Bill Gates Stepping Back

UPDATE: Well, a day after the announcement, it almost seems like no one really cares about Gates’s decision. The Dow Jones closed up on the day, as did the tech stock littered NASDAQ. No one on any message boards we checked today had any reaction to the decision. So, that said, it looks like Bill’s announcement didn’t impact the business world that much. Thus, it looks like we don’t expect any impact to negatively effect Sega in the near future.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE 1/13: This is simply unbelievable. Bill Gates has just announced about 30 minutes ago that he will no longer be doing day-to-day duties as CEO @ Microsoft. He will still be chairman, and he will still be there occasionally. Steve Ballmer will be the new CEO or Microsoft. Gates says he will become “Chief Software Architect”. He also says Microsoft might be moving in a different direction in the coming months.

Keep in mind that this is coming just days after talk at the US Justice Department about Microsoft being split. Some people already believe that this just strengthens the feeling that this will occur. Others are saying that this might seriously affect stocks on Wall Street tomorrow. Right now there is no way to tell this; the only way this can be proven is when the stock market opens tomorrow morning. But right now, after hours trading quotes show that Microsoft stock is down. A few are saying that Gates is just trying to steal the fire from the AOL/Time Warner merger.

Now, how could this effect Sega? A serious possibility is the rumored X-Box. From the rumored specs, this could be a major competitor for Sega and the Dreamcast. But now, with this announcement, the question that should be asked is, “Will the X-Box be a reality?” It’s very unclear at this point, and the only way we might be able to draw a conclusion is after the US Justice Department makes a decision about whether to break up Microsoft.

We will keep tabs on this story tomorrow and throughout the weekend, because this can affect Sega, as well as other video game competitors.