calibrator{at}freenet.de wrote in news:

> Maybe, but Microsoft continues to feed their haters quite nicely
> by cloning ideas, pressurizing manufacturers, doing stinky
> lobbyism, using their monopoly (I know that some people are
> thinking differently, but ) to
> enforce prices and features etc. etc. etc.

At first the anti-establishment types were rebelling against the likes 
of IBM. By the '90s, Microsoft had taken their place as the big, bad 
company. Observe how Apple's advertisments went from targeting IBM in 
the '80s to targeting Microsoft in the '90s.
 
> Nintendo on the other hand was quite disliked in the 90ies in
> Germany for their anti grey import policy. Now, after they've
> become so unexpectedly successful with their DS and Wii
> they aren't so "bad" anymore! Not because they easened up
> on their policies but their major competitor Sony (who nearly
> killed them with the PS1 if it weren't for the Pokemon craze)
> got worse than them (the rootkit debacle, buying positive
> reviews, suing music downloaders etc.).
> Funnily, more people like Microsoft than Sony in the next
> generation console arena...

Sony successfully buried two generations of Nintendo consoles. The 
latter is only now recovering with the Wii. It really was their 
unbreakable hold on the handheld market that kept them going.

The console market has always been determined by whoever has better 
games (and marketing). This explains why the NES could beat out the 
technically superior Master System, the black & white Gameboy beat the 
color Game Gear, and the Wii has been trumping the PS3.

By the same stroke, the Playstation got most of the major third-party 
game developers, leaving the more advanced N64 and Saturn in the dust 
(also because it was easier to program for).
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