| RolStoppable said: Nintendo was never a threat to PC gaming, only Sony. |
Microsoft's biggest business was, and still is the Windows Operating System. MS was more worried about the PC platform than PC gaming. They saw the PS2 to be a threat if Sony used it as cheap computer or set top box as they claimed it could be used. Sony did release Linux for PlayStation 2 but most their other plans for the PS2 didn't see fruition.
As for Nintendo it's true they weren't a threat to MS's PC business the same way Sony was. Here an interesting excerpt from former MS exec:
"Peter Moore has revealed that when he left Sega to come on board with Microsoft, his earliest conversations with his new company were in regards to a “build or buy” strategy—whether to build out the existing Xbox business, or to outright buy Nintendo.
In an interview with the Guardian’s Games Blog, Moore described his initial discussions with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “He wanted to know how I was going to win for Microsoft, how we were going to take on Sony, how would we compete with – or acquire – Nintendo. Those were the conversations in those days. It was a classic build or buy conversation. Xbox had launched but it was an aggressive black box for shooters, and how do we evolve that, how do we build the next Xbox, how do we get after Sony?”
He added, “Interestingly, we were just completely fixated on Sony – Nintendo didn't even come into the conversation.”
That Microsoft has had the desire to purchase Nintendo has been a frequent rumor since the days of the original Xbox; in 2004, a report appeared on the website of financial publication Forbes that alleged Bill Gates had expressed interest in buying its competitor, if only former company president and major shareholder Hiroshi Yamauchi was willing to sell." - source
