no

maybe a 360 and not on PS3 agreement. but tahts it.

no, and if they did. they would be referred to as Sellouts in Japan.

Never, the Japanese government would not allow it.

 OK, so let's be generous and assume that all those other games gave them another 4 million sold.

Reality is that MS would make at most $25 off each title, likely much less, and that still leaves them substantially in the hole. As for the Avatars, its been 2 years since we got Miis, and Avatars are a pale imitation. Really they're no better than Zwinkys. 

No matter how you cut it, Rare has not come close to earning back the $400 m investment MS made, and the odds are they could have gotten better results had they put that money elsewhere. 

Won't happen, currently MS is divesting itself of studio holdings and instead buying timed exclusives.

The reason why MS won't buy out SquareEnix is the same reason why Sony won't buy out Level5.

Once any of those 3rd party publishers get bought out by a huge 1st party company, the value of the 3rd party company decreases dramatically.
The 3rd party companies typically sustain themselves by making exclusive deals with companies and (most importantly) selling software on multiple mediums.

So if MS/Sony/Nintendo actually does buy out a major 3rd party dev/publisher. It would typically be a lose-lose situation for everyone since...
1. The 3rd party would be devalued by restriction of a smaller audience and less freedom.
2. The 1st party would be paying for a company that has great potential to make money from many sources, but will only get a fraction of the potential they paid for in return. This results in overpaying and the inability to bounce back from the initial payment or profit at all.

Creating a name brand is important, but every company needs to profit first and there are cheaper ways to get the trust of the consumers. The 3 first party publishers know this, and that why (even though everyone of them has had the ability to buy out a major 3rd party dev at one point or another) it hasn't happened already.

I highly doubt and would not probably want to see Microsoft buy Square-Enix. Although I do have to admit that I haven't had the same fervor for them of late but they are still the main reason I've dipped into the HD consoles.

As a side note for RARE I think it had something to do with taking a developer from a rival in addition to getting a developer for self. You have to place a value on what taking RARE from Ninty did to possible sales in addition to any actual sales they do to MS.

They should just buy Sony and Nintendo and get the war over with.

There will be bloodshed should FFThirteen gone Xbox 360 exclusive.

Why would Microsoft pay money for what is essentially a portable gaming company?

xboxportable confirmed? :P

Also, MS is having great success closing studios so they can moneyhat individual games and downloadable content, why change that now?