Have Microsoft solidified themselves as a gaming giant equal to Sony?

[WilliamWatts]

Booh! said:

WilliamWatts said:

Apple mainly gets money from the hardware they sell and Microsoft mainly get money from the operating system they sell. Gaming is to sell operating systems for them so they still get a cut that way. Remember each copy of Windows is $50 or more in terms of revenue. That makes them a part of the gaming industry even if they do not directly interact with publishers or consumers.

But Microsoft sell Windows mostly to companies. End users either get it preinstalled (at a cost of $30-$50) or pirate it. Moreover Apple systems are much more locked in, you can't sell apps for the iPhone if you don't use the Apple dev-kits, while on the other hand you can use wathever you want on Windows.

(btw i played the last remnant and bioshock on linux, using wine...)

The idea of a physical box is dead. They sell platforms now. So the question of what particular hardware anything runs on is pretty irrelevant. The fact that 96% of all PC gaming is done on a Windows platform makes Microsoft a much bigger giant in gaming than Sony even if they don't have a direct involvement or a cut from games developed on the Windows platform. It doesn't matter whether they are involved directly or indirectly. Its still their platform and the gaming is still taking place there and in most cases its in exclusion of other platforms.