Investors unhappy with Xbox Division

Clearly, these wise investors get their information from “Malstrom’s Fantastically Wonderful and Super Delicious Blog of Awesome”. The management leaving Microsoft before such an important launch such as Natal points that the powers that be are not happy at all.

Here is the money quote:

Even as the company hypes Natal and its new mobile software, Windows Phone7, investors don’t expect smash hits; in fact, they’d settle for small losses on these and other gadgets. “It’s hard to make the case this has been a good use of shareholder capital,” says Todd S. Lowenstein, who runs HighMark Capital’s value fund. “I don’t fault them for trying this stuff, but investors are getting impatient.” Other investors suggest that, like IBM (IBM) a decade ago, Microsoft should refocus its efforts on its massively profitable PC and corporate software businesses. Its cash from operations last quarter alone was $7.4billion, a company record. Yet its shares are down about 50percent since Steve Ballmer took over as CEO on Jan.13, 2000. “The stock would go up if Microsoft exited its consumer businesses,” says Bill Whyman of ISI Group.

Whyman knows Microsoft won’t give up on entertainment. The company has long poured money into maturing markets from word processing to Web browsers, beating market pioneers by underpricing them into submission. “Ballmer’s answer is always, ‘We’ll keep coming,’ ” says Whyman. “That’s not a very comforting answer.”

Attention Viral Marketers! The gun has gone off! Please start spewing your spin about this story as soon as possible! The Message Forums and Comment sections of websites await your propaganda.

Microsoft losing does not mean Nintendo success. Sony losing does not mean Nintendo success. What makes Nintendo success is whether Nintendo can expand and making gaming interesting.

We’re no longer in the Console Wars. The question is not which console company will win, the question is whether gaming will win over the eeevil forces of non-gaming.

(NOTE: The more email posts I put up, the more emails I get. I feel like Sisyphus hauling up the boulder to the top of the mountain only for it to fall down again.)