Steal......there are som many idiots on this forum it boggles the mind. How can you say they steal if the 3rd party makes an ass load of money off of the ports/multi plats they sell. By the way Sony "stole" Bioshock, Vampire Reign and Left 4 Dead from XBOX, yet no one on these forums complain.....

If you want to be mad at anyone be mad at the game companies that are looking out for their top dollar and not a bunch of asshat fanboys on a messageboard.

I found a quote from Phil Harrison himself that Rockstar moved GTA to XBOX because the PS3 install base awsnt enough to support their investment. I guess its either a)Sonys fault for not making an affordable/desireable enough machine or b)Evil XBOX using dirty tactics to force people to own their systems thus forcing 3rd party devs to go multi plat.

Well, the difference is that BioShock is third party, but Final Fantasy... um... you see... MICROSOFT IS BAD!

I wish you were around when I had to cancel my Tomb Raider preorder because sony paid Eidos to quit Saturn development.

Indeed.

M$ as a corporation, has been proven (in court) to be one of the worst in history when it comes to business ethics. I've worked in the software field for a long time, and they have put numerous small companies out of business by just stealing their ideas and daring them to sue. Since none of them can afford the cost of an extended lawsuit, they just fold up shop.

Its nice to see M$ starting to feel the pressure from all sides. Google is trouncing them with web applications, Linux has taken over on the server side, Apple is creeping up on the desktop, Apache has killed IIS, Oracle/MySQL/Postgres are taking out SQL Server, Firefox will catch IE in a year or 2.

Their only cash cow right now is their office suite. Hopefully either OpenOffice (its getting there) and/or Google office (not close yet) start to eat into this.

My point here is that they won't be able to continually throw money at their gaming division. This recent onslaught almost seems like a desperate attempt to turn the tide before it is too late. My guess is that they still finish 3rd and in the end still end up over a billion in the red on the 360.

Are you really dense or just pretending to be?

Stealing would imply they take something without the party that own the said item consent.  If Microsoft go out and do hostile take over of Square-Enix I would said they in essense "steal" Final Fantasy franchise.  Looking at Microsoft E3 conference, from the look on President of Square-Enix face (and the mere fact that he showed up at 360 Conference) I doubt FFXII was stolen.

Microsoft didn't steal anything from Sony. It was all there for Sony to loose because they did not want to or they choose not to cater to the need of 3rd party company.  All company has one purpose and that is to make a lot of money for shareholders (and themself).  The hints of FFXIII coming to 360 were out there for months, we all just fail to see it (or don't think it could ever happen).  I never once would even imagine that FFXIII would be release on 360 let alone day and date. Square several months ago was complaining about their bottom line and the lost of revenue and Sony was spouting out something about exclusive 3rd party stuff doesn't matter now.

And you seem to have an interest on giving those a venue to express their inflamatory opinions. You deliberately misquoted Kim's answer in order to provoke a reaction.

Well, it is pretty hilarious to watch the SDF rake somebody over the coals for stealing franchises. So thumbs up to Shameless, IMO.

If you'd rather discuss the difference between taking and stealing than the topic at hand, that's your prerogative.

This is EXACTLY what I've been saying. Not here...but in other forums. Microsoft didn't only do this for profit. It was a big part, but one of the other main goals was to strike a blow at Sony. That is exactly what I saw when I heard the shocking news.

What carries more weight? Announcing a huge title for two consoles at once? Or announcing a huge title for a more expensive console and THEN later announcing it on a CHEAPER console? Do you guys think y'all would have been making all these "ZOMG!! FFXIII going to 360!! INTERNET EXPLODED!!!" threads if it was announced multiplatform from the start? I doubt it.

It's more shocking if the exclusive is taken away. If Microsoft didn't do this to strike a blow to Sony as one of the objectives, I think they would have made the deal with SE long before this...FFXIII would probably have been multiplatform from the start. Microsoft is going to do to Sony what they did to Apple and Netscape. Quote me on that if you'd like. ;)