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

Sleazy tactics...

[dtfarmer]

Now, I dislike microsoft quite a bit, but having been a gamer most of my life, this kind of thing goes on all the time in the industry. The only problem with the strategy here is that Sony has deep enough pockets to go head to head with Microsoft doing the same thing. In the end, though, MS has already lost the Japanese market, and Sony has such a larger user base worldwide that despite the difficulty programming the PS2 - developers will support the platform that has 25 million users better than the the one that has 2 or 3 million (especially when the XBox is still underselling PS2 by a factor, they can't catch up if they can't outsell) - I'm used to this idea, I'm a mac user.

a better topic

[AdamBa]

You could instead look at why people's view of Microsoft is so warped that a standard tactic like this pushes people's "legal and ethics" hot buttons.

- adam

Re:This isn't sleazy.

[Kris_J]

Just because everyone does it doesn't mean it's not illegal or unethical.