| FOOD said: Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/business/worldbusiness/28msoft.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin Das aloh of muny! Think it'll effect the 360? I mean, this only furthers how--and I'm assuming--a lot of European gamers think about Microsoft as this evil force when they see this huge American company imposing such dominance in the OS market with Windows. I think the majority of gamers in Europe were PC gamers and got tired of Windows crashing, so they got Wii's and PS3's that weren't made by Microsoft to satisfy their gaming needs. Of course, some got the 360 for some reason.
BRUSSELS —European antitrust regulators on Wednesday finedMicrosoft $1.3 billion for failing to comply with a 2004 judgment that the company had abused its market dominance. The new fine by theEuropean Commission was the largest it has ever imposed on an individual company, and brings the total in fines imposed on Microsoft to about $2.5 billion, in current exchange rates.
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So you're saying that PC gamers in Europe got tired of Windows crashing so went out and bought a PS3 or Wii instead? Umm, ok.... Anyways to me the European Commission has become of the equivalent of "ambulance chashers" in the US, once you get a taste of the easy money you keep coming back for more. What's ridiculous about the fine is that Microsoft was complying with the European Commission's earlier ruling but it now seems that the Commission has arbitrarily decided that they were charging "too much". What's worse is the record amount for it without a warning or time given to comply with whatever fee the Commission decided is the correct amount to charge. No European company would ever get charged that kind of money and I wish the U.S. Government would step in to actually help one of it's own companies that isn't Big Oil.
