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S.T.A.G.E. on 05 July 2016
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Puppyroach said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:

They wanted to put their OS on the Playstation from the very beginning. Nintendo and Sony both told them no. He is onto something. If Sony and Nintendo both let Microsoft have their OS they would probably drop the console division all together.

And Sony wanted to take advantage of Nintendo´s position to get into the Video game market which was an important image factor for that company at the time. They all do it for their own selfish reasons, and I am pretty sure MS wouldn´t be in the hardware business if their OS had been on those platforms. That doesn´t change the fact that they ARE in the hardware business now and has realized how important the XBox brand is for reaching out to different demographics and expanding the Windows 10 platform. I do think they want to go the Steam route, where XBox is the platform, while the hardware is made by different producers.

I agree that Microsoft would not have entered the console race if Sony and Nintendo wouldve just come quietly and allowed them to create their OS. Nintendo was using Sony R&D behind their back and instead of becoming enemies Sonys board was talked into creating a relationship instead of firing Yamuchi (father of the playstation). Sony expressed their terms in contract to Nintendo before CES in the 90's and Nintendo walked out on it before they revealed it. Sony wanted to scrap the playstation but was talked into keeping it. Sony's advantage with the gaming industry came from using hardware to sell their formats and thus serve to sell hardware for not just their platforms but their hardware competition outside of the gaming realm (Many people would not have been able to buy DVD or Blu Rays had Sony not sold their consoles at a loss) . They evolved into a legitimate game developer (Something Microsoft still struggles to do). Sony's battle with Nintendo was a legal one.

At the end of the day, Sony and Nintendo's bread and butter are still consoles. This cannot be disputed in any way shape or form. This has always separated them from Microsoft because at the end of the day its about consoles for them. Microsoft is now firmly a cloud/OS game publisher.

Microsoft is still making consoles now, but the question remains whether they will still be interested in making consoles after this gen.