Microsoft Corners Another Market?

What a year ago looked like a looming battle pitting AOL and Sony against the Microsoft juggernaut for the right entertain America via game consoles now has all the earmarks of MS beating rivals to the punch—again.

Redmond is busy signing up broadband providers for its XBox gaming network while Sony dawdles. AOL remains in the Sony camp, but corporate brother Time Warner Cable has already hooked up with XBox Live in a non-exclusive deal.

If, in a couple of years, some Congressperson or attorney general-type thunders about Microsoft's "online gaming monopoly," recall it wasn't always so.