Another one falls to the M$ Empire

[Uraniun235]

So when you suck at making games, buy someone who's better than you to do the work

lol micro$uck am i rite?

[Equinox2003]

I hope it works out for the best, I like good games, no matter what
system they are on. Maybe this guy can bring more quality games to store shelvs, I'm all for that.

[The Kernel]

I wonder why MS can't make any games themselves and always have to resort to buying them from others?

Halo (Bungie), Age of Empires (Ensemble), and almost every really good game from MS were made by others and bought.

MS may have made some sports and racing games, I'm not sure, but thats far from innovative.

Once again, our resident fanboy blows his mouth off about things he knows nothing about. When Sony decided to launch the Playstation, they didn't have jack in the way of a games studio either (their games division was far smaller then Microsofts). They had to buy developers and set up studios the same way that Microsoft is right now. Nintendo never needed to do this because at heart they are a games company, much like Sega--their platforms have always been sold by their first party games.

So now perhaps you can explain the problem with Microsoft breaking into the console market by buying up sucessful games studios and developers? This is not only a common practice, it is a very smart one. Sure you can set up your own studios as well, but that takes years to get good teams together and make successful franchises, whereas you can hedge your bets by buying a few top developers and getting exclusive franchises for your platform.

Anyways, I think this is a very smart move for Microsoft. They couldn't buy Nintendo, they couldn't get Square away from Sony and Sega would be a risky purchase at best for breaking into the Japanese market. By getting Sakaguchi on their side, Microsoft is shoring up the one area they are weak in (RPG's) and they are getting some star power behind their Japanese presence. It's also good for us gamers, Square has been too conservative lately and Microsoft is obviously willing to toss money at Sakaguchi and let him have a blank check for any future projects.

[Hamel]

I honestly can't believe that people are shitting their britches over Sakaguchi going to MS. It won't deprive Playstation owners of their Final Fantasies or other asian rpgs. The Xbox needs more than FPS and PC ports to stand a chance in Japan. No amount of DOA: Big Boobs Super Ultimate Combo Pack With One Free Year of XBL deals will entice japanese gamers. They know this.

Personally I hope MS gains some ground over there, just to keep Sony on their toes so they don't make the PS3 an underpowered system. I'm also hoping that Sony starts treating their PSP customers right and fix the hardware problems so Nintendo puts an end to their own complacency with underpowered and gimmicky hardware in the portable market.