Re: Computing Editorial (please read)

[Jeff Thomas <a2forever@usa.net>]

It only confirms what I already knew. M$ is trying to buy game software
companies to bolster, ailing X-Box sales - partially due to lack of games...
Apparantly, traitors at Vivendi Universal Games are in talks with M$ to sell
their gaming range. The company are responsible for successful, Diablo and
WarCraft series. If M$ buys them, it's rumoured they'll become X-Box exclusive
games, currently avialable on all game consoles, except the GameCube.

I hope it, gets killed off, before it kills the gaming industry.

Read the story below;
XBOX SALES WORSE THAN EXPECTED

Microsoft has revealed what the rest of the industry had already suspected:
Sales of Xbox, the software giant's powerful video game system, are much worse
than expected. Microsoft said that sales barely hit the bottom end of its
previous forecast, and the company alerted suppliers that it's lowering sales
projections again for 2003 and, as a result, will buy fewer parts.

"At our [second-quarter] earnings announcement, we reported that we will end the
fiscal year within the sales range originally forecast, but in the bottom half
of that range, and for that reason we have asked suppliers to make applicable
adjustments," the company reported. In an October earnings call, the company
lowered its total Xbox sales forecast to 9 million to 11 million units by the
end of June 2003. The company originally expected to ship that many units by the
same point in 2002.

Microsoft informed its Xbox parts suppliers not to expect any orders in the
first half of 2003 so that the company can deplete existing console supplies.
The company will alert suppliers about second-half orders sometime in the second
quarter. NVIDIA, a Microsoft key partner that makes the Xbox's video controller,
will likely suffer the most. NVIDIA will probably ship just 5 million video
chipsets to Microsoft this year, down from its original forecast of 8 million
units. Microsoft and NVIDIA are in court over a disagreement regarding the price
Microsoft is supposed to pay per unit for the video controllers. Currently,
Microsoft represents about 10 percent of NVIDIA's business.

In the most recent quarter, Microsoft's Home and Entertainment Division, which
is responsible for the Xbox, lost US$348 million on revenues of US$1.28 billion.
Many analysts and news reports point out that Microsoft loses money on every
Xbox unit it sells, but that practice is common in the video game industry.
Nintendo and Sony--the company's competitors in the heated battle for the
lucrative video game market--also lose money on video game console sales.

All three companies theoretically make up the difference on game title sales. As
a result, Microsoft has been purchasing independent game makers in an effort to
bolster the ranks of Xbox-specific titles. Currently, Microsoft is rumored to be
talking to Vivendi Universal Games about buying its video game unit.