| kowenicki said: @soleron there is nothing anti-competitive or remotely illegal about making exclusivity deals... |
That's in of itself is correct. But in context, it is illegal to use a monopoly to influence decisions on others. See "Department of Justice vs. Microsoft." In this specific case of Microsoft buying exclusives in the console industry it might not be illegal, but in principle it's unethical. It can be argued that Microsoft's "deep pockets" stemmed form their monopolistic practices that has now establish themselves in a somewhat financial secure situation. This does put Microsoft in an unfair position when compared to other competing companies because most of those those companies will not have that financial leverage gained from legit competition as opposed to monopolistic practices employed by Microsoft. At one time Microsoft did go on a shopping spree... to buy out Nintendo during "Project Dolphin" now known as the Gamecube. Whether or not Nintendo took them seriously, Microsoft wanted Nintendo to stop making console hardware. So Nintendo politely said "Go screw yourself." So Microsoft blatantly lied to the public that Nintendo wasn't in competition with them. If Nintendo wasn't, Microsoft would not have tried to employ their monopolistic practices to remove Nintendo from the competition to begin with. Thank God Nintendo stuck with their guns in the face of Microsoft. So... What if Microsoft goes on a shopping spree? The answer is simple: Because of the past and current nature of Microsoft, they hurt the gaming console industry.
Hackers are poor nerds who don't wash.
