AllThingsD » game consoles

Ballmer Says Microsoft Breakup Not in Cards

Jeanette Borzo — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:00:36 +0000

Microsoft Corp. weathered government pressure a decade ago to break up its business. Now the software giant faces similar questions from a new quarter: its stockholders.

At the company’s annual shareholder meeting Tuesday, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Chairman Bill Gates sought to calm investors, some of whom asked if the maker of Windows operating systems and Xbox game consoles would be more valuable as individual companies.

“Is it time to consider breaking this company up?” one investor, grousing over Microsoft’s share price, asked Mr. Ballmer.
Mr. Ballmer, who has run Microsoft for the past 10 years, dismissed the idea, saying it would reduce Microsoft’s value by making it more difficult for the company to compete.

“I obviously don’t think it is time” for a break up, Mr. Ballmer responded, noting that many of Microsoft’s products, including Windows and the Office suite, are sold to consumers and corporations alike.

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Sony PS3 Games to Hit Next (3-D) Dimension

Daisuke Wakabayashi — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:00:36 +0000

As more TV makers roll-out 3-D televisions this year, it highlights the electronics and content industries’ chicken-and-egg problem. Without 3-D content, why should consumers pay the extra money for a new 3-D set? Without a consumer base of 3-D-ready home electronics, why should content makers make 3-D content?

Sony Corp. (SNE) sees its 35 million-plus PlayStation 3 game consoles as one way around the problem. In April, Sony released a software update for the PS3 so it can start playing 3-D videogames. Starting June 10th when Sony’s 3-D televisions go on sale in Japan, the first four 3-D titles for the PS3 will be available for download from the PlayStation Store. The games will only be available in Japan at first with the U.S. and other markets expected to follow shortly.

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CES: Netflix on the Hunt

Nick Wingfield — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:01:04 +0000

Reed Hastings is prowling CES for deals. Already, in the past year, the CEO of DVD rental service Netflix Inc. has cut at least a half-dozen partnerships with consumer electronics makers to make a Netflix service that streams movies and television shows over the Internet watchable on television sets via game consoles, digital video recorders and other gadgets.

This week at CES, Netflix announced Korea’s LG Electronics will let viewers tune into the Netflix service through an upcoming line of HDTVs. A Netflix deal also announced this week with another television maker, Vizio, could be even more interesting because some of those sets will be able to get onto the Internet wirelessly, a technology that will make it much easier to get online than sets with only wired Internet connections.

“I think it will double or triple the percentage of people who have those devices and hook them up to the Internet,” Hastings said, over a cup of gelato at a café in the Venetian hotel.

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