Blatantly lying about the Skype backdoor?

Does it matter than much though? They are both awful in the context we are discussing. I'll likely not buy either, although that Tom Clancy 3rd person shooter MMO looks like a lot of fun and is console only.

The Steambox is an interesting alternative, it's scheduled for this year (insert valve release date joke here).

At least this is the first Steambox (will be released very late) and not the Steambox 3 (will never be released).

There was this antitrust case where Microsoft tried to illegally take ownership of the entire desktop computing ecosystem. It would have probably done more harm than any one rootkit. You may have heard of it.

Also, Sony-BMG is not the same company as Sony Computer Entertainment, and indeed no longer exists.

I guess the question requires further qualification, "What has Microsoft done, in the last 12 years, to compete with the Sony rootkit?"

With some other company's rootkit that was also a child company of the same parent conglomerate.

I'm not sure if you've heard about this, but I heard that Microsoft created a near-ubiquitous OS that was so insecure that it allowed rootkits to be installed via music CD!

to echo another sibling response: yes, the steam box just keeps looking better. They might be enabling game sharing soon too[1]

[1] www.theverge.com/2013/6/19/4445844/valve-steam-game-sharing