The OP asked..."Will M$ continue to buy out popular franchises?" 

You said the whole JRPG line-up...it didn't make sense to me, since MOST of that line-up are New IP...sure Tales of Vesperia and SO4, but those games were timed...most likely due to the 360's earlier release, rather than M$ moneyhatting.  I just didn't see how your response answered the OP's question.  I think you'll see most of the 360 exclusive JRPGS disappear, unless M$ puts forth the effort to secure the development themselves, like Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon.

Games Off the top of my head that I'd assume Microsoft paid for exclusivity, rather than paid for development up front. We'll never know the actual figures of what happened, so debate all you want. Not many of them we're pre-existing franchises.

Ace Combat 6
Dead Rising
lost planet (timed)
Bioshock (timed)
Eternal Sonata (timed)
Tales of Vesp (timed)
Ninja Gaiden II (timed)
Star ocean IV (timed)
The Last Remnant
Gears of War
Gears of War 2
Mass Effect 2
Splinter Cell double agent
Magna Carta 2

GTA DLC
Fallout DLC (timed)
Tomb Raider DLC
MW/MW2 map packs Timed

I can imagine at this point in the game ME2 and Gears3 would be cost-prohibitive to buy. I really don't know if microsoft can continue buying exclusive content, so no If this gen continues another 5 years ms won't have much.

This is not to say that Sony may have paid for some games like Valk chronicles, mgs4, haze, but i believe Sony's strategy is more about paying up front.

As a PS3 owner, can I say to the 360 owners you'd be best served not feeding the Trolls.

MS clearly is only operating basic business principles, no different from Sony getting SE to swap consoles with FF in the past.

MS business model requires them to fund IP for their console, etc. because they have far less 1st party development capability than Nintendo or Sony and only really have one major IP (so far as I am aware) under their complete control (Halo) with many of their big franchises (Gears, etc) coming from third party developers.

So, what, when, how they paid (or not in many cases I'm sure) for support, MS aren't cheating and you're simply keeping the argument going by responding to those who clearly think they are cheating and whose opinion I suspect you won't be changing anytime soon.

Just saying...

i dont think they are buying companies ms are paying companies to make games come out for them first and dlc

Looking at the release dates of several of those games...I'm not sure WHY you think M$ paid...they had a YEAR'S lead on the PS3...so logic would expect that the 360 version was a year ahead of the PS3.  Seems like they launched the game, and made some money to cover the cost of the development...were they suspose to hold back on releasing the game to allow the PS3 to catch-up?

MS don't buy franchises but they pay contracts for timed exclusive e.g Bioshock, Fallout 3 DLC, Star ocean 4 etc.

I'm trying to figure out which group in this thread is the most insane.

Is it the group of people who think Microsoft is paying for just about every title on the platform or the group of people who think Microsoft is not providing monetary incentives for any development?

^^
the former sound a little more 'tin foil hat' and the latter sound like they're in complete denial, so I guess the former by a hat.

Microsoft did obviously pay for ToV, SO: The last hope, Eternal Sonata and that Katamari game that did get suddenlÿ cancelled for the PS3, but releasing games like DMC4, Tekken 6 and RE5 for it is just common sense.

@Words of Wisdom

Most likely both groups or if it comes up to the opinion of the average guy who doesnt play VGs at all... everyone of us XD

No really, guess our hobby and everything related (espec the discussions which are not of any interest compared to "probems of the world") is somehow a little bit nerdy - nevermind :)