Why Bill Gates said no to buying Sega, according to former MS exec

Before there was an original Xbox, rumors ran rampant that Microsoft was looking to purchase Sega as a means to get into the console business. Joachim Kempin – who worked at Microsoft from 1983 until 2003 and rose to senior VP – says that Bill Gates ultimately decided not to purchase Sega because he didn't think they could "eventually stop Sony."

"There was always talk maybe we buy SEGA or something like that; that never materialised, but we were actually able to license them what they call Windows CE, the younger brother of Windows, to run on their system and make that their platform," Kempin told IGN. "But for Bill [Gates] this wasn't enough, he didn't think that SEGA had enough muscle to eventually stop Sony so we did our own Xbox thing."

Of course, we all know the ending to this story. Sega eventually got out of the console game after the Dreamcast and has endured a few ups and downs over the last year. Microsoft has since established one of the top consoles on the market with the Xbox 360, which has dominated NPD charts for the last 22 months straight.