(Split to new thread.)
Definitely nothing quite that sinister, Tony. The Feds looked at us in the immediate aftermath of September 11th because copies of one of our products had been found in the home of at least one of the hijackers, and a French news show used our sim to recreate the attacks on television which prompted a brief "ban it!" outcry. We moved on from that pretty quickly.
As for the shutdown, only some key Microsoft management folks know for sure, but I can tell you that while, FS was an expensive product to make, every version was solidly profitable. That said, we had a long shelf life, so, towards the end, when our colleagues in the Microsoft Games Division working on titles like
Halo and
Gears of War were grossing 3 to 4 times in their opening weekend what we'd make in 3 years, it was tough to compete. Should we have been competing with titles like that? Should we have been in the Games Division at all? I think the answer to both of those is probably "no", but that wasn't my decision to make. Anyway, when The Day came that they brought everyone together for the big news, a lot of us thought that the announcement would involve us moving to another division, not that we'd be shut down entirely.
I obviously don't agree with the choice that was made, but I can't complain: First, Microsoft was extremely generous with other offers within the company and, when I decided against that route, with the severance package. And second, if I hadn't left, I wouldn't have landed here in Oshkosh, which was always a semi-secret dream of mine anyway.