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I used to love Microsoft. Realy, and it had nothing to do with Windows.
Windows 95 came with my first PC. A Compaq Presario. Windows 95 was a pain for a noob to install drivers and the help files were completely useless.
But at least the upgrade hardware was readily available and once I had new Creative Labs sound blaster and Graphic Blaster cards installed there was no shotage of games available.
The first game I ever bought was Microsoft's "Age Of Empires". I played it nonstop for hours and I still love it. I have never seen it crash in all that time.
The sound track was incredible, and you didnt even need to buy a separate cd if you just wanted to listen to it.
It was a hybrid disc, which meant you could just drop it in your cd player and play the audio tracks. Or just open media player on your PC.
You could even replace the cd with your favourite album during game play and the game would use those tracks instead.
Microsoft's gaming dominance didnt end there. They also produced the legendary Sidewinder series of joystics and gamepads which were beyond compare at the time, and are quite possibly the best quality game controllers ever mabe. Microsoft SideWinder Precision Pro: My first joystick.Microsoft Sidewinder gamepad: My first gamepad
These days a lot of people hate Microsoft. Why? Because they switched from giving people what they want, to forcing us to buy things we dont realy need.
That seems to be how a lot of companies are operating these days. Why offer us what we want when you can force us to buy whatever crap you choose to produce and make higher profit, right?
Thats why companies like Nintendo, who focus on customers needs have record breaking sales in both games and consoles.
Now it seems Microsoft has realized they made a serious error and want to "Step Up PC Gaming"
I have an idea. Why dont they do what they always do when they need a good product? Buy a company that already has one and stick a Microsoft label on it.
Thats how they got Age of Empires and Halo and oh yeh, Microsoft Office.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Fable-III-Games-For-Windows-Age-of-Empires-microsoft-Flight,11370.html