Microsoft has dropped the ball in so many instances now that it may be completely impossible to recover. Fans of the mega-company's gaming hardware have to face some facts at this point when it comes to the franchises that Microsoft had used to establish the Xbox brand in the first place. They're gone.

It doesn’t make any sense for Microsoft to continually let the developers and internal teams that made them a success keep slipping through their fingers.

At this point the only real recognizable names that Microsoft still has in their internal stable are Rare and Turn 10. There’s no denying the talent at Turn 10 based on the successful Forza franchise that they’ve been churning out since 2005. But the arcade cousin franchise that coexisted with Forza in the form of Project Gotham Racing lost its developer to the same giant publisher that just stole Bungie.

Microsoft can’t retaliate in anyway shape or form with Activision because the last time a hardware manufacturer ticked off the number one publisher in the world, it was Sega and Electronic Arts. We remember how that turned out. EA boycotted the Sega hardware and two years later, Sega was out of the hardware business. Although there were other contributing factors to the fall of Sega. Sega did have a lot more internal talent and was able to pump out great exclusives.

The big question now is; does Microsoft have any leverage in the hardware world? They’ve lost two of their biggest assets to Activision in this generation of consoles. PGR and Halo, which most gamers considered to be two of Microsoft’s three biggest franchises, now are afloat with no developer. Rare can’t put out a commercial hit to save their lives. So was this the death blow?

It's still up in the air and we'll hold judgment until E3. But it's not a good sign.

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i say wait till E3