The only thing MS might of paid for concering FF13 is free advertising.

XBL has what? Maybe a week or two headstart on the map packs? IW could be thankful that MS promots their game on the dashboard, so they get it a week or two early.

If Natal is a game changer, like MS hopes it will then im sure Xbox will stay in second place.

wow. downplay and denial at its finest

the map packs for codmw2 both times  have come out on XBL 1 month before PSN, ill be dammed if thats due to being thankfull for promoting it on the dash, and I dont see how you can even think FF13 went multiplatform because microsoft offered free advertising....Its all down to microsoft throwing money around

Perhaps it is because microsoft does not charge developers for thing downloaded like sony does (as in a kilobyte charge sperate from normal royalties)

Seems rather late.   I could see investors wanting MS out of the EDD division previously but they are just starting to show some promise now, and some profit.   I don't see much to be gained from pulling out now.

However I would encourage them to drop the old blades and razors model on hardware/software.  Look where that's gotten Sony this gen and the same could (and has with the original Xbox) happen to MS next gen too.    Heck, it remains to be seen if their profit will ever outweigh the losses already incurred in this gen.    

If they continue to do Xbox business that way, they should quit, and so should Sony.    Nintendo and Apple have the right idea.  Sell the hardware at a profit from the start (or very close to it), even if it means less powerful hardware.

its not necessarily MS's board owns most shares

it can be that the public has 60% shares in minor quantity

but the other 40% are owned by people with is big blocks

if the minor investors come together ,MS board of directors have a problem

HighMark Capitol holds little to nothing of MS stock and investors, like me, are very pleased with MS continued exploration of Consumer Electronics.  These devices are often the catalyst to new software breakthroughs and MS needs to be the frontrunner in this category if it wants to compete with Google and Apple in the future.

From an investor's point of view, possibly the only good thing to come out of the Xbox division might be Natal (depending on how well it works). I've said before that I expect the tech to benefit their core business a lot more than it would the Xbox. The division is just an unnecessary drain on recources that could be deployed elsewhere. There are much better ways to branch out Microsoft's core business than investing in a console. There are threats closer to home that they should really focus on. I'm not saying Microsoft should not explore consumer electronics, I just don't think this is the best way to do it.

LOL - could not have said it better myself, though I was thinking something like rhymes with mantoy

"Whyman knows Microsoft won't give up on entertainment. The company has long poured money into maturing markets from word processing to Web browsers, beating market pioneers by underpricing them into submission. "Ballmer's answer is always, 'We'll keep coming,' " says Whyman. "That's not a very comforting answer."

The bottom line: Despite pressure from investors and a flat stock price, Microsoft will keep searching for hits in games, phones, and other devices."

Bottom line, this thread is useless.

A very similar article can be seen here: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_24/b4182036703891.htm