games limited to their own platforms (pc and xbox). I am currently using the following games as examples: Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee; Halo (Microsoft bought the developers, however rumour has it that Halo will actually make it to PC next year); and Shenmue 2 (they even bought the rights to it so that it couldn't be released for the Dreamcast in the US, even though it was released in Japan and Europe). Does anyone know of URLs for sites that would have more information and possibly other games Microsoft has used similar tactics on?"

Comments

Just Microsoft?

[dimator]

Sorry, Microsoft is just playing the game in this case:
Nintendo buys Retro Studios
Sony buys (into) Square
Sony buys (into) Rare

Buying a development house to gain exclusives does not seem to be ground-breaking news.

Why take this as 'bad tactics'?

[OnyxRaven]

It is possible that there is a reason these companies were bought by microsoft. In the case of Bungie, it was to help fund the last phase of development for Halo, and to push the development of their next two games (Project Phoenix and something like Halo 2). Microsoft offered more people to work on the projects, more resources to produce a quality game and all within less time (It was crucial to the Xbox launch that Halo be shipped with it. It is the killer game for the Xbox still).

Halo will be coming out for the PC and Mac, but it may not be for a while... personel are still focused on the next game release, and not porting the game to PC/Mac.

Bungie will keep its name, as one of the many subsidiary companies of a larger company throughout the gaming industry.

Its all about project funding.

Re:This isn't sleazy.

[SuiteSisterMary]

It's got nothing to do with 'everybody does it.' It's just that there are companies that did it FAR BETTER, and MORE, than Microsoft EVER DID. In the computing world, IBM. In the video game world, Nintendo. Oh, and Sony, for that matter. It amazes me that people allow their hatred of MS to blind themselves to other truths.