April 1^st, 2003 (12:00am) - REDMOND, Wash., April 1, 2003 ? Today, in an effort to stop its well rumored financial bleeding, Microsoft, makers of the status quo Windows operating system, and manufacturers of the XBOX, have announced that it will be closing the doors of Microsoft Studios in a stunning press release. It will also slow down the mass production of its highly acclaimed XBOX console system. The Microsoft Corporation held a press conference in England in order to announced the shocking facts to the major press.

"It’s been a move we’ve been considering and painfully debating since the 7th month after launch, we have a healthy amount of mass manufacturers all over the globe, notably in South America, but keeping all of them afloat have become far more costly than we’d have expected." Said Robbie Bach, Chief Xbox Officer at Microsoft.

When asked about the clearly unobvious move to shut down Microsoft Studios, Mr. Bach replied, "There’s a certain mental image that goes along with the name ’Microsoft. Everyone just kind of expects us to be the heaviest wallet carriers in the world, when fact is, the financial strain of purchasing Silicon Knights, Rare, and on going negotiations to purchase Sega in the year of 2005 have all toppled our limits and left us a bit strapped. We think trading our own studio, for the usage of the developers already mentioned is well worth the exchange. Don’t think of it as a negative affect, what we have here is a mere financial movement of sorts."

Bach, the speaker of the evening, went on during the press conference foretelling some very disturbing news regarding the future of the XBOX. Apparently, everyone expecting Microsoft to use their crane-sized wallets to purchase well known and respected Japanese conglomerate Sony, have gotten it backwards. Instead, Bach discussed the selling of Microsoft DOW shares to Sony in an effort to muster up funds. After the devastating announcement, a question shot out of the crowd of cameras and reports hinted toward a possible merge of Microsoft and Sony.

"I know some of you are wondering if we are actually competition, now that Sony owns 3 percent of our stock, but let me just leave you with this. Maybe in the future---" Bach took a small pause, almost as if frightened to continue on with his sentence. "Maybe in the future, we wont have to, once again, dont look at it as a negavtive affect."

While there was no certain verbal comfirmation, it certainly can be implied that Sony and Microsoft could go the way of Enix and Square.

More as it develops. Gamersmark is glad, yet saddened to be one of the first gaming sites to have this news. It is indeed a surprise to all
of us.

Leading Reporting Anchor
Davion@Gamersmark.com