Former VP of Windows Sales at Microsoft, Joachim Kempin, revealed that the company decided to enter the console market only to beat Sony in their own game after Sony refused to befriend them.
"The main reason was to stop Sony," he spelled it out clearly.
"Sony was always very arm's length with Microsoft. Yeah, they bought Windows for their PCs but when you really take a hard look at that, they were never Microsoft's friend. And Microsoft in a way wanted them to be a friend because they knew they had a lot of things we could have co-operated on because they are, in a way, an entertainment company, you know?"
And the original PlayStation was what sealed the deal for Microsoft. Back then, Bill Gates himself worried that a future PlayStation could evolve into a full-fledged computer or a more comprehensive entertainment device that would threaten Microsoft’s PC dominance.
"As soon as they came out with a video console, Microsoft just looked at that and said 'well, we have to beat them, so let's do our own.'," Kempin explained.